BUCKCHERRY Savors "Crazy" Comeback

BUCKCHERRY Savors "Crazy" Comeback

Billboard's Gary Graff reports:

The crowd at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena is primed, rowdy and ready to rock, anxiously anticipating a night with hometown hero KID ROCK.

But then the onstage DJ spins 'Crazy Bitch', the signature hit from resurgent rock band BUCKCHERRY's third album, 15. For three minutes and 22 seconds, the Kid Rock partisans have only Buckcherry on the brain, singing every word while dancing and pumping fists with such ferocity you'd think the band itself was onstage.

It's a moment of pure rock'n'roll transcendence - and a clear illustration of the transcendence Buckcherry has made from what manager Allen Kovac calls "beyond dead" to a return-to-platinum status with 2006's 15.

The album, which has spent 103 weeks in the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 chart, has spawned such hits as 'Crazy Bitch' and 'Sorry' during a marathon campaign that may blend seamlessly with the setup for Buckcherry's next set, expected this summer.

The group is also the vanguard of a rock resurgence that includes crossover success by such groups as Finger Eleven, Daughtry, Three Days Grace, Flyleaf and Lifehouse.

To date, 15 has sold more than 1.1 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, more than 48,000 of them digital. That's 20% better than the combined total of Buckcherry's two previous albums, 1999's self-titled debut and 2001's Time Bomb.

'Crazy Bitch', a riff-driven, F-bomb-laden rock anthem that celebrates a woman's sexuality in the tradition of Motley Crue's 'Girls, Girls, Girls', has sold more than 1.2 million digital copies and nearly 1.6 million ringtones. It was also the No. 8-selling ringtone of 2007 and scored a Grammy nomination for best hard rock performance. Strippers loved it.

"It became a song every dancer wanted to dance to," Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd says, acknowledging he witnessed some of their appreciation firsthand.

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