Billy "Crash" Craddock returned to recording, now as a country singer. He
signed with Cartwheel Records in 1969. He soon had his first number one hit
with a cover of the Tony Orlando and Dawn pop hit "Knock Three Times"
in 1971. His version was faster and included Cajun fiddles.
Craddock consistently hit the country top ten in the 1970s and he became one of country music's first male sex symbols, unusually handsome for a male country star of the era and dressed in stage clothes exposing his hairy, muscular chest as he growled his way through rocking numbers and love songs, with a stage persona strongly influenced by Elvis Presley.
In 1973, Craddock signed with ABC 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. 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 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). 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.
In 1986, he recorded an album for MCA Records, 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.
Alan Mercer: Didn’t you leave
the business in 1964 and return to drywall?
Billy "Crash" Craddock: I never left
drywall because I had to make a living. When ‘Knock Three Times’ was Number
One, I was working a job and the guy who hired us came in and saw me and said,
‘Aren’t you Crash Craddock?” I said, ‘Yes sir.” And he said, “Why are you here
doing this when you have a Number One record? I said, “Because I need to make a
living. I had quit several jobs to try and make a living on the road and it
failed every time.”
AM: Isn’t that
amazing?
BCC: I was talking
with a booking agent one time, and feeling really discouraged so I said, if I
don’t get another hit record, I’m going to leave the business and he looked at
me and laughed and said, “Get out of the business? You ain’t ever been in
it.” (Laughter) That brought me down a
notch or two.
AM: So, you attempted
to start a career two times and nothing happened and then on the third time you
hit big.
BCC: I always said,
my success happened on the third time I tried, and it was the third record I
ever cut in Nashville and the song was ‘Knock Three Times’.
AM: Wow, that is so
interesting. Not only can you sing a swinging up tempo song, but you kill with
those ballads. Your version of ‘Walk Softly’ is absolutely stunning.
BCC: I love that
song. I never got to sing it more than a couple of times, but ‘Broken Down In
Tiny Pieces’ is one of my favorite ballads. I never chose a single release
while I was in the recording studio, but as soon as I finished that song, I
knew I wanted that to be the next single.
AM: That is a
gorgeous song.
BCC: A couple more of
my favorites are ‘If I Could Write A Song As Beautiful As You’ and ‘I Just Had
You On my Mind’. I love the feeling I get when I sing that song. When I sing
it, I feel it.
AM: I can tell you
feel it when I’m listening to you sing. I can hear your emotions in your voice.
I enjoy watching the clips of you singing on ‘Pop Goes The Country’ and other
shows from the 70s. Your tribute to Elvis is the best.
BCC: Thank you very
much. That’s what we meant to do. Some people didn’t understand what we were
doing back then. People would tell me they loved my Elvis impersonation, and I
would have to say I didn’t do an Elvis impersonation. When Elvis died, I got
all sorts of notes passed up on the stage asking me to do an Elvis song and I
said to myself if I was going to do that, I would do it right. I put together a
20-minute medley of Elvis songs as a tribute, not an impersonation.
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AM: You were the only
Country music singer at the time who was being thought of as a sex symbol.
BCC: (Laughter) Well,
I am a sex symbol! (More laughter) With the songs that were given to me, I had
a chance to move around on the stage a little bit. I got a write up in the
Nashville newspaper, that I have hanging on my wall, that called Barbara
Mandrell the prettiest artist and Crash Craddock was the most handsome or
sexiest artist. I cherish that. It really made me feel good.
AM: You have so many
great songs. I love ‘Ah, Poor Little Baby’.
BCC: We have a lot of
good songs on albums that I wish people would go back and play. Songs like that
and some of my Country stuff. We have some good Country music on my albums back
then. I don’t know why in the world people haven’t caught on to them. I wish
some DJ would start playing some of my stuff and let the public hear it and see
what it will do.
AM: I don’t
understand why so much of your music is not available on CD or digitally. The
labels should put all that great music out now.
BCC: I don’t understand
why I don’t have any CDs in Cracker Barrell. I think it’s because I don’t live
in Nashville and I’m not tight with any of those people. I never moved to
Nashville because I love North Carolina. I think the Bear Family records wants
to put out a 20-record special together now.
AM: That’s great
news. I love what they did with that double CD that has 50 of your songs. I
want to be able to hear your Gospel album. You have a wealth of recordings to
pull from.
BCC: You must have
the right connections now. They want you to be 30 years old and have a 32-inch
waist and sound like all the other young artists. My favorite artists are Carl
Smith, Faron Young, Hank Williams Sr., Web Pierce, and Jimmy Dickens. They sing
the kind of songs I like. A love song today is “She thinks my tractor is sexy”.
AM: You kept the momentum
going for quite a while.
BCC: We always did an
up tempo show with a few ballads thrown in, but I would end the shows with two
or three rock songs and knock em out. We worked pretty steady up through about
1984 or 85. An artist usually gets about 10 to 12 years in the business. I’m
semi-retired now and just do what I want.
