Billy Joe Royal – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

OBITUARIES

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’60s POP / COUNTRY SINGER BILLY JOE ROYAL DIES AT 73

By William Grimes | NY TIMES Staff Writer | October 07, 2015

Billy Joe Royal, Singer, Dies at 73; His ‘Down in the Boondocks’ Was a Hit – NYTimes.com

Billy Joe Royal, a pop and country singer best known for his 1965 hit, “Down In The Boondocks,” died Tuesday at his home in Morehead City, N.C., He was 73.

The cause has not been determined, his publicist, Brent Taylor, said, adding that Mr. Royal had performed at a concert as recently as Sept. 24 and had a full touring schedule lined up for the fall.

Mr. Royal, who sang with a tremulous tenor and an intense delivery, had his biggest hits with several songs written and produced by Joe South. The top seller was “Down in the Boondocks,” the bitter lament of a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in love with a rich girl, which reached No. 9 on the pop charts.

“I guess people related to poor people,” Mr. Royal told The Chicago Tribune in 1990. “Once in a while I hear it on the radio, and it still stands up. The song meant everything to my career. I was making about $125 a week before that.”

He hit the charts with two other songs by Mr. South, “Hush” and “I Knew You When,” and ended the decade in the Top 20 with “Cherry Hill Park” (1969). CONT.

MCRFB note: For the rest of this New York Times Billy Joe Royal Obituary article (October 07, 2015), please GO HERE.