"Crazy 'Bout My Baby"

'American Heart' soundtrack, 1992

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A small frustration about the otherwise amazing Orphans box set is that the liner notes gave little indication when or where each track came from. The provenance of previously-released tracks was known to a degree (often movie soundtracks), but, for the totally new songs, fans were left making educated guesses.

One thing seemed certain though: Most if not all stemmed from what some call the post-Kathleen period of Tom’s career (that, is Swordfishtrombones and on) where the music got stranger, substituting blues and folk influences for his early jazzbo sound. There are plenty of outtakes and oddities from his first decade circulating, but they don’t appear on Orphans.

Which makes “Crazy 'Bout My Baby,” which appeared on an Orphans bonus disc, seem at first like an outlier. This Fats Waller cover sounds like it could have been cut at the Nighthawks at the Diner session. Tom accompanies himself on bebop piano while scatting, sounding like he did in 1976 on a song he might have sung back then too.

“Crazy 'Bout My Baby” does, not, however date back to 1976. It’s another one of those Orphans numbers revived from a movie soundtrack — in this case the 1992 gritty drama American Heart. The film was directed by Martin Bell, the same person behind the homeless-teens doc for which Tom recorded “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” eight years prior. Bell clearly has a way of talking Tom into recording old-time covers.

In this case, though, Bell got a few original tunes too: “Never Let Go,” which also returned on Orphans, and something called “Jack's Flashback Theme” which I can’t find anywhere. An instrumental, presumably, but I’d still be curious to hear it. Especially if it includes any more of Tom going “mmm mmm mmm” as he does to begin this lively number that nods to his early days.