In 1984, he broke through when he recorded the Gary Burr composition "Burned Like a Rocket" it was picked up by the Atlantic label, which signed Royal to a contract. The wrong-side-of-the-tracks theme of "Down in the Boondocks" was a familiar one to country audiences, and during the early '80s Royal worked on establishing himself as a country artist. In 1978, he recorded a cover of "Under the Boardwalk" and scored a minor hit. He also did a bit of acting on television, in feature films, and in commercials. Following its success, Royal had a string of lesser hits, including the Top 40 pop singles "I Knew You When," "I've Got to Be Somebody," and "Cherry Hill Park." By the end of the decade, Royal's star waned, and he became a regular performer in Las Vegas and around Lake Tahoe. The song became Royal's breakthrough single, reaching number nine on the pop charts and briefly making the vocalist into a teen idol. The demo ended up at Columbia, and the label signed Royal to a six-year deal. Royal flew from Cincinnati (where he was working at the time) to Atlanta and cut "Down in the Boondocks," whose churchy echo resulted from the use during recording of a large septic tank that had been dragged into the studio. Royal and South roomed together for a time, and two or three years later South contacted him with a song he wanted Royal to sing as a demo, in the hope that Gene Pitney would record it. In 1962, he recorded an independent single that went unnoticed. Performing at a nightclub that also booked Sam Cooke and other African-American stars, Royal observed their vocal moves and began to practice them on his own time. He also spent time in Savannah, where he was influenced by African-American vocal styles and began to develop his distinctive vocal sound.
Royal had his own rock & roll band in high school and was regularly singing around Atlanta by the age of 16. He learned to play steel guitar and joined the Georgia Jubilee in Atlanta at 14, performing with Joe South, Jerry Reed, and Ray Stevens, among several other artists.
Royal was born into a family of musical entertainers in Valdosta, Georgia, and made his debut on his uncle's radio show at the age of 11. Although he never had another hit as successful as "Down in the Boondocks," he racked up about 15 singles that hit the country charts over the course of the 1980s. Nevertheless his country career continued and he had hits with “I’ll Pin A Note On Your Pillow”, a revival of Aaron Neville’s “Tell It Like It Is”, and a duet of “Members Only” with Donna Fargo.Best known for his country-flavored rock hit "Down in the Boondocks," Billy Joe Royal had a long career that saw him become one of the first pop performers to successfully revive his commercial fortunes by turning to straight country music.
In 1985 Royal was doing well with the country single “Burned Like A Rocket” for Atlantic’s new Nashville division, but after the space shuttle Challenger exploded any further airplay was out of the question. He was in the 1974 film Catch My Soul, a rock’n’roll version of Othello, the concept of Jack Good and the only film to be directed by Patrick McGoohan, of The Prisoner fame. In 1969 Royal returned to the American charts with “Cherry Hill Park” and also recorded “Heart’s Desire”, which became a Northern soul favourite. On the final night of a huge package tour promoted by Dick Clark, each performer had to dress as another artist on the bill and Royal, Peter Asher and Tom Jones became the girl group, the Shirelles. Royal followed it with further South songs including the multi-tracked “I Knew You When”, and “Hush”, which became a US Top 10 for Deep Purple.
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