Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw’s musical self is brilliantly alive and well.

Born November 11, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan, Marshall Crenshaw is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. He began playing guitar at age ten, and got his first break playing John Lennon in the off-Broadway company of Beatlemania. While in New York, he recorded a single for Alan Betrock’s Shake Records, “Something’s Gonna Happen,” after which he was signed to Warner Bros. Records.

His first album, Marshall Crenshaw, was acclaimed as a pop masterpiece upon release in 1982, proving Crenshaw a first-rate songwriter, singer and guitarist. The record spawned the Top 40 single Someday, Someway, which rocker Robert Gordon had taken to #76 on the charts a year earlier.

His second album, Field Day, is regarded by many critics as one of rock music’s classic power pop statements. “Some of the stuff I’ve done you could call power pop,” he told an interviewer. “But the term does have sort of a dodgy connotation.”

Indeed, Crenshaw’s subsequent 20-plus years of studio recordings offer an evolutionary journey through an array of musical landscapes. His most recent studio effort, What’s in the Bag leaves genre labels in the rear-view mirror, featuring everything from guitar-based instrumentals to R&B influences to jazzy love songs. In the words of PopMatters’ Gary Glauber: “What's in the Bag? is a musical treasure trove. This isn't about creating a commercial radio single; this is Marshall Crenshaw sharing his gifts with a discriminating audience.”

Such is Marshall Crenshaw’s reputation as one of the finest songwriters of his (or any) generation, with roots in classic soul music, British invasion songcraft, Burt Bacharach, and Buddy Holly —to whom Crenshaw was often compared in the early days of his career, and whom he portrayed in the 1987 film La Bamba.

Marshall Crenshaw’s most recent career highlight may at last bring him the public recognition that has long eluded him. His title contribution to the new film Walk Hard has been nominated for a 2007 Golden Globe award for Best Original Song.