Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw emerged in the early '80s as a champion of old-school rock/pop verities, filtering classic '50s/'60s influences through a contemporary power-pop filter. Born on November 11, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan, Crenshaw grew up loving British Invasion era rock 'n' roll, which served him well when he landed a gig playing John Lennon's role in the popular Beatles tribute show Beatlemania in 1978, which he continued through 1980. The following year he released his first single, "Something's Gonna Happen," on the tiny New York indie label Shake Records. Soon after, he signed with Warner Bros, and in 1982 he released his self-titled debut LP. The single "Someday, Someway" reached the top 40, and between Crenshaw's clean-cut, bespectacled image and the song's retro tinge, the press began to hail him as the heir to Buddy Holly's throne. (Crenshaw played Buddy Holly in the 1987 Richie Valens biopic "La Bamba" (1987), recording Holly's "Cryin', Waitin', Hopin'" for the soundtrack.) But Crenshaw didn't achieve anything near that level of renown, and never reached the Top 40 again. He did, however, continue turning out albums full of expertly crafted pop gems for a long time to come. He spent the '80s making four more records for Warner Bros, with diminishing degrees of popularity but no drop in quality. Crenshaw then made one album for MCA, 1991's Life's Too Short, before shifting over to indie labels for the rest of his career. In 1994, he published the book Hollywood Rock, an encyclopedia of music-related films from the '50s through the '80s. His biggest brush with commercial success after that came in 1995 when he co-wrote The Gin Blossoms' No. 11 hit "Til I Hear It From You." Crenshaw received Grammy and Golden Globe nominations in 2007 for "Walk Hard," the song he wrote for the rock biopic parody of the same name. He went on a bit of a busman's holiday in 2018, playing some shows with The Smithereens in place of the band's recently departed leader, Pat DiNizio.