Watching Scotty Grow

Album: Watching Scotty Grow (1970)
Charted: 11
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Songfacts®:

  • This touching song is about the joys of fatherhood. The singer will take a night at home listening to music with his young son over a trip to the nightclub. Scotty will only grow up once.

    It's about the son of Mac Davis, who wrote the song when Scotty was 4 years old.
  • Mac Davis had written hits for Elvis Presley, including "A Little Less Conversation" and "In The Ghetto." He wrote "Watching Scotty Grow" for his debut album, released in 1970, but his publisher told him not to record it. "He said it didn't sound like me," Davis told Songfacts.

    How a very personal song about the singer's child doesn't sound like that singer is a question that may never be answered, but Davis took the advice and gave the song to Bobby Goldsboro, who had a huge hit with "Honey" in 1968. "Watching Scotty Grow" ended up being a substantial hit for Goldsboro; Mac Davis released his own version on his second album, I Believe In Music, in 1972.

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