THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

942-Bobby Goldsboro-Summer (The First Time.)

1973-Number 9 single.

Best Bit-At 3.23. Mission accomplished. Although I do wonder if the gender roles had been reversed, would the public have accepted the situation so easily.

Bobby Goldsboro was born Robert Charles Goldsboro on January 18th, 1941, in Marianna, Florida, United States. His music career began in high school when he joined ‘Spider and The Webs,’ who performed semi-professionally as a quintet. In 1961 ‘The Webs’ manager ‘Buddy Blue,’ (1941-2015) arranged for the band to play for Roy Orbison (1936-1988) (see also best songs 657) who was without a backing band, in a show that he had organised. The arrangement worked out well, with ‘The Webs’ becoming Orbison’s full time backing band until 1964, where they toured America, and Europe. Whilst still a member of ‘The Webs,’ Goldsboro launched his solo career, and struck gold with his fifth single release ‘See the Funny Little Clown,’ which reached Number 9 on Billboard in America in 1963, selling in excess of 1 million copies.

The discography of Bobby Goldsboro includes 26 studio Albums released between 1964-2015, and 61 singles issued between 1962-1982. In America, 11 of those singles have reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 40, with ‘Honey,’ which was also the best selling song of 1968 worldwide, giving him his only chart topper. In the UK, he has charted within the top 40 on four occasions, with ‘Honey’ reaching Number 2 in 1968, and then on it’s re-release in 1975, it once again made Number 2. Although Bobby Goldsboro is considered a Country/Pop artist, two of his songs from the mid 1960’s, ‘It’s Too Late, and ‘Too Many People,’ are both cult ‘Northern Soul’ classics.

The success of ‘Honey’ led to many television appearances, where he soon became a regular, and co-host on ‘The Mike Douglas Show.’ Following that Goldsboro went on to host his own syndicated television series ‘The Bobby Goldsboro Show,’ between 1973-1976. In 1995, he created the children’s television series ‘The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon.’ Goldsboro voiced all the characters, wrote all the scripts, and played all the musical instruments in the show, which was aimed at the 2-8 years age group, and ran for 52 episodes, between 1996-2001.

‘Summer (The First Time’) which was also the title of Bobby Goldsboro’s 19th studio Album from 1973, was co-written by Goldsboro, Ashley Abram, and Timmy Tappan, (1946-2013) with the production being by Bob Montgomery, and Bobby Goldsboro. Bob Montgomery was born on May 12th, 1937, in Lampasas, Texas, United States, he died of Parkinson’s disease in 2014, at the age of 77. Montgomery was a songwriting partner, and best friend of the legendary Buddy Holly, (1936-1959) (see also best songs 898 and 264) and together they performed together as teenagers in high school as ‘Buddy and Bob.’ When Holly was lured away to start a solo career in 1955, Montgomery didn’t lose touch, and co-wrote with Holly the hits ‘Heartbeat,’ (1958) and ‘Love’s Made a Fool of You,’ (1958) amongst others. Montgomery also wrote the Country Music standard ‘Misty Blue’ in 1966, and produced ‘Honey’ for Bobby Goldsboro in 1968.

‘Summer (The First Time’) is about someone reminiscing about being a 17 year old boy, having his first romantic experience with a 31-year-old woman during the summertime. Bobby Goldsboro has said that the song was loosely based on something that happened to him with someone older, but not as romantic as that depicted in this song. It is also believed that Goldsboro took inspiration for the song from the 1971 film ‘Summer of 42.’ The Canadian singer Bryan Adams has stated that he was inspired by that film to write ‘Summer of 69’ (see also best songs 1003.) ‘Summer (The First Time’) has a memorable piano riff throughout the song, which was written by Timmy Tappan, for which he received writing credits. The song opens with the sounds of ocean waves and seagulls, which were taken from a sound effect library. The label (United Artists) had wanted to remove these sounds to shorten the song, but Goldsboro insisted that they be kept in.

Earlier on I asked whether the song would have worked as well had it been gender reversed, well in 1974 the American R&B singer Millie Jackson recorded the song for her fourth studio Album ‘Caught Up,’ and her ‘Soulful’ rendition, using very nearly the same lyrics, certainly didn’t seem out of place to me.

‘And then she smiled, then we talked for a while, then we walked for a mile to the sea. We sat on the sand, and a boy took her hand, but I saw the sun rise as a man.’