Bobby Goldsboro

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)".

Goldsboro starred in his own television show, The Bobby Goldsboro Show, from 1973 to 1976. He also created several animated specials and children's books, as well as the PBS children's series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon.

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 ukulele 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.

Goldsboro attended Dothan High School. After graduating 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 Webbs which featured Amos "Mugsby" on bass, Dave Robinson on drums, "Flying Fingers" John Rainey on lead guitar, and "Rockin'" Steve Murphree on rhythm guitar. Goldsboro performed semi-professionally as part of The Webbs while at college. At the end of his second year in college, the band's manager, Buddy Buie, arranged for the Webbs to play for Roy Orbison, who was without a backing band in a show he had organized. This arrangement worked well, and The Webbs then became the permanent backing band for Orbison, performing with him for two-and-a-half years until 1964, touring with Orbison in the US and Europe.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.