Bobby Goldsboro

Bobby Goldsboro was born in Marianna, Florida. In 1941, his family moved 35 miles north from Marianna to Dothan, Alabama. He graduated from Dothan High School in 1959 and later enrolled at Auburn University.

Goldsboro left college after his second year to pursue a musical career. The single, written by Goldsboro, 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 16 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 12 on the country chart. In 1966 he recorded “It’s Too Late” with “Too Many People” on the B-side.

Although Goldsboro was not a prolific performer of dance music, both of these songs were huge hits with Northern soul in Great Britain and were played extensively. His biggest hit was 1968’s “Honey”, a tearjerker about the death of a man’s young wife.

The song, written by Bobby Russell, was recorded in one take. It became the largest-selling record in the world for 1968 and topped the Hot 100 for five weeks, reached number two in the UK Singles Chart on two separate occasions (1968 and 1975), and was a number one single in Australia. It also became his first country hit.

1973 brought Bobby his own nationally syndicated television show, which ran for three successful seasons and became the highest rated variety show in syndication in the ’70’s.

His quick wit made him a much sought-after “regular” on the TV talk show circuit as well. Bobby then formed House of Gold Music, which became one of the most successful music publishing companies in Nashville, publishing such songs as “Wind beneath My Wings” and “Behind Closed Doors.”

Bobby Goldsboro, the songwriter has received twenty-seven B.M.I. awards and his compositions have been recorded by such diverse artists as Aretha Franklin, John Denver, Paul Anka, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Dr. John, Conway Twitty and Bette Midler.

His compositions, “With Pen in Hand” and “Autumn of My Life” are members of B.M.I.’s exclusive “Million-airs Club,” which contains only those songs which have been played on the air over one million times! Bobby’s classic composition, “Summer, the First Time” was recently voted the greatest summer song ever in England!

The 1993 television season saw the hit CBS comedy, “Evening Shade” premiere with a new theme song, written and performed by Bobby. The six-time Grammy nominee was also the new musical director of the show, which starred his buddy, Burt Reynolds. Bobby composed new music for the series each week.

At the close of the ’93 season Bobby was awarded a B.M.I. Songwriter Award and his theme song for “Evening Shade” was voted “Television’s Best Theme Song”!Between 1973 and 1975 he hosted the syndicated television variety series The Bobby Goldsboro Show, next forming the Nashville-based House of Gold Music publishing firm.

Goldsboro retired from performing during the mid-’80s to producing children’s entertainment, including a number of audiobooks and television specials, the first of which, Easter Egg Mornin’, premiered on the Disney Channel in 1991.

Concurrently, he scored the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, and in 1995 launched the children’s series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon.