Billy Joe Royal 1942-2015

Billy Joe Royal

I’m glad I finally got to meet Billy Joe Royal.  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.  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.  For what had to be the ten-millionth time, he smiled and told me how much that meant to him.

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.  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.  In fact, “TJ the DJ” was usually on hand to introduce him.  Just a few weeks ago, he was the headliner at the Whitwell Summer Fest.

Billy Joe has passed away at the age of 73.  In his honor, let me play you his three biggest hits.

First, “Down in the Boondocks,” probably his best known song, a top-ten hit in the mid-60s.  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….”

Billy 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. Go ahead, sing along: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah….I knew you when…”

Finally, 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. 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.”

I’m glad WFLI and WGOW were brave enough to play it, because I thought it was cool.  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.  Thanks for being nice to your fans too.  I know this one appreciates it.