![]() Jack Gold took a position as head of A&R at United Artists Records in 1963 and signed Goldsboro to a contract. The potential hit writing team was broken up, to the dismay of Roy and Bobby. Bobby's publishers were willing to split the profits 50/50, but Rose was notoriously hardheaded and wouldn't agree. They wanted to continue writing together, but Wesley Rose of Orbison's publishers, Acuff-Rose, stepped in with an unreasonable demand: his company would receive all of the royalty money. Another Orbison-Goldsboro effort, "Baby's Gone," was a minor hit in late 1963 for Gene Thomas. They were of like mind when it came to songwriting Bobby recorded one of their collaborations, "The Runaround," as a follow-up Laurie single. He became close friends with Orbison during the two-and-a-half years they worked together. He would, of course, later return to the subject of tragedy with much greater impact. Bobby wasn't fond of the tearjerker, but it made a respectable showing on the charts. "Molly," written by Steve Karliski, was about a soldier who returns from the war, blinded, to be with his wife and child. The exposure opened doors for Goldsboro New York-based producer Jack Gold approached him about making some records, and his first solo effort was released on the Laurie label in December 1962. Roy's career was at its peak between 1961 and '64 he would fly to each scheduled city while the four band members drove a 1955 Chevy, renting U-Haul trucks to carry their equipment. Great opportunity that it was, working with Orbison didn't exactly put them on easy street. Jumping at the chance, they became The Candymen (after Roy's recent hit "Candy Man"), continuing as The Webs for their own shows. Orbison was impressed with the group's musicianship (the two years of experience in northern Alabama had sharpened their skills considerably) and when he later fired his entire touring band (over behavior that may have been alcohol-related) he called and asked them if they'd like to join him on the road. Roy Orbison came through the area on tour in 1961 and the Webs opened for one of his shows. This limited brush with popularity had a silver lining. "Lost" was an odd one about being stranded in the woods, featuring appropriate sound effects, including cricket sounds supplied by Rainey and a frog voice Goldsboro would continue to use, at inopportune times, for many years. There was a second single, "Lost (Cricket in My Ear)," which picked up a little regional airplay, enough for the record's sales to go into four figures. It became a pretty big hit, too.in Dothan, that is, where everyone knew the band. "Dizzy Boy," a song Bobby wrote, was recorded soon after. The desire to make a record got to be very strong, so they auditioned for Heart Records, a small label based in Birmingham (another hundred miles to the north). When Bobby enrolled at Auburn University (about 120 miles north of Dothan), the other three joined him and the group played steady weekend gigs in the area for the next two years. Goldsboro's bandmates were guitarist John Rainey Adkins, bassist Amos Tyndall and drummer Paul Garrison. To top it off, there was a big black spider logo on the drum kit. ![]() Once they made a little more money, the group bought matching outfits to fit the image: black shirts, black pants and white ties with a black spider on them, and they all wore fashionable Buddy Holly-style horn-rimmed glasses. During 12th grade, in 1958, he and the guys performed at an air base for ten bucks apiece and were hooked. Bobby's love of baseball (and dream of someday playing second base for the Cleveland Indians) was set aside when he took up guitar playing in high school and started a band called The Webs with three of his friends. He was born in Marianna, Florida (a few miles from the Alabama border) and lived there until the mid-'50s when his family moved north to Dothan, Alabama (a few miles from the Florida border). Looking through the eye-blurring tears at the rest of Goldsboro's career, one realizes how versatile he really was. Perhaps the timing was right, although the record would likely have connected with the public at any time, but either way it was one of the biggest hits of the decade and has overshadowed everything he did before or since. Music fans were clamoring for the single and album that featured this emotion-filled song about a man in love with his wife, who planted a tree with her and watched it grow, surprised her with a puppy at Christmastime, then came home one day to find she had died. Johnny Carson wanted him on The Tonight Show. Bobby Goldsboro was having a nice run of hits in the mid-'60s when suddenly, with the release of a song called "Honey" in 1968, he became a major star.
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