David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat

I wonder how much of a debt Dave owes to The Honeydrippers 1984 EP Volume One? That showed there was an audience for this kind of stuff. Since they never dropped a number two, Diamond Dave did that for them.

I did buy The Honeydrippers EP, but never did get Crazy from the Heat. I did like the videos and thought his version of "California Girls" was awesome. I did know that Christopher Cross provided backing vocals with Carl Wilson. For whatever reason I thought that was really cool ... mainly because I loved and still love Christopher Cross' music.

When this dropped Dave was still in Van Halen and as his little EP took off, eventually going platinum I guess he figured a solo career was to be had and off he went. It is telling, that while Ted Templeman produced, long time engineer Donn Landee wasn't twiddling the nobs. Okay maybe not telling, I'm probably reading into it, but Donn and Ed seemed to be really tight and who knows maybe there's a nugget of truth in my armchair guessing.

Regardless, the little EP that doesn't even crest fifteen minutes is more fun that you'd expect. What I didn't know was how involved Edgar Winter was in the making of the record. Edgar plays keyboards and saxophone on three of the four tracks and kills it. The opening track "Easy Street" was written by Dan Hartman and was originally recorded by Edgar Winter. The first side closes with "Just a Gigolo" that based on the old Louis Prima standard. Of course if you're of a certain age Louis Prima was the guy who sang "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book. To those Christian fundamentalists who liked to burn records in the '70s saying that bands like The Carpenters and Partidge Family would eventually lead the youth of America to buy Black Sabbath records were full of shit. It was a Disney soundtrack that would be my gateway into Louis Prima's back catalogue ... but that's another story for another time ... maybe.

With only four songs Dave wisely, or accidentally, put "Just a Gigolo" and "California Girls" on separate sides guaranteeing people would listen to the whole thing. The little EP ends with a cover of an old Lovin' Spoonful song, "Coconut Grove" that ends the EP on a quiet and contemplative note.

Crazy from the Heat was a revelation even back then. David always seemed to be dismissed as a singer and praised as a front man. Well the upshot here was that Dave could sing. I mean Holy kermole, I know it still sounds like he's singing with his tongue in his cheek, but dagnabbit he sounded good. Really good. Maybe he really was crazy from the heat.

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