"Doin' That Crazy Thing" is a song written, recorded and produced by

Jeff Lynne Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock music, rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, h ...

. The song and its associated dance started in the mind of Lynne when he took a short break from being

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...

's frontman. He released the single "Doin' That Crazy Thing", backed with "

Goin' Down to Rio "Goin' Down to Rio" is a song by Jeff Lynne, B-side to " Doin' That Crazy Thing". Track listing The songs are written by Jeff Lynne Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He ...

", in the summer of 1977. It was released with two covers: one with a photo of Lynne's face with various seemingly unrelated pictures on the side in black and white (including a man riding an emu and another riding a bicycle backwards), and one colored with an instruction how to do the "Crazy Thing". A one-sided 7" single of the song was included in ELO's 1980 box set A Box of Their Best as a promo, despite not being related to the band other than through Jeff Lynne. It was the first time Lynne's name appeared as principal, and not the name of a band. Although ELO was enjoying major success in the singles and albums charts at the time, it received very little airplay, no TV exposure, and did not chart. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that "using catch phrases from disco and other jive for lyrics, Lynne has tamed a riot of different sounds into a cohesive record that defies categorization."

Track listing

The songs are composed by

. #"Doin' That Crazy Thing" - 3:25 #"

" - 3:45

References

{{authority control 1977 debut singles 1977 songs Jeff Lynne songs Song recordings produced by Jeff Lynne Songs written by Jeff Lynne United Artists Records singles