Born Erastus Michael, "Razzy" Bailey has spent over 50 years in the music business. He made his first country recordings in 1949, at the tender age of 10, but amounted to little more than a child novelty act. After high school he married and had a family, which forced him to work day jobs and only perform sporadically between 1956 and 1966.
In 1966 he submitted a number of demos to Atlantic Records, and in-house producer Bill Lowery, upon hearing the recording, agreed to take him under his wing. Bailey's recordings for Atlantic (backed by a house band featuring Freddy Weller from Paul Revere and the Raiders and a then-unknown Billy Joel) failed to garner any significant sales, and two other projects - a pop band called Daily Bread, and another solo venture under the name Razzy - also failed.
By 1976 Bailey had resigned himself to leaving the music industry, when one of his songs, "9,999,999 Tears," from the '66 Atlantic sessions, was re-cut by country artist Dickey Lee. Lee took the song to number three, and cut another Bailey original, "Peanut Butter," which hit the top-20.
The renewed interest in his songs prompted Bailey to reshape his own career as a performer and recording artist. He was signed to RCA, and released the single "What Time Do You have to be Back in Heaven" in 1978. It was the first of five top-10 country hits that he'd record through 1981.