Billy Craddock
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Billy "Crash" Craddock | |
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Billy Wayne "Crash" Craddock (born June 16, 1939)[1] is an American country and rockabilly singer. He first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hits "Boom Boom Baby" and "One Last Kiss" in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Switching to country music, he gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s with a string of top ten country hits, several of which were number one hits, including "Rub It In", "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces", and "Ruby Baby".[2] Craddock is known to his fans as "The King Of Country Rock Music" and "Mr. Country Rock" for his uptempo rock-influenced style of country music.
Biography
Early life
Billy Wayne Craddock was born in
Early career
Craddock's first release was "Smacky-Mouth", which was recorded in 1957 for the local Greensboro Sky Castle label.[1] He released his next single, titled "Birddoggin'", on Colonial Records. It was also released in 1957.[6]
He soon got a deal with
In 1960, Craddock toured Australia on two occasions. The first was in February with Duane Eddy, The Diamonds, Santo & Johnny and Floyd Robinson and the second was in May with Bobby Rydell, The Everly Brothers, Marv Johnson, and The Crickets.[7] He did not know how popular he was in the country and did not think that anyone would recognize him there. When the plane arrived at the airport, there were thousands of screaming teenagers. Craddock was unaware that he had the number one record in the country ("Boom Boom Baby" was No. 1 for four weeks between late February and early March 1960).[8] He soon became the most popular teen idol in the country and is still popular today, scoring a second No. 1 in March 1961 with his cover/co-charted version of "One Last Kiss" also charting at the same time with the Bobby Vee version, becoming his fourth and final Top 10 entry in Australia after "I Want That" (HP-7, peaked in late February 1960) and "Well, Don't You Know" (HP-8, peaked in late May 1960)
After his hits in Australia, he recorded one album and several singles during the 1960s. "
Success in the States
Craddock spent several years out of the
The song also reached the top five of the
Craddock consistently hit the country top ten in the 1970s and he became one of country music's first male
In 1973, Craddock signed with ABC Records (later ABC/Dot Records), where he enjoyed his biggest hits. One was "Sweet Magnolia Blossom" but his biggest hit, 1974's "Rub It In", was also a top 20 pop hit, as well as his highest charting hit overall on the U.S. pop charts.[1] The song was the first of three number one country hits for Craddock in Billboard. Several bars from the song are featured in commercials for Glade Plug-In products in recent years. Craddock's follow-up, a remake of Dion's[10] old pop hit, "Ruby Baby" was another major country hit and became his second top 40 pop hit, helping make Craddock briefly the American pop/rock star he had tried to be almost fifteen years before. In 1975, he released Still Thinkin' 'Bout You which went top ten as both a single and album on the country charts but failed to get any major pop action. His last pop success was 1976's "Easy as Pie" which peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 1 on the country chart.
He moved to Capitol Records, in 1977 where he had his last two top 10 hits: "I Cheated on a Good Woman's Love" (1978) and "If I Could Write a Song as Beautiful as You" (1979).[1] His singles began to be less successful in the early 1980s, though he occasionally still cracked the top 30. Craddock recorded several albums for Capitol before leaving the label in 1983. He briefly owned his own small record label, Cee Cee Records, and released one single in 1983 that made the lower end on the national country charts.
Later career
In 1986, he recorded an album for MCA Records (which purchased ABC/Dot Records in 1979), titled Crash Craddock. He moved to Atlantic Records in 1989, and released Back on Track. The album yielded one minor hit, "Just Another Miserable Day Here in Paradise", which reached No. 74 on the chart.
Craddock was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011.[11]
Releases on CD
Craddock has released several new CDs, including an album of Christmas songs, entitled Christmas Favorites, a Gospel collection, and the 2009 full-band live album, Live -n- Kickin'.
The British record label
Discography
- I'm Tore Up (1964)
- Knock Three Times (1971)
- You Better Move On (1972)
- Two Sides of "Crash" (1973)
- Mr. Country Rock (1973)
- Rub It In (1974)
- Still Thinkin' 'bout You (1975)
- Easy as Pie (1976)
- Crash (1976)
- Singing Is Believing (1978)
- Billy "Crash" Craddock (1978)
- Turning Up and Turning On (1978)
- Laughing and Crying, Living and Dying (1979)
- Changes (1980)
- The New Will Never Wear Off of You (1982)
- Crash Craddock (1986)
- Back on Track (1989)
- Christmas Favorites (2006)
- Paint Your Toes (2021)
Awards
- 1972: Music City News Country: Most Promising Male Artist of the Year[12]
References
- Notes
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-726-6.
- ^ "Billy Crash Craddock". Gatalent.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
- ^ TV Radio Mirror magazine, Feb. 1960.
- ^ Boom Boom Baby promotional booklet, 1959.
- ^ Crash's Smashes Liner Notes.
- ^ "(RCS Artist Discography)". Rcs-discography.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ "Australian Tours (1950-1979)" (PDF). Australainrecordlabels.com.
- ^ "Boom Boom Baby" liner notes
- ^ Puterbaugh, Parke (2011-06-09). "Billy 'Crash' Craddock". News & Record. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
- ^ Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition, p. 181)
- ^ "2011 Inductees". North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
- ^ "Billy "Crash" Craddock : Awards". CMT. 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
- Citations
- Tucker, Stephen R. (1998). "Billy "Crash" Craddock". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 117.