"Bad Boy" is a song written by Lil Armstrong and Avon Long.
Clarence Palmer, lead singer of the Jive Bombers, recorded a version of Lil Armstrong's "Brown Gal" in December 1949, retitled as "Brown Boy" on Decca's Coral subsidiary, billed as Al Sears and the Sparrows and released in February 1950.
[4] They later re-recorded the song in 1952 billed as Clarence Palmer and the Jive Bombers on the Citation label.
A second re-recording as simply the Jive Bombers was released in December 1956, retitled as "Bad Boy".
[5][6] "Bad Boy" has since been covered by the Escorts, Mink DeVille, Ringo Starr, Sha Na Na, Maryann Price, David Johansen performing as Buster Poindexter, and others, and was used in the first-season finale of the television show Crime Story as well as in the 1990 film Cry-Baby.