As a single mother in the early 1980s, Naomi Judd was working as an ICU nurse at a hospital in Franklin, Tennessee to support her daughters Wynonna and Ashley. After treating Brent Maher’s daughter, who was in a car accident, Naomi passed along a demo tape of her and her daughter Wynonna‘s songs to the producer and songwriter.
Maher helped The Judds get signed to RCA, produced their 1984 debut EP Wynonna and Naomi, and helped the duo find what would become their first No. 1, “Mama He’s Crazy.”
Following the release of The Judds’ debut single, “Had a Dream (For the Heart),” their cover of the Dennis Linde song recorded by Elvis Presley, which went to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, their next release, “Mama He’s Crazy,” took them to the top.
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Heaven Sent
The song follows the euphoria of love, and a young woman who has fallen in love with someone she’s convinced was sent to her from heaven.
Mama, I found someone
Like you said would come along
He’s a sight and so unlike
Any man I’ve known
I was afraid to let him in
‘Cause I’m not the trustin’ kind
But now I’m convinced that he’s heaven sent
And must be out of his mind
Mama, he’s crazy, crazy over me
And in my life is where he says
He always wants to be
At the time, Wynonna Judd was 18, had a new boyfriend and connected to the song about a girl who had fallen head over heals in love.
And mama, you’ve always said
You better look before you leap
But maybe so, but here I go
Lettin’ my heart lead me
He thinks I hung the moon and stars
I think he’s a livin’ dream
Well, there are men, but ones like him
Are few and far between
Mama, he’s crazy, crazy over me
And in my life is where he says
He always wants to be
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“We probably worked together for about nine months, just tossing ideas around,” said Maher in 2001. “We came up with two songs that really defined the initial boundaries of the Judds. The first song was ‘Mama He’s Crazy,’ which was your traditional, great country song, a mid-tempo ballad. Then there was ‘Had a Dream,’ which was a bluesy, country, rock song that defined the funky side of the Judds.”
While working on The Judds’ debut EP Wynonna and Naomi, Maher had received a demo of “Mama He’s Crazy” from the late singer and songwriter Kenny O’Dell and had The Judds sing it through. “He plays the dang thing back and it’s sounding really good,” said O’Dell in a 2017 interview. “It gets to the chorus there where it goes, ‘Mama He’s Crazy.’ I said, “Holy-blank. That is just fabulous. That’s a clean version of what I said. He said, ‘It’s going to be their next single.'”
The ‘Texas’ Soap Opera
Before The Judds got their hands on the song, O’Dell already had his eye on duo and wanted to help develop them and wrote “Mama, He’s Crazy” after hearing it in the dialogue in an episode of Texas, a short-lived spin-off of Another World that ran from 1981 to 1982.
“I used to work out of my home,” remembered O’Dell. “Every day, around 11 or 12 o’clock, I would take a break and my wife would fix me some lunch, a sandwich or something and I’d work out a poem. Well, there happened to be a soap opera that was on every day and we kind of got locked into it when my wife got me watching it.”
During one episode there was a mother with her daughter, who was talking about her boyfriend, a rancher who wanted nothing to do with the oil well development on his ranch.
“She was telling her mother about her boyfriend’s passion for ranching and his disdain for oil wells and developing,” said O’Dell of the storyline. “He told her, ‘Well if they start building oil wells on my ranch out there, I’m going to just blow the whole thing up.’ … She’s telling her mother about this, about her boyfriend. She’s worried about this temper that he has.”
O’Dell continued, “She says, ‘Mama, he’s threatening if they build oil wells out there, he’s going to blow them up and all that goes with it. She says, ‘It scares me. He’s nuts. He’ll go ballistic. … Mama, he’s crazy.’ … I thought, ‘Well there’s these gals [The Judds]. There’s that song. That might be the ticket.'”
“Mama He’s Crazy” earned The Judds their first Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Photo: David Redfern/Redferns
