Razzy Bailey

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Erastus Michael "Razzy" Bailey is an American country-western singer-songwriter. He was born February 14, 1939 in Hugley, Alabama and raised on a farm in Lafayette, Alabama. Bailey got his first experience of musical performance as a member of his high school's Future Farmers of America string band. After graduation, he married and had children immediately, and had little time to pursue his career, but he spent many years playing occasional gigs at honkytonks in Georgia and Alabama and developing his songwriting.

In 1966, Bailey took his material to Bill Lowery at Atlantic Records, who arranged for him to record "9,999,999 Tears" backed by a studio band featuring Billy Joel, Joe South, and Freddy Weller. The song failed to hit the charts at that time, but Razzy was encouraged, forming the pop trio Daily Bread which releasing a pair of albums on small labels. Another group, the Aquarians, followed in 1972; in 1974, Bailey recorded the album I Hate Hate simply as "Razzy." The failure of this latest project led him to drop out of the business once more.

In the mid 1970s, Dickey Lee (of "Patches" and "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)" fame) recorded "9,999,999 Tears", and it became a country and pop hit in 1976, and in 1977, Lee repeated this with another Bailey tune, "Peanut Butter," which also went into the charts. As his songwriting talents became known, Bailey signed with RCA Records and in 1978 began releasing singles of his own songs. His first hit as a singer-songwriter, "What Time Do You have To Be Back In Heaven?," was on the charts for over four months. Bailey charted a total of thirteen number one singles in the late 1970s- early 1980s. His sound combines R&B influences with country; his version of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" was a country hit. His last country #1 hit was with "She Left Love All Over Me" in 1982.

He now lives outside Nashville with his wife, Faye Bright-Bailey, who is also his manager and helps him operate SOA Records, an independent label for his own work.