Billy joe royal5/19/2023 ![]() This would be followed by with several country hits including, “I’ll Pin A Note On Your Pillow ” Tell It Like It Is,” and Till I Can’t Take it Anymore,” In 1988, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Royal would experience his first Top 10 Country single, “Burn like A Rocket,” but was removed from radio after the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenge tragedy. His career was revitalized in the mid-1980s after he signed with Atlantic Records and began releasing a multitude of songs. Royal found success again in a South composed song, “I Knew You When”. ![]() Royal’s 1965 breakout single, “Down in the Boondocks,” who went to the top of the charts. Royal began singing at a young age, and as a young man had the opportunity to perform on the radio program “Georgia Jubilee,” where he met artist such as Joe South and Jerry Reed. Shortly after, the family moved to Marietta, GA. Graveside services will be private.īilly Joe was born on Apto Mary and Clarence Royal in Valdosta, GA. ![]() I know this one appreciates it.Billy Joe Royal, 73, of Morehead City passed away Tuesday, Octoat his home.Ī funeral service will be held 2:00 pm Saturday, Octoat Parkview Baptist Church with Rev. Sure, it was a little naughty, but after several months of “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies, maybe radio needed a little spice! And besides, most of us from that era turned out okay, right? Thank you Billy Joe, for a great career and some unforgettable radio hits. I’m glad WFLI and WGOW were brave enough to play it, because I thought it was cool. It sounds relatively innocent now, but back in ’69, some stations wouldn’t play it because of suggestive lyrics like, “Mary Hill loved to ride on the merry-go-round….All the guys got eager eyes watchin’ Mary go round…Now, in the daytime Mary Hill was a teaser….Come the night she was such a pleaser….Mary Hill was such a thrill after dark, in Cherry Hill Park.” Go ahead, sing along: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah….I knew you when…”įinally, his controversial hit from late 1969, “Cherry Hill Park.” This one still gets played on some greatest-hits stations, like Chattanooga’s 95.3 Big FM. ![]() I wonder how many millions of guys identified with those great Joe South-written words about being from the wrong side of the tracks: “Down in the boondocks, people put me down ’cause that’s the side of town I was born in….I love her, she loves me, but I don’t fit in her society, Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks….”īilly Joe also played on some of the WFLI “Jet-FLI Spectaculars” at Memorial Auditorium, which featured about a half-dozen hot recording acts on the same bill, for about 3 bucks! He always sang his other 1965 hit, “I Knew You When.” I heard it about a week ago on Sirius XM 60s on 6, and thought to myself, “I haven’t heard this one in a while.” It sure sounded good. In his honor, let me play you his three biggest hits.įirst, “Down in the Boondocks,” probably his best known song, a top-ten hit in the mid-60s. Just a few weeks ago, he was the headliner at the Whitwell Summer Fest.īilly Joe has passed away at the age of 73. In fact, “TJ the DJ” was usually on hand to introduce him. ![]() Later he had a few country hits in the 1980s, and since he was based in North Carolina (raised in Valdosta, Ga), he often played Chattanooga clubs and Lake Winnie. He had those big hits in the 1960s, and most of them were “oldies” to me by the time I really started paying attention to the radio. For what had to be the ten-millionth time, he smiled and told me how much that meant to him. Like everybody else who ever met him for the first time, I told him how much I enjoyed his music, and how those songs played a big part in my youth. In 2013, he attended the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame banquet to honor his friend Tommy Jett, the Chattanooga deejay who was being inducted that night. I’m glad I finally got to meet Billy Joe Royal. ![]()
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