Jan. 18: Bobby Goldsboro - "Honey," "Summer (The First Time)" - is 70 today.

Bobby Goldsboro had a string of Pop and Country hits during the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature #1 classic, "Honey" which sold well over one million copies in the United States.

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Goldsboro was born in Marianna, Florida and was raised in Dothan, Alabama. Goldsboro left Auburn University after his second year to pursue a musical career. He played guitar for Roy Orbison from 1962 to 1964, while releasing a few unsuccessful singles.

Goldsboro's solo career picked up steam with a Top Ten hit her wrote, "See the Funny Little Clown," which reached No. 9 on the U.S. national charts in early 1964. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It was to be the first of a string of similar awards. Goldsboro would go on to have 11 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and 12 on the country chart.

His biggest hit was 1968's "Honey," about the death of a man's young wife. The song, written by Bobby Russell, was recorded in one take. It topped the U.S. chart for four weeks, reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 and again in 1975, and was a #1 single in Australia. The record sold in excess of one million copies.

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"Honey" also became his first country hit, and marked a career transition, as Goldsboro's songs became more successful on the country chart than on the pop side. Goldsboro's last Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 came in late 1973, but he remained a fixture in the country top 40 into the early 1980s.

In early 1971, a plane Goldsboro was traveling on was hijacked to Cuba. Goldsboro said they were given lunch in Havana and generally well treated.

From 1973 to 1975, he hosted the syndicated television variety series, The Bobby Goldsboro Show.

One of Goldsboro's compositions, "With Pen in Hand," was recorded by several artists, including a Grammy-nominated pop version by Vikki Carr that reached the Top 40 in 1969; Johnny Darrell had taken the song to #3 on the U.S. country chart a year earlier.

Goldsboro's "The Cowboy and The Lady" became a Top 10 country hit as "The Cowgirl and The Dandy" for Brenda Lee in 1980; Dolly Parton had also covered it in 1977, and John Denver had a hit with the song in 1981.

"Summer (The First Time)," a 1973 reminiscence about losing one's virginity to an older woman, was a Top 20 hit in the U.S. and Britain. Using a powerful dramatic orchestral string arrangement, the song was suggestive enough to spark controversy. A follow-up, "Hello Summertime," was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and hit #14 in the UK in late 1974.


Goldsboro retired from full-time performing in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he scored the soundtrack to the CBS situation comedy, Evening Shade. In 1995, he launched the children's television series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon.

Besides his musical activities, Goldsboro sells paintings on his official website.

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