Song of the Day 8/25: Billy Joe Royal, “Cherry Hill Park”

This one’s for Gary Busey, who ran into some trouble over there in Cherry Hill, N.J., a couple of weeks ago at a horror film convention.

Billy Joe Royal of Valdosta, Ga., is usually described as a “country soul” singer. This wasn’t his biggest hit — that would be his debut single, “Down in the Boondocks,” which he originally cut as a demo for his friend Joe South — but it sure got a lot of airplay on Philly radio.

Royal supposedly came up with the song’s title when a friend told him about visiting the New Jersey locale. But the song was written by Robert Nix and Billy Gilmore, a drummer and bass player who worked with producer and songwriter Buddy Bule in the Classics IV and, later, the Atlanta Rhythm Section. It peaked at No. 15 on the Hot 100 in 1969.

Royal had some success on the country charts in the ’80s and made another comeback in the ’00s as an oldies act. He died in 2015 at 73.

BTW, Cherry Hill is technically s a township, a level of municipal government common in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Given how closely Bule worked with them, naturally the Classics IV cut a cover.