Bill Haley And His Comets

Crazy Man, Crazy

BEAR FAMILY. LP Top class limited edition of a 1955 Australian 10-inch. If Bill Haley had looked a little less like your favourite uncle and a whole lot more like he was here to steal your hubcaps, his real contribution to the earliest days of rock’n’roll might be better appreciated. He and his excellent band really kicked the door down several years before the seismic shock of Elvis’s Heartbreak Hotel with these tracks cut for the Holiday and Essex labels between 1951-54, first as the Saddlemen, then as the Comets. Find a quiet moment then crank up Bill’s own composition, Crazy Man, Crazy, a single from April 1953, and try to resist the unstoppable force which is Marshall Lytle’s slapping doghouse bass coupled with Billy Gussak’s expertly-judged snare rimshots, all backed by raucous shouts of “Go! Go!”, which helped propel a new generation onto the dancefloor.