There are currently at least three bands charting as The Crows (none of which are to be confused with Crows or Crowes):
1) The Crows were an American doo-wop group. The group’s one major hit, Gee (1953), was an important early rock-and-roll song and peaked at fourteenth and second respectively on the Billboard magazine pop and rhythm-and-blues charts. This was also featured prominently in the 1973 George Lucas film, American Graffiti. The members were: Bill Davis (died sometime between 1958 and 2000)[vague], Harold Major (ditto), Daniel “Sonny” Norton (born c.1927, died 1972), and Gerald Hamilton (died 1960s).
2) The Crows were a short lived band that released one LP (The Crows) on the highly influential (in noise rock circles) Amphetamine Reptile Records label in 1994. In keeping with that label’s other products, the Crows can be loosely classified as a noise rock band. Their own particular sound, however, tended not be an unorganized mass of noise, but was instead more succinct and twangy in a way that calls to mind a rockabilly band testing the boundaries of their genre. They liked to create space in their songs, and were rarely in a hurry. Their singer had a tendency to growl his lyrics, but not in the manner of singers of hardcore bands. These growls were more akin to the guttural noises one would expect from a 300 lbs., bearded lumberjack sitting down for a steak dinner with a red and white checkered napkin tucked into his collar. “mmmmmMMMMMM!” Tom Waits comes to mind in particular.
3) The Crows was an obscure power pop band from Belgium lead by frontman ‘Zip Wookee’. The four-piece band produced their long single, “Don’t Play Around” (b-side: “Irina”), in 1980. |
