Billy Craddock

American country and rockabilly singer (born 1939)
the country singer

Billy Wayne "Crash" Craddock (born June 16, 1939) is an American country and rockabilly singer. He first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hits "Boom Boom Baby" and "One Last Kiss" in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Switching to country music, he gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s with a string of top ten country hits, several of which were number one hits, including "Rub It In", "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces", and "Ruby Baby". Craddock is known to his fans as "The King Of Country Rock Music" and "Mr. Country Rock" for his uptempo rock influenced style of country music.

Billy Wayne Craddock was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. At age 11, he entered a local television talent contest and was voted top winner for 15 consecutive weeks. Craddock received the nickname "Crash" while playing running back for the Rankin High School football team.

Craddock's first release was "Smacky Mouth", which was recorded in 1957 for the local Greensboro Sky Castle label. He soon got a deal with Columbia's Date Records. He released "Ah, Poor Little Baby" with no success. He did not know how popular he was in the country and did not think that anyone would recognize him there. When the plane arrived at the airport, there were thousands of screaming teenagers. Craddock was unaware that he had the number one record in the country ("Boom Boom Baby" was No. 1 for four weeks between late February and early March 1960). He soon became the most popular teen idol in the country and is still popular today, scoring a second No. 1 in March 1961 with his cover/co charted version of "One Last Kiss" also charting at the same time with the Bobby Vee version, becoming his fourth and final Top 10 entry in Australia after "I Want That" (HP 7, peaked in late February 1960) and "Well, Don't You Know" (HP 8, peaked in late May 1960)

After his hits in Australia, he recorded one album and several singles during the 1960s. "I'm Tore Up" was released in 1964 on King Records. The song also reached the top five of the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that spring, beginning a streak of hits that continued throughout the 1970s. Other hits he had for Cartwheel, all during 1971 and 1972, included "Dream Lover", "You Better Move On", "Ain't Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on The Trees)", and "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door", were all top 10 hits in 1971 and 1972. 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).

Craddock has released several new CDs, including an album of Christmas songs, entitled Christmas Favorites, a Gospel collection, and the 2009 full band live album, Live n Kickin'. The British record label Humphead Records released a double CD anthology with 50 songs, which compiled Craddock's key hits and album cuts from 1971 to 1989.