Excellent song, I remember thinking the narrative was a lot like "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" but this is more lighthearted. Jim Croce really had a knack for story/character songs. I imagine he would have had a least a couple more number ones (beyond the two he had) if he had lived a little longer.
A very bad, bad song. A witless third-rate clone of You Don't Mess Around With Jim, which had well-written lyrics. At least he had the good taste to clone his own record, which is better than cloning someone else's.
Although he was obviously a talent, I've never been the hugest fan of Jim Croce. My favorite song he recorded wasn't even one of his own compositions, I Got A Name. Nevertheless, it is hard to begrudge Jim any of his success during his tragically brief career. His death was possibly the most significant musical tragedy of the year. This one is OK, catchy and another one of those story songs so favored by 70s AM radio listeners. My main memory of this song is one time when I was young and in some Roadhouse type place in northern California. Between bouts of Kenny Rogers, someone punched up this song on the jukebox. I remember hearing this almighty noise, looking over and realizing it was tens of heavy cowboy boots stomping in time. Nifty. Oh yeah, and Sinatra did this one too! See ya later this year, Jim! RIP.
Oh I love "Leroy Brown". Strongly associate it with our first home in Phoenix, which we moved into less than a month after this topped the charts. I think we were already living in Phoenix at this point, crammed into my aunt's enormous studio apartment downtown. This was a track with broad appeal - I know my (great)aunt liked it, and I think my grandmother did, too. They didn't share much in the way of contemporary music taste - my aunt preferred oldies but also liked acts like Dionne Warwick, whereas the only contemporary thing mom listened to was country - but this one they both landed on. Kids loved it as well. Sadly, this was to be Croce's last big hit during his lifetime. I kinda wonder if Springsteen, Billy Joel and some of the other male singer songwriters of the '70s would have gotten as big as they eventually became had Croce lived (and not retired). It seemed like he was casting an enormous commercial shadow by this point, and shaping up to be a real superstar.
Jim Croce was the epitome of the working man songwriter. From his image to the characters in his song, he brought a voice to the blue-collar world, not unlike how Springsteen would do a couple years later. I think Croce was more universal than Springsteen though. Bruce's appeal is much stronger for East coast types - his Jersey roots can never be ignored. But Croce could have been from anywhere, and his appeal wouldn't have changed. I remember our 7th grade class really loved this song, mostly because it had the word 'damn' in it and us Catholic kids thought that was pretty funny. Even the nuns could be seen tapping their black-toed shoes to this one. My dad hated just about everything to do with rock music, but he enjoyed this track. He liked the image of something being 'meaner than a junkyard dog'. So yeah, this song has lots of good memories associated with it.
As well as his only #1 hit in his lifetime. Single ABC-11359 was released in March 1973 - and was one of the first to list the co-publisher as "American Broadcasting Music, Inc. (ASCAP)." This was after ABC/Dunhill's reorganization of its music publishing interests (Wingate Music Corp., which previously co-published Mr. Croce's works including this one as noted on first-pressings of his Life And Times album, and Ampco Music, Inc., on the ASCAP side; and viz BMI, Trousdale Music Publishers, Inc.; Pamco Music, Inc.; Westpar Music Corp.; and Porgie Music Corp., were all folded into a new singular entity, ABC/Dunhill Music, Inc.; we saw that entity on the label of the Three Dog Night hit "Shambala" which was several posts before this). Some enterprising YouTube member merged this record with an animated video as originally aired on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour around the time of or not long after Jim's death: Alas, in one of the shots (the scene of Leroy about to square off with Doris' jealous husband at the bar), I would've substituted a clip of Croce performing this on The Midnight Special for the spectacle, in this clip, of S&C lip-synching to Croce. Oh, and did I mention first-pressings of this had the "blocks" label - ABC's only Number One to have that distinction?
It seems that if there's one common thread about "Macca" viz his musical direction, you could detect something of a control freak in him . . .
Another fun fact about Croce's records "at the time": While ABC put out his works in the U.S. and Canada, in Europe they were issued on Philips and/or Vertigo depending on individual country. That's because the bill for his first ABC album, You Don't Mess Around With Jim, was footed by Philips. Thus ironic that not only the ABC masters (except Croce's, of course), but also those of Philips/Mercury/Vertigo, are now controlled by Universal Music.
Yeah, "Leroy" is a less sophisticated, slightly dumber iteration of the "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" formula ... guess that's what it takes to get to #1. People still sing along 45 years later, even folks who weren't around back then, so it's part of our cultural fabric for better or worse. Now the big question - who would win in a fight: Slim or Doris's old man?
Yeah. For the next year, ABC Records would posthumously release singles by him just as if he were still alive. Sad loss, and by all accounts, he was a really great human being. Extremely down-to-earth. The fun thing is that his image was planted in country/folk, but he was Italian and came from an urban music center that helped span the disco age: Philadelphia.
Unless i'm mistaken, his producers Cashman & West controlled the Croce masters after his death, which is why, for a couple of decades, his albums were reissued on their Lifesong label.
I think it's perhaps that in the 70s, Paul and Billy just went their separate ways and did their own thing. They were on competing labels, and both had their own chart hits. Billy would eventually find himself strictly in the R&B world once the disco era got into full swing.
I vaguely recall that Sonny & Cher cartoon - must have seen it as a kid. We definitely watched them at our house.
As a University of Georgia student the band used to play the chorus snippet when the football team was on defense as they were known as "The Junkyard Dawgs". Think "Operator" was the best song he ever did and I'm a fan.
Big fan of Croce. The uptempo songs are fun and danceable while the ballads have that wistful, country-ish feel that was very popular at that time. Operator and next year's I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song are my favorites.
I heard a really clever cover of "I'll Have to Say I Love You In a Song" once: it was instrumental except for the title line. I guess you'd have to know the rest of the lyrics to get the joke, but for those in the know it worked really well. "Operator" is probably my favorite, too. "Leroy Brown" was a favorite of my parents, who had his greatest hits (which is still the only batch of songs from him that I know well - must remedy that one of these days).
I think Jim Croce was a genius - a huge musical talent that, unfortunately, never got a chance to completely fulfill his promise. At a time where the singer/song writers were turning out weepy, self-indulgent dreck, Croce was crafting catchy, entertaining story songs that everyone could relate to. Growing up, everyone I knew liked Jim Croce - my best friend who listened to Zeppelin & Black Sabbath liked Jim Croce, my sister who listened to Bread and Carol King like Croce, my parents liked Croce, even my Uncle Bob who never listed to anything other than “Rat Pack” era singers liked Jim Croce. I don’t think that “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown” was quite as good as some of his other hits - it always struck me as a revamping of “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” which I think is a better single. Still a fun song. Best part of the song: I was 12 years old when the song came out. We weren’t allowed to cuss in my house. But, my Dad loved the song. So, everytime it came on the radio, I would sing it, especially loud on the line “...baddest man in the whole damn town...” My Dad would just smile and not say a word.
The opening notes of Bad Bad Leroy Brown also mimic this great Bobby Darin rocker from 1958. 1958 HITS ARCHIVE: Queen Of The Hop - Bobby Darin
The funny thing is, both songs ("...Leroy Brown" and "I'll Have To Say..."), in their original versions, were later paired in one of the Lifesong "Golddiggers" reissues for several years starting in 1976. That copy was in the collection of the summer camp I was in during the latter part of the '70's, and in their lacquer cutting they bore all the hallmarks of a Columbia New York mastering job, complete with 2-pitch lead-out and stamped matrix numbers in the deadwax.
