Razzy Bailey born 14 February 1939

Rasie Michael Bailey (February 14, 1939 – August 4, 2021), better known as Razzy Bailey, was an American country music singer-songwriter and musician whose vocal style fused country with blue-eyed soul. In the early 1980s, he scored 5 No. 1's on the Billboard country music charts. 

Bailey was born in Five Points, Alabama, United States, and raised on a farm in La Fayette, Alabama. At the end of the working day, Razzy’s father often strummed out original songs to the attentive youngster at his feet on the porch. From the black farm workers he gained a love of bottle-neck guitar and blues harmonica, but it was the regular Saturday night singing around a blazing fire at which Razzy got his first taste of entertaining. This interest in music led to his father buying him an old secondhand guitar. But it was good enough for him to master the basics, and urged on by his parents he began to take lessons from a local schoolteacher. 

Bailey got his first experience of musical performance as a member of his high school's Future Farmers of America string band. During his high school days he joined the Future Farmers of America at Lafayette, Alabama. His sole purpose for joining was to be able to play in the FFA string band at the Georgia State contest at Auburn University. He even made enough money with the string band to be able to buy himself a car in his senior year of high school. 

Bailey married and had children immediately after graduating high school. He took his first real job as an entertainer in a local nightspot on the road from LaGrange to Columbus, Georgia. Four months later the club closed down and Razzy was out of a job. He gave up full-time entertainment and took a series of daytime jobs, including truck driving, selling insurance and being a furniture representative. In 1966, he contributed several songs to Atlantic Records' Bill Lowery, among them "9,999,999 Tears," which Lowery agreed to produce. 

                                   

While the single, on which Bailey was backed by a studio band featuring Billy Joel, Joe South, and Freddy Weller, failed to chart, it renewed the singer's interest in pursuing a recording career full-time. As a result, he formed the pop-oriented trio Daily Bread in 1968, releasing a pair of albums on small labels. Another group, the Aquarians, followed in 1972; in 1974, Bailey recorded the album I Hate Hate simply as Razzy. It sold over half a million copies before being picked up by MGM Records. 

After I Hate Hate failed to chart, Bailey again dropped out of music, but in 1976, singer Dickey Lee hit number three with a cover of "9,999,999 Tears", and it became a country and pop hit in 1976, and in 1977, Lee repeated this with another Bailey tune, "Peanut Butter," which also went into the charts. As his songwriting talents became known, Bailey signed with RCA Records and, in 1978, began releasing singles of his own songs. His first hit as a singer-songwriter, "What Time Do You Have To Be Back in Heaven?", was on the charts for over four months. Bailey charted a total of seven No. 1 singles on Billboard's "Country" charts and another eight Top 10 in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Between August 1980 and December 1981, Bailey reached his commercial peak with a string of five number one hits -- "Loving Up a Storm," "I Keep Coming Back," "Friends," "Midnight Hauler," and "She Left Love All Over Me" -- and in 1981 was named Billboard magazine's Country Singles Artist of the Year. The albums Razzy (1980), Makin' Friends (1981), Feelin' Alright, and A Little More Razzy (both 1982) were also very successful. His sound combined R&B influences with country; his version of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" was a country hit. His last country No. 1 hit was with "She Left Love All Over Me" in 1982. 

Bailey had three double sided number 1's in succession on the Country chart, a feat never accomplished by any other artist. He also operated Razzy's Hit House, his recording studio where he helped other artists with their projects

By the mid-'80s, however, Bailey's hit-making days were largely over; his singles landed only in the lower rungs of the charts. In 1987, he began issuing his records through his own label, SOA (Sounds of America). In 1993, the release of the album Razzy Bailey: Fragile, Handle with Care was marred by the suicide of Bailey's wife, Sandra.

Razzy Bailey died on August 4, 2021 at his home in Goodlettsville, Tennessee; he was 82 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Alan Cackett).