Bad Boy is a song written by

Lil Armstrong Lillian Hardin Armstrong (née Hardin; February 3, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in ...

and

Avon Long Avon Long (June 18, 1910 – February 15, 1984) was an American Broadway actor and singer. Biography Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Frederick Douglass High School, where he was especially influenced by the Latin teacher and ...

. It became a hit for The Jive Bombers in 1957. Billboard Singles/ref> The song has since been covered by The Escorts,

Mink DeVille Mink DeVille was a rock band founded in 1974, known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York's CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985, afte ...

, Ringo Starr,

Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll doo-wop group. Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs, it simultaneously revived and parodied the music and the New York street culture of the 1950s. After ga ...

, Maryann Price,

David Johansen David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under ...

performing as Buster Poindexter, and others, and was used in the first-season finale of the television show "Crime Story" as well as in the 1990 film ''

Cry-Baby ''Cry-Baby'' is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. It was the only film of Waters's over which studios were in a bidding war, coming off the heels of the successful '' Hairspray''. The film s ...

''. The

version was included in the 1983 film Breathless.

History

Lil Hardin Armstrong originally wrote it as Brown Gal and recorded it for Decca Records in 1936, and it had been covered by several artists since, including

the Ink Spots The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely ac ...

in 1938 as Brown Gal, and Benny Calloway with the Four Steps of Jive. Clarence Palmer, the lead singer of the Jive Bombers, had recorded the song earlier in December 1949 as Brown Boy on Decca's

Coral Records Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records that was formed in 1949. Coral released music by Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, the McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer. Coral issued jazz and swing music in the 1940s, but after Bob Thiele became head of ...

subsidiary, billed as Al Sears and the Sparrows and released in February 1950.Marv Goldber
The Jive Bombers
Retrieved October 12, 2014.

References

1957 singles {{1950s-single-stub

History

See Also

References