Hank C. Burnette – “Crazy Baby”

Most Rockabilly addicts probably already know about a group called The Rockin’ R’s, who’s stroll to fame and fortune literally lies in their very first single on the small Tempus label out of Peoria, Illinois called “Crazy Baby”/”The Beat”. I got this single on a reel-to-reel tape from a friend of mine in Canada ages ago and decided to have a go at “Crazy Baby” myself. To give you some background here’s some trivia about The Rockin’ R’s: The ‘band’ started out in 1957 as a duo headed by Ron Volz and Ron Wernsman. With Volz pickin’ leads over Wernsman’s rhythm they soon added a third member in the form of Ted Minar to handle the drum part and…voila…The Rockin’ R’s was born. At first the trio blasted the hits of the day and picked up a lot of work at proms, hops & parties. Local record exec., Steve Clark, took notice and interested the trio in waxin’ for his newly hatched Tempus label and promptly trotted the threesome to cut their coolest original “Crazy Baby”. But it was while the gang were warmin’ up with some impro instru stuff that Tempus hit paydirt. Clark taped a little bit, called it “The Beat” and it became the biggest hit the band ever had! The record spread like crazy locally, goin’ on to top many midwest hit parades and ultimately made a national holler with strong placing in both Billboard & Cashbox, earnin’ the boys the surefire girl-getter, namely a spot on American Bandstand. Tempus steadily became untracked with a string of non-R’s money dran flops and …