Crazy Blues

"Crazy Blues" is a song written by Perry Bradford in 1918 under its original title, "Harlem Blues". Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds recorded it 2 years later on August 10, 1920, and it was released later that year by Okeh Records (4169-A).

Bradford originally wrote the piece for theater, so the song includes blues choruses embedded within non blues verses rather than a straight string of twelve-bar blues.Mamie Smith learned the song directly from Bradford, and after her early successes performing it as "Harlem Blues", Bradford encouraged recording companies to record Smith's rendition of the song.

The stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith appeared in photographs associated with the recording session, and claims to have discovered Mamie Smith, although Bradford claims the same thing; the precise details remain uncertain. Within two months of release, it had sold 75,000 copies at one dollar a piece, an unusually big success, and a hit for the time.