Crazy Blues
{{short description|Song performed by Mamie Smith}}
{{use mdy dates |date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Crazy Blues
| cover = Crazy blues.jpg
| caption = Sheet music cover, 1920
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds
| album =
| B-side = It's Right Here For You (If You Don't Get It-'Taint No Fault O' Mine)
| released = {{Start date|1920}}
| recorded = August 10, 1920
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Blues
| length = {{Duration|m=3|s=26}}
| label =
| writer = Perry Bradford
| producer =
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title =
| next_year =
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type = single
| file = Mamie Smith, Crazy Blues.ogg
| description = Recording of "Crazy Blues", performed by Mamie Smith (1920)
}}
}}
"Crazy Blues" is a song, renamed from the originally titled "Harlem Blues" song of 1918, written by Perry Bradford.{{cite web |last=Komara |first=Ed |title="Crazy Blues"—Mamie Smith (1920) - Added to the National Registry: 2005 |url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/CrazyBlues.pdf |date=2005 |work=Library of Congress |accessdate=August 9, 2020 }} Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds recorded it on August 10, 1920,{{cite news |last=Hajdu |first=David |title=A Song That Changed Music Forever - 100 years ago, Mamie Smith recorded a seminal blues hit that gave voice to outrage at violence against Black Americans. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/opinion/sunday/crazy-blues-mamie-smith.html |date=August 8, 2020 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=August 9, 2020 }} which was released that year by Okeh Records (4169-A).Okeh Records catalogue 4169 The stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith appeared in photographs associated with the recording session, although Bradford claimed to have played piano on the recording (albeit buried in the mix). Within a month of release, it had sold 75,000 copies.Gioia, Ted (2008). Delta Blues. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. p. 38. {{ISBN|978-0-393-33750-1}}.
Although there were many recordings made of songs with blues in the title during the previous decade, this recording is considered a landmark as the first significant hit recording in the blues genre ever issued.{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Roger |title=In 1920 Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues paved the way for Black Music|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/in-1920-mamie-smiths-crazy-blues-paved-the-way-for-black-music/ |website=Red Hot Jazz Archive |date=February 19, 2020 |accessdate=April 26, 2020 }} Another claim is that it was the first recording with a blues title by a black artist.{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|location=Dubai|page=12|isbn=1-85868-255-X}} The record made Smith the first African American female popular singer to lead a commercial recording. The success of "Crazy Blues" opened up the race record market, for the first time major record companies started producing records with an African American buyer in mind.{{Cite news|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/in-1920-mamie-smiths-crazy-blues-paved-the-way-for-black-music/|title=In 1920 Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues paved the way for Black Music|last=Smith|first=Roger Kimmel|newspaper=Syncopatedtimes.com|access-date=April 26, 2020}}
"Crazy Blues" was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994, and later entered into the National Recording Registry of the United States Library of Congress by the National Recording Preservation Board in 2005.
The 1920 Mamie Smith version of the song was used in episode 10 of season 1 of Boardwalk Empire in 2010.{{cite web |url=http://www.hbo.com/boardwalk-empire/episodes/01/10-the-emerald-city/music.html |title=Boardwalk Empire: S 1 EP 10: Music |publisher=HBO |date=2011-11-12 |accessdate=August 29, 2015 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730071513/http://www.hbo.com/boardwalk-empire/episodes/01/10-the-emerald-city/music.html |archivedate=July 30, 2017}}