Today’s classic song of the day is “Crazy Love” by Poco. Released in January of 1979, this single peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 but went to #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was the group’s biggest hit.
“Crazy Love” was written by group member Rusty Young. Here’s what he remembers about it:
“I was living in Los Angeles, working on my house one day. I was paneling a wall and looking out over the valley in L.A. and the chorus came into my head. I always had a guitar close at hand. It took about thirty minutes to write that song, because it was all there. It was kind of a gift.”
Young also remembers that the “ooh, ooh, ahh, haa” bit in the chorus was just a placeholder and that he’d always intended to add real lyrics instead. His bandmates, however, dissuaded him from doing so, and that was the right decision. That little bit made the song.
Poco was a country rock band that came together in 1968, after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Ex-Buffaloes Richie Furay and Jim Messina, both guitarists, joined up with bassist Randy Meisner (soon-to-be Eagle), drummer George Grantham, and multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young to form the new band. Meisner quit the group early on and was replaced by Timothy B. Schmidt, who would also go on to be part of the Eagles. Messina left in 1970 and was replaced by Paul Cotton. They had a fair number of hits, including 1979’s “Heart of the Night” and 1989’s “Call It Love.” The group kept going, in one form or another, until Rusty Young’s death in 2021. He was 75 years old.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Poco’s official music video for “Crazy Love.” It’s a pretty good song, isn’t it?
