Crawler

About

Crawler grew out of the ashes of Back Street Crawler after guitarist Paul Kossoff died, with the surviving members regrouping, shortening the name, and signing to Epic/CBS via their new manager Abe Hoch. They brought in ex If guitarist Geoff Whitehorn to fill the gap, which Atlantic Records had actually hoped to fill with Mick Taylor or even Peter Green, both of whom passed on the offer. Working with producer Gary Lyons, the band put out two studio albums, Crawler and Snake, Rattle and Roll, and clocked serious road time as support for Kansas on a 54 date US run, plus stints behind Robin Trower, Cheap Trick, and Foreigner. Their biggest commercial moment was the single "Stone Cold Sober", which cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at number 65 in late 1977, largely on the strength of FM radio play in the States. The band folded in late 1978 when keyboard player John Rabbit Bundrick departed to join The Who. Live recordings from those touring years, drawn from Bundrick's personal archive, have since surfaced as Snakebite and Pastime Dreamer, giving the band a modest afterlife on record.