How Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods Beat Another Group to the Punch With “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”

If you’re looking for strange subgenres of music that had a moment in the sun, how about historical fiction/tragedy songs? The band Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods helped perpetuate that trend with the 1974 no. 1 US single “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”.

Donaldson and company benefited from striking while the iron was hot, beating a British band to the punch before they could put their own version in the United States market. The song, a strange mix of chirpy music and melodramatic lyrics, stands out now as a catchy, quirky curio of the times.

Heywoods Heat

Bo Donaldson may have formed the Heywoods, but he wasn’t the guy out front. That was singer Mike Gibbons. Formed in Ohio, they were also the rare band to have a flautist at their disposal in Gary Coveyou. That would come in handy when it came to their biggest hit.

It took a while for Donaldson’s band to get some footing on a national level. They received a boost from touring with The Osmonds at the height of that family band’s popularity in the early 70s. Later, The Heywoods signed a deal with ABC Records. But they needed to find a song that would help them break out.

Mitch Murray and Peter Callender, the pair who penned “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”, had already proven themselves as highly successful songwriters by that point. Murray’s track record went all the way back to “How Do You Do It”, a No. 1 song that was almost released by The Beatles. And Callender had shown his facility with soap opera-style songs when he co-wrote “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast”, a hit for Wayne Newton.

“Hero” Worship

Murray and Callender were onto something in the timing of “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”. When you read the lyrics, it’s clear that the soldier within the song is one fighting in the American Civil War. But audiences in 1974 who were weary of the Vietnam War made that association to the tragedy within the song as well.

After first wishing to find an established star to record the song, Murray and Callender settled on the British band Paper Lace. They had recently earned notoriety in a talent contest in their home country. Paper Lace did indeed make a big hit out of it in Great Britain.

But they couldn’t release their version in the US before Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods beat them to it. Donaldson and his band hit the top of the charts with their take. As for Paper Lace, they ended up with a US chart-topper not long after with “The Night Chicago Died”, another quasi-historical tale written by Murray and Callender.

Behind the Lyrics of “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”

“Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” tells the story of a young man anxious to fight on the Northern side in the Civil War. His young fiancée warns him against it. “Don’t be a fool with your life,” she cries. “Billy, don’t be a hero / Come back and make me your wife.”

Not only does Billy neglect these demands, but he proves particularly gung-ho in the middle of the fight, despite his fiancée’s warnings to “keep your head low.” “And Billy’s hand was up in a moment,” the narrator explains about his willingness to jump into the fray. “Forgetting all the words she said.”

We find out in the final verse that Billy perished in the fight. His fiancée gets a letter with the news. “She should be proud he died that way,” the narrator says. But instead: “I heard she threw that letter away.” So ends the saga of “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”. A sad story, for sure. But a happy result for Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods.

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