Billy Joe Royal: "Down in the Boondocks"

August 9, 1965 (1 week)

As I previously noted, one artist I won't be reviewing (at least not directly) is Gene Pitney. With all due respect, this isn't a huge loss. The man never topped the Billboard Hot 100 and his sole UK number one hit didn't come until early 1989 when he and British pop star Marc Almond duetted on "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart". Yet, he frequently came oh so close to hitting the top spot in Canada, peaking at number two on no less than five separate occasions between 1962 and 1966. If only he had been given "Down in the Boondocks", it might have broken his spell of chart runners-up.

There is some debate over where or not it had been intended for Pitney to record himself in the first place but what is undeniable is that both singer Billy Joe Royal and songwriter Joe South had the man who did "Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa" in mind. Either they wanted to submit it to him or they wanted to mimic him. Not that Royal sounds like a Pitney impersonator. There are similarities in their voices but Royal lacks that chewiness that makes Pitney so distinctive.

Taken as a creation independent of other American pop stars, "Down in the Boondocks" is an engaging mid-tempo swinging rocker which manages neither to offend nor inspire. It glides along at a welcome pace and it has a nice toe-tapping beat but it is almost impossible to remember anything about it only moments after it has ended. I appreciate the fact that this record represents a time when southern rock didn't necessarily have to be leaden with swampy guitars, thick-as-molasses vocal drawls and a contrived down home feel. (To be fair, it was always the groups who hailed from other parts of North America — Toronto's The Band, San Francisco's Creedence Clearwater Revival — who tended to lay the "southern" qualities on a little too thick as opposed to those like the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd) That said, it's a little too bland and safe to really stand out.

Gene Pitney strikes me as the sort of pop star who up and coming artists of the time aspired to be like. He had that fabulous voice which most would would trade for. Billy Joe Royal seems to have been no slouch himself and I suspect that he had some strong recordings in his future. This isn't quite one of them but it is promising. Quite what it promised I'm not sure but he'll be back in this space before long so let's see how his second number one measures up to his first. And if it just okay like this one or even a giant steaming turd then at least he can take comfort in outpacing his idol two Canadian number ones to nothing.

Score: 5

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Can Con

The lower end of this week's Top 40 includes some proper mint and skill singles. There are new entries from both The Beatles ("Help" coming in at a modest number thirty-seven, though it would gather momentum before long) and James Brown ("Papa's Got a Brand New Bag") and the likes of The Beach Boys ("California Girls"), The Four Tops ("It's the Same Old Song") and Bob Dylan (with something called "I'm a Rolling Stone", no doubt the Bard's plea to join up with Mick and Keith). Less celebrated is Robbie Lane and the Disciples with "Sandy". I can't seem to find it online so I wouldn't know what to say about it but I'm sure it fully merited its number thirty-six peak. Seriously, I gave some of his other hits from around the same time a listen and they aren't bad so I imagine "Sandy" is much the same. Like Billy Joe Royal, it's perfectly fine if entirely unremarkable and, again, suggests that he hopefully got better in the years ahead.