Best Of Bobby Goldsboro: Honey CD

A definitive 23-track collection of all the Bobby Goldsboro you'll ever need. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Pop songs don't get a lot more emotionally manipulative than Bobby Goldsboro's 1969 smash hit "Honey," in which a man shares his memories of the young woman he wed who unexpectedly dies, but one of the reasons the song pulls the heartstrings as strongly as it does is Goldsboro's performance; without stooping to cheap histrionics, he gives the story and its myriad details with an emotional honesty that's real and moving, and turns what could have been mere treacle into something with a soul. It's easily the best track on Honey, the album released to cash in on Goldsboro's biggest hit, but anyone who appreciates the craft of the single will enjoy the other ten songs that follow it here. While Goldsboro didn't write "Honey," he did pen five on the songs on the album, and his material ranks with the best stuff on this record (though "With Pen in Hand," the story of a man trying to convince his wife not to divorce him, doesn't play quite so well all these years later, and his attempt to rock out on "Love Arrestor" demonstrates such things were not his strong suit). The man had an easy but confident way with a lyric, and his rich voice is a fine match for the material. And while his covers of "Little Green Apples" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" don't match the resonance of the definitive versions, like with "Honey," he knows how to bring their tales to life without sinking into bathos, and ultimately that's what makes this album memorable. ~ Mark Deming

This is part of the EMI Legendary Masters series.

Recorded at Bell Sound Studios, New York; RCA Studios, Woodland Sound and The Soundshop, Nashville, Tennessee. Includes liner notes by Steve Kolanjian and track annontations by Jeff Seckler and Ron Furmanek.

Personnel: Bobby Goldsboro (vocals, guitar).

Liner Note Author: Steve Kolanjian.

Recording information: Bell Sound Studios, NY (10/01/1963-04/11/1973); RCA Studios, Nashville, TN (10/01/1963-04/11/1973); Sound Shop Studios, Nashville, TN (10/01/1963-04/11/1973); Woodland Sound, Nashville, TN (10/01/1963-04/11/1973).

Photographer: Jeffrey Scales.

Arrangers: Garry Sherman; Don Tweedy; Timmy Tappan; Arnold Goland; Alan Lorber; Bill Justis; Burt Bacharach.

Producers: Jack Gold, Bobby Goldsboro, Bob Montgomery.

Compilation producer: Ron Furmanek.