The World Famous Ultimate Twang: Classic Album Review-Bobby Goldsboro "Honey"

Classic Album Review-Bobby Goldsboro “Honey”

1968. Country music is dominated by the Man In Black, the loud rocking twang of The Buckaroos,

a new superstar named Loretta, and the smooth sounds of Eddy Arnold, Sonny James, and Ray Price. And in the pop field, it was all about The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, along with Motown and psychedelic rock. So, with all of that, not to mention the general turmoil of the world, the question is, just how did a song about the death of a young wife, become such a monster, crossover hit?

The singer behind this song and today’s Classic Album Review, is Bobby Goldsboro, and, of course, the song is “Honey”.

The album begins with the title track, a song that’s been called everything from maudlin, syrupy, sappy, schmaltzy, and even stronger terms. It’s been included in numerous lists of “worst songs” or “worst hits”. Perhaps the best description I’ve ever heard for the song, is that, “…it’s a silly, or dumb song, but for some reason, whenever it plays, you can’t turn it off. You wind up listening to the whole tune, over and over again, and it eventually it grows on you”. For all the razzing, though, the facts are as follows; it went to number one on both the country and pop single charts, the single sold a million copies, plus, the album went gold, while topping the country album charts and making the pop top five. So, for a song that is “so bad”, it did pretty well. It’s also ironic, that Bobby Goldsboro was a prolific songwriter, but his biggest hit was written by someone else, in this case, the late Bobby Russell.

Before getting into the country field, Bobby had success as a pop singer, and the next cut, “Run To Me”, certainly still has a strong feeling of 1960’s pop music, with a good beat and heavy brass. Certainly not a country track, but as one who also likes the oldies sound of the ’60’s and ’70’s, I personally think it’s a pretty cut track.

“With Pen In Hand” may be Bobby Goldsboro’s most famous composition, even though he did not a hit single version. It was a top five country hit in 1968 for Johnny Darrell and a minor pop hit in 1969 for Vicki Carr. Bobby’s version would see life as a single in 1972, but failed to chart. His version is very comparable to Johnny Darrell’s, in arrangement, and while I’ve always loved the Johnny Darrell version, I think you could argue that Bobby’s version is as good, if not even better. The song, itself, is one of country music’s most outstanding compositions of the 1960’s, in my opinion.

Back to more of the light, bouncy pop fare with “Pardon Me Miss”. A catchy tune, with average to slightly above average lyrics.

“Why Don’t You Believe Me” is alright, but gets somewhat lost in the arrangement, which sounds like it came straight out of a Dean Martin album from that era. This style of arrangement works well on Martin’s records (several of which I’ve worn out, over the years). However, it doesn’t work as well with Bobby Goldsboro’s vocals. I think the track would have come off better with a more stripped down, country-sounding arrangement.

And thus ends, side one.

Side 2 kicks off with Bobby returning to the more pop/top forty styling similar to “Run To Me” and “Pardon Me Miss”, on the song “Pledge Of Love”. Alright, but nothing particularly special.

I mentioned, earlier, that the late Bobby Russell wrote “Honey”, he also wrote another big hit of the era, “Little Green Apples”. “Little Green Apples” would become a big country hit for Roger Miller, and a pop hit for O. C. Smith. Bobby’s version, unfortunately, gets somewhat lost in the lush arrangement, which distracts from his stellar vocal performance. A more stripped down arrangement, and his recording could be as good as the hit versions.

As is the case throughout the album, alternating pop cuts with more country and easy cuts, we head back into the pop, with “Love Arrestor”. Like most of the up tempo pop on this album, it’s got a good, catchy melody, with average lyrics, and a decent arrangement. The sound on this cut, though, is a bit lacking in fullness, sounding a bit tinny.

“By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, the Jimmy Webb-penned classic made famous by Glen Campbell. Another stellar vocal performance that still gets a little lost in the overly lush arrangement, though not quite as bad as “Little Green Apples” or “Why Don’t You Believe Me”.

Overall, the best cuts on this album are the up tempo ones, including “Beautiful People”. Again, very ’60’s (imagine that on a 1968 album!), but I think it’s one of the best cuts on the disc. Interesting to note that this song was written by, and the only top forty hit sung by Kenny O’Dell. Kenny would later write Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” & “I Take It On Home”, “Trouble In Paradise” for Loretta Lynn, and The Judds’ classic “Mama He’s Crazy”.

The lush arrangement returns for the final cut, “A Woman”, but unlike the previous cuts, in this case, it actually works well for this ballad. This is actually one of the better cuts on the disc, soft, intimate, but avoiding the syrup.

I was a bit surprised to find this album currently available on CD, but it is in print, in not one, but two packages with other albums. One package has it with Bobby’s “Summer (The First Time)” album, while the other package includes Bobby’s “We Gotta Start Lovin’” album. There are also numerous used vinyl copies around, as well, as low as $1.

This one’s a rather interesting album to rate. While Bobby Goldsboro’s vocals are excellent, and the songs range from good to outstanding, some of the arrangements leave something to be desired, and the production quality doesn’t seem to be as high of quality on parts of the album, as one might expect, especially on what was then a major label, United Artists. With all of this considered, I will give it a 3.5 out of 5 rating.

What do you think? I’d love to know how you’d rate this album. Like? Or not?