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Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

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"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
Side A of the original US single
Single by Jim Croce
from the album Life and Times
B-side"A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' the Blues)"
ReleasedMarch 20, 1973
Recorded1972
GenreBoogie-woogie[1]
Length3:02
LabelABC
Vertigo (international)
Songwriter(s)Jim Croce
Producer(s)Terry Cashman, Tommy West
Jim Croce singles chronology
"One Less Set of Footsteps"
(1973) 		"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
(1973) 		"I Got a Name"
(1973)
Audio
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" on YouTube

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is an uptempo, strophic story song written by American folk rock singer Jim Croce. Released as part of his 1973 album Life and Times, the song was a No. 1 hit for him, spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1973.[2]

Croce was nominated for two 1973 Grammy Awards in the Pop Male Vocalist and Record of the Year categories for "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".[3] It was Croce's only number-one single before his death on September 20 of that year and his final single to be released during his lifetime.

Synopsis

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The song's titular character is a 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m) tall man from the South Side of Chicago whose size, attitude, and tendency to carry weapons have given him a reputation in which he is adored by women and feared by men. He is said to dress in fancy clothes and wear diamond rings, and to own a custom Lincoln Continental and a Cadillac Eldorado, implying he has a lot of money. He is also known to carry a .32 caliber handgun in his pocket and a razor in his shoe. One day in a bar he makes a pass at a pretty married woman named Doris, whose jealous husband engages Brown in a fight. Leroy loses badly, and is described as looking "like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone".

The story of a widely feared man being bested in a fight is similar to that of Croce's earlier song "You Don't Mess Around with Jim".[4]

According to Billboard, it is "filled with humorous lines and a catchy arrangement."[4] Cash Box described it as "a delightful new single in the same musical vein as his 'You Don't Mess Around with Jim' smash that started his career."[5] Record World called it "another story-song similar to the one that started it all for [Croce], 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim.'"[6]

Inspiration

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Croce's inspiration for the song was a friend he met in his brief time in the US Army:

I met him at Fort Dix, New Jersey. We were in lineman (telephone) school together. He stayed there about a week, and one evening he turned around and said he was really fed up and tired. He went AWOL, and then came back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. They put handcuffs on him and took him away. Just to listen to him talk and see how 'bad' he was, I knew someday I was gonna write a song about him.[7]

He told a variation of this story on The Helen Reddy Show in July 1973:

This is a song about a guy I was in the army with... It was at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, that I met this guy. He was not made to climb the tree of knowledge, as they say, but he was strong, so nobody'd ever told him what to do, and after about a week down there he said "Later for this" and decided to go home. So he went AWOL—which means to take your own vacation—and he did. But he made the mistake of coming back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. I don't know if you've ever seen handcuffs put on anybody, but it was SNAP and that was the end of it for a good friend of mine, who I wrote this tune about, named Leroy Brown.[8]

Croce explained the chorus reference to Leroy Brown being "meaner than a junkyard dog":

Yeah, I spent about a year and a half driving those $29 cars, so I drove around a lot looking for a universal joint for a '57 Chevy panel truck or a transmission for a '51 Dodge. I got to know many junkyards well, and they all have those dogs in them. They all have either an axle tied around their necks or an old lawnmower to keep 'em at least slowed down a bit, so you have a decent chance of getting away from them.[7]

Track listing

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North American 7" Single (ABC-11359)[9]

  1. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" – 3:02
  2. "A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues)" – 2:03

UK 7" Single (Vertigo 6073 258)

  1. "Roller Derby Queen" – 3:28
  2. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" – 3:02

International 7" Single (Vertigo 6073 256)

  1. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" – 3:02
  2. "Hard Time Losin' Man" – 2:24

Personnel

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According to liner notes of the album

The recording session that produced the song was one of several for Croce which employed session drummer Gary Chester.[10]

Chart history

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"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" entered the charts in April 1973 and peaked at number one on the American charts three months later. It was still on the charts on September 20 when Croce died in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It was the second #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart to include a curse word ("damn") in its lyrics, after the "Theme from Shaft".

Weekly charts

[edit]

Frank Sinatra version

[edit]
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
Side A of the US single
Single by Frank Sinatra
from the album Some Nice Things I've Missed
B-side"I'm Gonna Make It All The Way"
ReleasedMarch 1974
Recorded1973–1974
GenreTraditional pop
Length2:49
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Jim Croce
Producer(s)Don Costa
Frank Sinatra singles chronology
"You Will Be My Music"
(1973) 		"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
(1974) 		"You Turned My World Around"
(1974)
Audio
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" on YouTube

In 1974, the song was covered by legendary singer and actor Frank Sinatra on his 1974 studio album "Some Nice Things I've Missed", mostly consisting of covers of popular songs at the time, his first album since his brief retirement in the early 1970s, the album's title being a reference to him catching up on songs that came out during his retirement, with Sinatra's version being the closing track on the album. Sinatra's version was released as a single on Reprise Records in March 1974[22] and was a minor hit in the US, peaking at Number 83 on the Hot 100 that June.[23] As with most tracks on the album, Sinatra's version was produced and conducted by Don Costa.[24] Sinatra's version also reached Number 106 in the Cashbox charts and Number 31 on the US Adult Contemporary charts, the highest chart position for Sinatra's version.[25]

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1974) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[26] 83
US Cashbox 106
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[27] 31

Sylvie Vartan version (in French)

[edit]
"Bye Bye Leroy Brown"
Single by Sylvie Vartan
LanguageFrench
B-side"Bien sûr"
ReleasedJune 1974
RecordedEarly 1974
GenrePop
Length3:12
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)Jim Croce, Michel Mallory
Sylvie Vartan singles chronology
"Toi le garçon"
(1973) 		"Bye Bye Leroy Brown"
(1974) 		"Da dou ron ron"
(1974)
Audio
"Bye Bye Leroy Brown" (French TV, 1975) on YouTube

In 1974, the song was adapted into French as "Bye Bye Leroy Brown" by Michel Mallory and was recorded by French pop singer Sylvie Vartan and was released as a non-album single on RCA Records in June 1974.[28][29] Vartan's version peaked at peaked at Number 17 on the French Belgian charts on September 14, 1974.[30]

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1974) Peak
position
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[31] 17

Other notable versions

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ Dolan, Jon; Menconi, David; Ryan, Linda; Harvilla, Rob; Aaron, Charles; Murray, Nick; Grow, Kory; Powell, Mike; Moss, Marissa R.; Fischer, Reed; Gehr, Richard; Eddy, Chuck. "50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2019-01-12. Retrieved 2019-01-11.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1973
  3. ^ The LA Times "The Envelope" awards database Archived September 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b "Radio Action & Pick Singles" (PDF). Billboard. April 14, 1973. p. 54. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  5. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. April 7, 1973. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  6. ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. April 14, 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  7. ^ a b Croce, Jim (2007). "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". superseventies.com. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  8. ^ "Jim Croce on "The Helen Reddy Show" U.S. TV 1974 (2 songs)". The Helen Reddy Show. video clip on YouTube. July 1973. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  9. ^ "Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown / A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  10. ^ "The Official Gary Chester Website - Discography". Angelfire. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  11. ^ "Go-Set Australian charts – 20 October 1973". Poparchives.com.au. 1973-10-20. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  12. ^ "Top Singles – Volume 19, No. 24, July 28, 1973". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  13. ^ "Adult Contemporary – Volume 19, No. 25, August 04 1973". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  14. ^ "charts.de". charts.de. Retrieved 2011-08-13.[dead link]
  15. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Jim Croce" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  16. ^ "Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  17. ^ "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". Musicvf.com. 1973-04-21. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  18. ^ Canada, Library and Archives (July 8, 2017). "Image : RPM Weekly". Library and Archives Canada.
  19. ^ "The CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1973". Cashboxmagazine.com. 1973-12-29. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  20. ^ "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  21. ^ "American single certifications – Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  22. ^ "lescharts.com - Frank Sinatra - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  23. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 770.
  24. ^ "lescharts.com - Frank Sinatra - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  25. ^ "Frank Sinatra | Biography, Music & News". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  26. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 770.
  27. ^ "Frank Sinatra | Biography, Music & News". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  28. ^ "Sylvie Vartan - Bye Bye Leroy Brown - ultratop.be". www.ultratop.be. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  29. ^ "45 Tours 70 – Site officiel de Sylvie Vartan" (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  30. ^ "Sylvie Vartan - Bye Bye Leroy Brown - ultratop.be". www.ultratop.be. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  31. ^ "Sylvie Vartan - Bye Bye Leroy Brown - ultratop.be". www.ultratop.be. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  32. ^ Clerc, Benoît (20 October 2020). Queen All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. Running Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-76247-123-2.
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