His music was further exposed to younger generations through a movement known as The Beat Army, an online music forum based on Facebook which is operated by author and music producer Paul Collins. Royal experienced a second comeback during the 2000s due to regular airplay on Country and Classic radio stations. His successes on the country charts continued until the early 1990s. His other country hits included " I'll Pin a Note on Your Pillow" (1987), " Tell It Like It Is", and " Till I Can't Take It Anymore" (both 1989). However, he reinvented himself in the 1980s as a mainstream country star, and had his first hit on the country music chart in 1985 with " Burned Like a Rocket", released on the Atlantic label. His last hit on the US pop charts was in 1978, when his version of " Under the Boardwalk" became a minor hit. īy the late 1970s, Royal had become a regular performer in Las Vegas, and also appeared as an actor in movies and on television. In the 1970s his recording of "Heart's Desire" gained popularity among Northern soul enthusiasts and was regularly played in Northern soul nightclubs. His 1969 single, " Cherry Hill Park", peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. when Royal released it in 1967, but a later remake by The Osmonds was a much greater success. Another South composition, " Yo-Yo", just missed the top 40 in Canada and charted poorly in the U.S. He followed up his initial success with the singles " I Knew You When" (Top 20, 1965) and " Hush" (1967), also written and produced by Joe South. "Down in the Boondocks" remained his best-known song, reaching number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 38 in the UK. The recording was heard at Columbia Records, who offered Royal a singing contract in 1965 and released his version of the song, produced by South. Royal was a friend of performer and songwriter Joe South, and recorded what was intended as a demo of South's song " Down in the Boondocks". He formed his own rock and roll band, and became a local star at the Bamboo Ranch in Savannah in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where his singing style was influenced by African-American performers, including Sam Cooke. His most successful record was " Down in the Boondocks" in 1965.īorn in Valdosta, Georgia, to Clarence and Mary Sue Smith Royal, and raised in Marietta, Georgia, Royal performed at the Georgia Jubilee in Atlanta during his teens. “A friend of mine had gone to Philadelphia somewhere and looked over and saw Cherry Hill and then just said, ‘Hey, Cherry Hill, merry hill,’ ” Royal said.Billy Joe Royal (Ap– October 6, 2015) was an American country soul singer. Perhaps not the town itself, actually, but at least the name. Royal didn’t write the song himself - it was penned by Robert Nix and Billy Gilmore - but in a 2008 interview with, he confirmed that, yes, the song was indeed inspired by Cherry Hill, N.J. The girl in the song, “Mary Hill,” “was such a thrill after dark, in Cherry Hill Park,” until she got married, and “since that day, it ain’t been the same,” sings Royal. In 1969, a revolutionary time for popular music, Billy Joe Royal, a country pop star and a Georgia native, made the national Top 20 with a silly, mildly salacious little ditty called “Cherry Hill Park,” which had more in common with Fats Domino’s 1956 hit “Blueberry Hill” than anything else going on in popular music during that era (except maybe The Turtles’ 1967 hit “Happy Together,” whose chorus its own chorus resembles a bit). The cover of Billy Joe Royal’s 1969 album, “Cherry Hill Park.”
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