NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Billy Joe Royal, a pop singer who popularized the song “Down in the Boondocks,” and crossed over into country music, has died. He was 73.

The Georgia-born singer debuted on Columbia Records with “Down in the Boondocks” in 1965, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But he struggled to match his initial success with his subsequent records and starting in the late 1980s, he reinvented himself as a country singer.