The band was formed in
Cincinnati, Ohio in 1965 by their leader, Robert Walter "Bo" Donaldson. Their first singles were released between 1966 and 1968 on a label owned by Bo's mother, Bea Donaldson. Those four singles went largely unnoticed. The band were first discovered while touring with
The Osmonds in the early 1970s and signed with Family Productions, releasing their first single in 1972, "Special Someone", but their big break came after moving to
ABC Records and working with the
record producer Steve Barri in 1973. Although their first single with ABC, "Deeper and Deeper,” failed to make a big impression on the
charts, Despite the song's popularity, many people disliked it, and it was voted #8 on
Rolling Stone magazine's readers' poll of "10 Worst Songs of the 1970s." After their initial popularity, they began a migration across three other
record labels as the hits dried up by the end of the decade. In 1975, the band was working on a second album of material for ABC including "Our Last Song Together", released as a single (and which made the pop chart), and "Take Me Make Me Yours", which to this day remains unreleased. Ultimately the group left the label and joined Capitol Records, where they recorded songs by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, the writing/producing team behind the UK act
The Sweet, and released the album "Farther On" in 1975. By 1978, they were known as "The Bo Donaldson Band" and eventually split after trying
country music with no success in the 1980s. They reformed again in 1996 as a nostalgia act and still make appearances, most notably in the
Barry Williams-hosted nostalgia show,
Original Idols Live. In 1996, Varese Vintage Records released
Best of Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, a 15-song compilation of material originally released on Family Productions (1972) and ABC Records (1973–1975). The CD contains all their charted singles and, in fact, includes 9 of the 11 songs featured on the 1974 LP
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (#97 on the Hot 200). The CD booklet includes liner notes written by
Gordon Pogoda and the CD features such highlights as "Who Do You Think You Are", "The House on Telegraph Hill", and "The Heartbreak Kid". Lead singer and trumpeter Mike Gibbons died on April 2, 2016, at age 71. ==Members==