Robert Charles Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941) is an American pop and country singer and songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over 1 million copies in the United States, and the UK top-10 single "Summer (The First Time)". In his career, Goldsboro had 11 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 12 on the country chart.
Goldsboro was born in Marianna, Florida. During his first year of life, his family moved 35 miles (56 km) north from Marianna to Dothan, Alabama. He learned to play the ukelele when he was around 12 years old before learning to play the guitar. He was interested in becoming a professional baseball player before turning his interest to music. He attended Dothan High School. In his senior year in high school he started playing in a band called The Webbs. After graduating from high school in 1959, he enrolled at Auburn University, majoring in business administration. Goldsboro left college after his second year to pursue a musical career, playing guitar in the backup band for Roy Orbison.
In high school Goldsboro joined Spider and The Webs which featured Amos "Mugsby" on bass, Dave Robinson on drums, "Flying Fingers" John Rainey on lead guitar, and "Rockin'" Steve Murphree on rhythm guitar. He performed semi-professionally as part of The Webs while at college. At the end of his second year in college, the manager of The Webs Buddy Buie arranged for the band to play for Roy Orbison who was without a backing band in a show he organized. The arrangement worked well, and The Webs then became the permanent backing band for Orbison for two-and-a-half years until 1964, touring with Orbison in the US and Europe.
When they were not touring with Orbison, The Webs played in local gigs, recorded songs written by Goldsboro and had some local success. They came to the attention of an independent producer Jack Gold, who was interested in working with Goldsboro. He gave Goldsboro a song titled "Molly" for him to record, and the song managed to chart on Billboard Hot 100 in early 1963.
Goldsboro continued performing with The Webs and Orbison until his solo career kicked off with the top 10 hit "See the Funny Little Clown". The single, written by Goldsboro, reached No. 9 on the U.S. national charts in early 1964. It sold over 1 million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the next few years, he achieved a few Top 40 hits, including "Little Things", "Voodoo Woman", and "It's Too Late". However, his attempt at more serious songs was derailed when "Broomstick Cowboy" was banned from ABC's American Bandstand. Although Goldsboro was not a prolific performer of soul music, "Too Many People" and "It's Too Late" were huge hits on the Northern soul scene in Great Britain and were played extensively.
In 1968, Goldsboro released the biggest hit of his career, "Honey", a tearjerker about the death of a man's 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 in 1968 and 1975, and was a number one single in Australia. It also became his first country hit. One of Goldsboro's compositions, "With Pen in Hand", was recorded by several artists, including Vikki Carr, Johnny Darrell and Della Reese.
Goldsboro reached No. 11 on Billboard's national charts with the Mac Davis-penned song "Watching Scotty Grow". "Summer (The First Time)", a 1973 reminiscence about a 17-year-old boy's first sexual experience (with a 31-year-old woman), was a Top 25 hit in the U.S. and reached number 9 in the UK. Using a repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, and an orchestral string arrangement, the song was suggestive enough to spark some controversy.[clarification needed] The follow-up "Hello Summertime" was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and hit No. 14 in the UK in September 1974.
The success of "Honey" led to numerous television appearances for Goldsboro, and he became a regular on The Mike Douglas Show, co-hosting the show for a few times. Goldsboro was approached to host his own syndicated half-hour television series The Bobby Goldsboro Show. The show, which ran from 1973 to 1976, was one of the more successful syndicated shows at that time. Goldsboro was married to Mary Alice Watson, whom he met while he was in college; they had three children. They divorced in 1982. He married Dianne J. Roberts in 1985.
Goldsboro retired from performing during the mid-'80s to producing children's entertainment, including a number of audio books and television specials, the first of which, Easter Egg Mornin', premiered on the Disney Channel in 1991. In 1995, he created the children's television series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon. Goldsboro voiced all the characters, wrote all the scripts, and played all the musical instruments in the show.
Nowadays as an accomplished oil painter, Goldsboro, who lives in Florida, sells his paintings on his web site.
(Edited from Wikipedia and IMDB)