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Honey (Bobby Goldsboro song)

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"Honey"
Song
B-side"Danny"

"Honey", also known as "Honey (I Miss You)", is a song written by Bobby Russell. He first produced it with former Kingston Trio member Bob Shane. Then he gave it to American singer Bobby Goldsboro, who recorded it for his 1968 album of the same name, originally titled Pledge of Love.

The song's narrator mourns his deceased lover, beginning with him looking at a tree in their garden, remembering how "it was just a twig" on the day she planted it (with his disapproval). This single about the loss of a loved one hit No. 1 the week after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Further, the Hot 100 top 10 run of "Honey" began the week of the King assassination and ended the week of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and no other Hot 100 entry had a top 10 run that spanned that same time interval.[2]

Release

It was released as a single in the U.S. in 1968 and spent five weeks at No. 1 the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, from April 7 to May 11 (the 200th song to do so), and three weeks atop Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart. It was preceded on the Billboard Hot 100 by "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding and was followed by Archie Bell & the Drells' "Tighten Up". It was Goldsboro's only No. 1 hit on the Pop Singles and Country Singles charts and it was his first song to top the Adult Contemporary chart. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song for 1968.[3]

"Honey" reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and a re-release of the single in the United Kingdom in 1975 (see 1975 in music) reached No. 2 again. In Australia, it spent four weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Charts, replacing The Beatles' "Lady Madonna", and was the No. 6 song of 1968.

Reception

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the song frequently appears on "worst songs of all-time" lists,[4] and in April 2006, Todd Leopold of CNN named it the "Worst Song of All Time."[5] In the 1970s when radio DJ Tony Blackburn was going through his divorce with his wife Tessa Wyatt, he regularly played "Honey" and would comment live on air about how much he missed his wife.[6] This was parodied in the "mockumentary" Smashie and Nicey: The End of an Era.

Cover versions

Chart performance

Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
April 13, 1968 (five weeks) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Cash Box Top 100 singles
April 20, 1968 (four weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells
Preceded by Billboard Easy Listening Singles number-one single
May 4, 1968 (2 weeks) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single
May 25-June 8, 1968 		Succeeded by
"I Wanna Live" by Glen Campbell
Preceded by RPM Country Tracks number-one single
June 1-June 8, 1968

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "You've come a long way Bobby.", Billboard, October 5, 1974. pp. BG-19 and BG-20, between p. 42 and p. 43 . Accessed December 3, 2015.
  2. ^ "Top Ten Charts 1968 (WE April 6, 1968 through WE June 8, 1968)". The Top 100 Songs Of All Time. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  3. ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1968
  4. ^ "My, my, some rock 'n' roll should die". Norwich Bulletin. Cincinnati Enquirer. February 6, 2001. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  5. ^ Leopold, Todd (April 21, 2006). "The worst song of all time". CNN.com. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  6. ^ Ian Burrell (20 April 2004). "It's poptastic to be back". The Independent. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Honey". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  8. ^ "Go-Set Magazine Charts". www.poparchives.com.au. Barry McKay. January 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  9. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". collectionscanada.gc.ca.
  10. ^ Musicoutfitters.com
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