Since his first single, “Something’s Gonna Happen,” came out 45 years ago, Marshall Crenshaw has released 10 albums and more than half a dozen EPs. He’s also mined his vaults for collections such as the just-released “The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw: 1984-87.”
And the Michigan native maintains that might be enough.
“I kinda stopped writing,” the Berkley-raised singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader, now 72, says from his home in upstate New York. “I have a really good catalog, and I still love getting out and playing the stuff and just getting in the moment with it at the shows.”
Michigan native Marshall Crenshaw just released “The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw: 1984-87.” (Album cover courtesy of Yep Roc Records)
Crenshaw’s last new song, a single called “Will of the Wind,” came out in 2020 and will be re-released next April as part of a Record Store Day EP. But since then, he notes: “I don’t feel compelled to write, and if I don’t feel compelled to, then I shouldn’t do it, because it’s always been kind of like a trial for me. I can’t just do it casually, just sit down and go ‘bah, bah, bah, oh, there it is.’ I’ve just got to feel this undeniable impulse to do it, and I’m not there.
“If I wanted to, I guess I could. The last time I decided I wanted to, I was able. So we’ll see what happens, but until further notice, I’m not writing songs.
“Sometimes things are just over, I’m sorry to say. But it’s OK.”
One can take that with a grain of salt, of course, but if it proves to be true, Crenshaw has certainly built a formidable catalog to rest upon. He’s had hits such as “Someday, Someway” and “Cynical Girl” — and co-wrote the Gin Blossoms’ Top 5 1995 single “Til I Hear It From You” from the “Empire Records” soundtrack. His title track for the 2007 film “Walk Hard,” meanwhile, was nominated for Golden Globe and Grammy Awards.
Bette Midler, Ronnie Spector and Robert Gordon are among those who have covered Crenshaw’s songs, and the one-time star on Broadway’s “Beatlemania” (as John Lennon from 1978-80) has also appeared in films such as “Peggy Sue Got Married” and as Buddy Holly in “La Bamba.” He also served a short stint in Bob Dylan’s Band, was part of a latter-day MC5 tour, hosted a radio show (“The Bottomless Pit” for WFUV-FM in New York) and wrote a book, “Hollywood Rock: A Guide to Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Movies.”
“I have a positive view of the whole thing, just, like, big-picture wise,” says Crenshaw, who’s also a part-time frontman for the band Smithereens. “It was really kinda bumpy getting into show business and all that … but there were so many positive outcomes during the whole time period — a big one being the fact I was in ‘La Bamba,’ which has such a long afterlife and is such an iconic film to so many people. I think 50 percent of why anybody knows my name now is because of ‘La Bamba.’
“So, yeah, I like my life a lot. It’s a cool life.”
Crenshaw gets into the deep weeds of that life with “The Bootleg Sounds.” Originally released in limited edition for this year’s Record Store Day in April, it features 14 demos, working versions and unreleased songs Crenshaw found while preparing reissues of his third and fourth albums — 1985’s “Downtown” and 1987’s “Mary Jean & 9 Others,” which are due out next spring.
“While we were putting those together, the guy from the label (Yep Roc) said, ‘Well, do you have any bonus tracks,’ and I said, ‘Oh, at least a whole album’s worth,’” recalls Crenshaw, whose brother Robert played drums on his first three albums. “He said, ‘Oh, let’s do that first … in advance of the albums.’ So I went through all my work tapes and transferred what I wanted to transfer and found some great stuff that I really loved and put it all together in this package.
“It’s like me trying to brainstorm my third album and my fourth album, back when I was 29, 30 years old.”
There were some grail finds during the process — among them a song called “(We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds,” which Crenshaw had sent to the late British singer Kirsty MacColl for input. She wound up using it as the basis for a song called “All I Ever Wanted,” which appeared on her 1991 album “Electric Landlady,” while Crenshaw’s version remained unreleased until now.
Also on “The Bootleg Sounds” is a rendition of Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” featuring Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band bassist Garry Tallent and drummer Max Weinberg, and produced by talent during sessions for “La Bamba.”
“Nobody seemed to know what song Buddy was supposed to sing in the movie, so we tried different ones,” Crenshaw remembers. “It was Garry’s idea to do ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping,’ the song that wound up on the soundtrack of the movie. I said to him: ‘Buddy never released that song during his lifetime. He wrote it in his apartment before he went out on tour,’ and Garry said: ‘Who gives a s***. Let’s just do it. It’ll be fun’ and blah, blah, blah.
“I never expected them to pick that one for (the movie), but they did. I still had ‘That’ll be the Day’ around, and I just thought it’s a great version. It’s just live, no overdubs — just how we played it in the room.”
Marshall Crenshaw, 72, was raised in Berkley and now lives in New York. (Photo courtesy of Yep Roc Records)
In terms of similar projects, Crenshaw says he’s “kind of getting to the end; my archives are kind of empty now.” His primary focus right now is a documentary he’s making about Tom Wilson, the ’60s record producer who worked with Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Zappa and many more. It’s been a long gestation, but Crenshaw is working with an editor to begin putting the film into shape.
And there are always live gigs, which Crenshaw still does at regular intervals over the course of each year. “I’ve still got plenty of music I can play, just plenty of ways I can amuse myself playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band,” he notes. “I’m just glad I’m alive, ’cause show business is really tough, and it does kill people.
“But it didn’t kill me, and it didn’t really hurt me, either — that I can ascertain. It still feels pretty alright, all these years later.”
Marshall Crenshaw, Sarah Borges and Eric Ambel perform Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. Doors at 7 p.m. 248-544-1991 or themagicbag.com.