Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"
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)
Released	March 20, 1973
Format	45
Recorded	1972
Genre	Folk, Folk rock
Length	3:02
Label	ABC Records
Writer(s)	Jim Croce
Jim Croce singles chronology
"One Less Set of Footsteps" (1973) "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" (1973) "I Got a Name" (1973)

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is the title of a song written by American folk rock singer Jim Croce. Released as part of his 1973 album Life and Times, the song was a Number One pop hit for him, spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973. Croce was nominated for two 1973 Grammy awards in the Pop Male Vocalist and Record of the Year categories for "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".

Content

The song is about a man from the south side of Chicago who, due to his size and attitude, has a reputation as the "baddest man in the whole damn town." One day, in a bar, he makes a pass at a pretty, married woman, whose jealous husband proceeds to beat Leroy brutally in the ensuing brawl.

Croce tells a nearly identical story (tough guy whom everybody fears is brutally beaten when he meets an even tougher guy) in his hit single "You Don't Mess Around With Jim."

Inspiration

His inspiration for the song was a friend he met in his brief time in the Army:

I met him at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. 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 pay check. 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.

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.

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.

Pro wrestlers Junkyard Dog and Bad Leroy Brown are said to have gotten their ring name from this song.^{[citation needed]}

The song inspired Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury (who cited Croce as one of his artistic inspirations) to write the song "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" for the band's third album, Sheer Heart Attack, released a year after Croce died.

Cover versions

• Frank Sinatra recorded a cover version of the song, which reached number 83 on the pop charts.
• Country music artist Anthony Armstrong Jones released a cover on Epic Records in 1973, reaching #33 on the U.S. country charts with it.
• Dolly Parton performed the song twice on her 1976-77 TV series Dolly! (although, in her version, she changed the song's locale from Chicago to Nashville).
• Punk rock band The Max Levine Ensemble covered it on their CD, It's Entertainment!
• Jerry Reed covered it on his Jim Croce tribute album Jerry Reed Sings Jim Croce in 1980.
• Kim Carnes covered it on the compilation album Jim Croce: A Nashville Tribute in 1997.
• Celtic Thunder's Ryan Kelly also covered the song.
• Paul Lynde performed this song with the substitution "a water Pistol" in place of "razor in his shoe"
• Sonny & Cher

Track listing

7" Single (ABC-11359)

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

Chart history

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" was released 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.

Weekly charts

Chart (1973)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	9
U.S. Cash Box Top 100	1
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary	3
Australia Go-Set Top 40 Singles	19
Netherlands Dutch Top 40	20
German Media Control Charts	38

Year-end charts

Chart (1973)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Cash Box Top 100	2

Certifications

Country	Certification
United States	Gold (RIAA)

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by "Will It Go Round in Circles" by Billy Preston	US Billboard Hot 100 number one single July 21 — August 3, 1973	Succeeded by "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern
Preceded by "Yesterday Once More" by The Carpenters	Canadian RPM 100 number one single July 28 — August 3, 1973	Succeeded by "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Preceded by "Shambala" by Three Dog Night	US Cash Box number one single July 28 — August 3, 1973	Succeeded by "Yesterday Once More" by The Carpenters