Ten Favorite Fake People Songs: Bad Bad Leroy Brown (#9)

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I not only swiped @teamfreak16 ‘s idea for a countdown of songs with real people’s names in the title, I also came up with the idea for ten songs that have fictional people’s names in the title. Note: no politicians will be used in this countdown, despite the term “fake people.” Here’s the next person on the list. #9: Bad Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce There’s just not enough Jim Croce in the myLot world. Man, this guy had “it.” He wrote songs about the blue-collar world and the denizens of that “poor side of town” that Johnny Rivers once sang about. I’ll make a controversial statement right here: if Jim Croce hadn’t died in 1973 I don’t think Bruce Springsteen would have had a major career, because Croce did the “working man” songs so much better. So sue me. This is one of Croce’s chart-topping songs and one of his best known. He told the story about a south-side Chicago hustler named Leroy Brown, and how everyone respected him because he was “the baddest man in the whole damn town.” Everyone, that is, except the husband of Doris, the woman that Brown decided to try to pick up in a bar one night. At the end of the fight “Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.” Croce had to cancel a concert in Louisiana in early 1973. By the time September rolled around he was a major star and on his way to superstardom. However, being a man of his word, he rescheduled the concert at the small Louisiana college and performed with the same ticket prices that were charged before his sudden fame. At the conclusion of the concert, Croce boarded a plane to fly to his next gig. The plane crashed, killing all aboard. Jim Croce was only 30. His music lives on. Bad Bad Leroy Brown Written by Jim Croce Recorded by Jim Croce From Life and Times, 1973 Meaner than a junkyard dog: