Bill Haley – Crazy Man, Crazy

In my first 6 years of blogging, I posted one Bill Haley song. Now in the past 5-6 months, this makes my 3rd. That’s what happens when Max reads books.

If there was ever a fifties phrase…this is it. This song was released in 1953…two years before the popularity of Rock Around The Clock. It was Haley’s first time in the top twenty. He said he got this phrase from a teenager when he asked her if she liked what she heard in rock and roll.

The song has that western swing/big band sound to it…but also had its toe in the rock and roll water. This song peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 and #66 on the R&B Charts in 1953.

Haley always dreamed of fame but he was extremely private. Those two things don’t go together well. He turned down opportunities to make himself more known time after time. He originally said no to having Rock Around The Clock in a movie. He had to be talked into it. Coke also offered him 250,000 dollars (2,667,967.13 now) to appear in a few advertisements when he and the Comets needed the money….he again said no. All in all, he was unable to capitalize on his popularity like his peers were able to do.

Things started to fall apart in the late ‘50s, mostly due to mismanagement and Bill’s loyalty to friends from the neighborhood who were way over their heads in business affairs.

He has a lot to be remembered for…he joined Country, Big Band,  and R&B and called it “Country Jive.” He remained popular in the UK. His last tour there in 1979  included an appearance before the Queen on the Royal Variety Performance.

The B-Side… What’cha Gonna Do?

Crazy Man, Crazy

Crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyOh, man, that music’s gone, goneSaid crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyOh, man, that music’s gone, gone

When I go out and I want a treatI find me a band with a solid beatTake my chick and we dance aboutWhen they start rockin’, boy, we start to shout, we shout

Crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyMan, that music’s gone, goneGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go, go, go, go, go

Crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyMan, that music’s gone, goneSaid crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyMan, that music’s gone, gone

They play it soft, they play it strongThey play it wild and they play it longThey just keep playin’ ’til the break of dayTo keep them rockin’ all you gotta say is

Crazy man crazyCrazy man crazyCrazy man crazyMan, that music’s gone, goneGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go everybodyGo, go, go, go, go, go, go

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

31 thoughts on “Bill Haley – Crazy Man, Crazy”

      1. exactly – once the 60s rolled around and there was the cynicism and all, it might have harmed the career but I think back then no one would have cared and it would have actually improved his profile a little. Now it’s gone full circle or more, being in commercials is almost a gold star and like Grey from Modern English said of ‘I Melt With You’, the use in commercials lets them do pretty much whatever they like.

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      2. He was worried about over exposure…in a few years it would be the opposite for him. His team needed that money at the time so it would have helped. But…you just don’t know when the fame will end…at that time he probably thought it would roll on for a few years.
        Yep now it’s reversed.

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  3. Great tune and he really was on to something, err Rock and Roll I think they called it! So many acts were clamouring for opportunities like that one from Coke, I hadn’t heard that story. MJ didn’t turn down Pepsi though in retrospect maybe he should have.

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    1. Yea Haley probably shold have taken it but I don’t guess he knew when the bubble would burst…and it would right after this.
      Oh yea…MJ….that was the turning point of his life.

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  6. I still use that phrase (How can’t with all the madness around?), not kidding. Our buddy Robert Gordon brought a lot of people like Bill and this music to the world and I give him a nod. Bill and the Comets certainly deserve to be mentioned with the pioneers of this great music we love.

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    1. I can’t argue with your first sentence! I know what you mean. My wife used that phrase years ago…she got it from her dad…I then found this song.
      They do deserve to be mentioned…yea to all those rockabilly artists who came after.

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  7. Bill has a certain tone to his voice that pulls me in. Sounds like he was walking in two worlds. I always feel empathy for more introverted artists because “selling” their work doesn’t come easy to them.

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    1. He was an interesting man…very different from his peers. He knew he couldn’t compete with Elvis and he tried to get what was left.

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  8. Looking at those ‘crazy, man’ vids it shows how society NEEDED rock’n’roll to bust out of the conservatism of the WW2 and then Korean war years. The kids of then didn’t WANT the ordered life of Military Khakis or grey suits’n’white shirts’n’ties or mid length severe asexual skirts and buttoned-up-to-the-jawline blouses. No man, they wanted to kick out and shake it and dance to the crazy new music.

    Their first step was dancing to Bill and his ‘boys’ in their loud colourfully gaudily awful plaid suits. And let’s face it, despite that kiss-curl Bill looked well past looking like a teen, even in ’53. But his music bridged the generational gap for a while, just when it was needed.

    The early 50s must have been a boring monochrome world till rock’n’roll literally kicked the old-skool doors in.

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    1. I agree it must have been really boring… I think he was around 30 here…but he looked around 40ish… he was one of those guys who looked older….and not in the right business to do so. Crazy Man Crazy….

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  12. I was a little underwhelmed until he broke out that saxophone solo. Woah! I hadn’t heard either of these before. I think it’s impossible now to really understand what these would have sounded like in 1953, as we have everything that came after to compare it to…

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    1. Oh yes…and this music live is in a different league. I caught broadway play Buddy…and they played his stuff as a trio…it was powerful.
      But yes I like this stuff a lot…it’s crazy man…crazy.

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