Written and produced by South, it was the star-crossed love story of a poor boy and a rich girl. Royal’s working class Valdosta roots show up in his first and biggest hit, “Down in the Boondocks,” which peaked at number nine on the Top 40 chart in 1965. So if he could do it, maybe we could do it.” “He was our inspiration - a Southern boy from humble beginnings. Like so many other young singers from the South, Royal’s first hero was Elvis Presley. The second time he was there he put his arm around me and said, ‘You just keep getting better and better.’ For a kid, I can’t tell you how that felt.” “I got to meet these people and learn from them,” Royal said. That’s also when Royal and South began cutting demos and low-budget singles and honing their hybrid rock-country-soul sound. King, the Drifters, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison and George Jones. Royal and South roomed together and performed with rock and roll, rhythm and blues and country stars, including the likes of Fats Domino, B.B. He spent two years there, working six days a week and playing five sets a night, with his friend, songwriter, producer and guitarist, Joe South. In the late ’50s, Royal was making $75 a week singing at the Anchorage Club in the Clermont Hotel in Atlanta, when he was offered a job at the Bamboo Ranch in Savannah. Royal’s family moved to Marietta when he was in grade school, and as a teenager he joined the Georgia Jubilee musical revue in East Point, which included Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. “And for some reason, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. “They had a radio show in Valdosta and they let me sing,” Royal recalled. I can sing and ride a horse, and that’s about it.”īorn in Valdosta in 1942, Royal began singing at a young age, first appearing with his uncles’ country-western band. “My agent told me they wanted me because I look good riding a horse,” Royal said. Royal, who admitted he’d always been afraid to fly, laughed as he described the unlikely nine-hour journey.
Bj thomas and billy joe royal movie#
Recently, he called on his way to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where he was driving to a meet a movie director to discuss a part in an upcoming western. (Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" had been the first a few months earlier.) Hong Kong Pop Diva Anita Mui's rendition of this song, "Cherish When We Meet Again" (?), was the final song she performed before her death from Cervical Cancer in December 2003.After more than 20 years in Nashville, and stints in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles before that, Royal now lives in coastal North Carolina, to be near his teenage daughter. It also became just the second single to earn double-platinum certification status, after the RIAA established the designation in 1976. In the U.S., the song was the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. and reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart in the summer of 1976.
Released as a single, in both a version that included a mid-song rap spoken part (aimed toward the R&B market) and one that omitted it (aimed toward the pop market), over a year later, the song became a worldwide hit for the group, spending two weeks at number one on the U.S. The original demo of the song was recorded with The Manhattans backing band, "Little Harlem." After hearing a tape of the recording, producer/arranger Bobby Martin decided to re-record the song with MFSB at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. The song was written by Manhattans member Winfred "Blue" Lovett.
"Kiss and Say Goodbye" is a song recorded by the American R&B vocal group The Manhattans.
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