![\"Michigan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOP-L-Arts-Crenshaw1025-01.jpg\")
Michigan native Marshall Crenshaw just released “The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw: 1984-87.” (Album cover courtesy of Yep Roc Records)<\/p>\nSince his first single, \u201cSomething\u2019s Gonna Happen,\u201d came out 45 years ago, Marshall Crenshaw has released 10 albums and more than half a dozen EPs. He\u2019s also mined his vaults for collections such as the just-released \u201cThe Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw: 1984-87.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the Michigan native maintains that might be enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kinda stopped writing,\u201d the Berkley-raised singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader, now 72, says from his home in upstate New York. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michigan native Marshall Crenshaw just released “The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw: 1984-87.” (Album cover courtesy of Yep Roc Records)<\/p>\n
Crenshaw\u2019s last new song, a single called \u201cWill of the Wind,\u201d came out in 2020 and will be re-released next April as part of a Record Store Day EP. But since then, he notes: \u201cI don\u2019t feel compelled to write, and if I don\u2019t feel compelled to, then I shouldn\u2019t do it, because it\u2019s always been kind of like a trial for me. I can\u2019t just do it casually, just sit down and go \u2018bah, bah, bah, oh, there it is.\u2019 I\u2019ve just got to feel this undeniable impulse to do it, and I\u2019m not there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wanted to, I guess I could. The last time I decided I wanted to, I was able. So we\u2019ll see what happens, but until further notice, I\u2019m not writing songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes things are just over, I\u2019m sorry to say. But it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s had hits such as \u201cSomeday, Someway\u201d and \u201cCynical Girl\u201d \u2014 and co-wrote the Gin Blossoms\u2019 Top 5 1995 single \u201cTil I Hear It From You\u201d from the \u201cEmpire Records\u201d soundtrack. His title track for the 2007 film \u201cWalk Hard,\u201d meanwhile, was nominated for Golden Globe and Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n
Bette Midler, Ronnie Spector and Robert Gordon are among those who have covered Crenshaw\u2019s songs, and the one-time star on Broadway\u2019s \u201cBeatlemania\u201d (as John Lennon from 1978-80) has also appeared in films such as \u201cPeggy Sue Got Married\u201d and as Buddy Holly in \u201cLa Bamba.\u201d He also served a short stint in Bob Dylan\u2019s Band, was part of a latter-day MC5 tour, hosted a radio show (\u201cThe Bottomless Pit\u201d for WFUV-FM in New York) and wrote a book, \u201cHollywood Rock: A Guide to Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll in the Movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a positive view of the whole thing, just, like, big-picture wise,\u201d says Crenshaw, who\u2019s also a part-time frontman for the band Smithereens. \u201cIt was really kinda bumpy getting into show business and all that \u2026 but there were so many positive outcomes during the whole time period \u2014 a big one being the fact I was in \u2018La Bamba,\u2019 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 \u2018La Bamba.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, yeah, I like my life a lot. It\u2019s a cool life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crenshaw gets into the deep weeds of that life with \u201cThe Bootleg Sounds.\u201d Originally released in limited edition for this year\u2019s 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 \u2014 1985\u2019s \u201cDowntown\u201d and 1987\u2019s \u201cMary Jean & 9 Others,\u201d which are due out next spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we were putting those together, the guy from the label (Yep Roc) said, \u2018Well, do you have any bonus tracks,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Oh, at least a whole album\u2019s worth,’\u201d recalls Crenshaw, whose brother Robert played drums on his first three albums. \u201cHe said, \u2018Oh, let\u2019s do that first \u2026 in advance of the albums.\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like me trying to brainstorm my third album and my fourth album, back when I was 29, 30 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were some grail finds during the process \u2014 among them a song called \u201c(We\u2019re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds,\u201d 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 \u201cAll I Ever Wanted,\u201d which appeared on her 1991 album \u201cElectric Landlady,\u201d while Crenshaw\u2019s version remained unreleased until now.<\/p>\n
Also on \u201cThe Bootleg Sounds\u201d is a rendition of Holly\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019ll Be the Day\u201d featuring Bruce Springsteen\u2019s E Street band bassist Garry Tallent and drummer Max Weinberg, and produced by talent during sessions for \u201cLa Bamba.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody seemed to know what song Buddy was supposed to sing in the movie, so we tried different ones,\u201d Crenshaw remembers. \u201cIt was Garry\u2019s idea to do \u2018Crying, Waiting, Hoping,\u2019 the song that wound up on the soundtrack of the movie. I said to him: \u2018Buddy never released that song during his lifetime. He wrote it in his apartment before he went out on tour,\u2019 and Garry said: \u2018Who gives a s***. Let\u2019s just do it. It\u2019ll be fun\u2019 and blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never expected them to pick that one for (the movie), but they did. I still had \u2018That\u2019ll be the Day\u2019 around, and I just thought it\u2019s a great version. It\u2019s just live, no overdubs \u2014 just how we played it in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Marshall](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOP-L-Arts-Crenshaw1025-02.jpg\")
Marshall Crenshaw, 72, was raised in Berkley and now lives in New York. (Photo courtesy of Yep Roc Records)<\/p>\n
In terms of similar projects, Crenshaw says he\u2019s \u201ckind of getting to the end; my archives are kind of empty now.\u201d His primary focus right now is a documentary he\u2019s making about Tom Wilson, the \u201960s record producer who worked with Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Zappa and many more. It\u2019s been a long gestation, but Crenshaw is working with an editor to begin putting the film into shape.<\/p>\n
And there are always live gigs, which Crenshaw still does at regular intervals over the course of each year. \u201cI\u2019ve still got plenty of music I can play, just plenty of ways I can amuse myself playing in a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band,\u201d he notes. \u201cI\u2019m just glad I\u2019m alive, \u2019cause show business is really tough, and it does kill people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it didn\u2019t kill me, and it didn\u2019t really hurt me, either \u2014 that I can ascertain. It still feels pretty alright, all these years later.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since his first single, \u201cSomething\u2019s Gonna Happen,\u201d came out 45 years ago, Marshall Crenshaw has released 10 albums…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[967,181,23,143,145,144,420],"class_list":["post-506735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}