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Briefed with finding a track to convey the everyday madness of overcomplicated laundry routines, we dug deep into the archives to pull out “Crazy, Man, Crazy”, by Bill Haley and his Comets.

Though little known these days, the song actually holds the prestigious honour of being both the first rock’n’roll song to appear in the national music charts in America, and the first to appear on national television, in an episode of Omnibus, that featured James Dean.

It was written by Bill Haley and recorded with his band in April, 1953. Haley had originally been a western swing performer and widely considered to be one of the foremost cowboy yodellers in the US but turned towards rock’n’roll after successfully covering the first rock’n’roll song, “Rocket 88”, by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm.

“Crazy, Man, Crazy” was Haley’s first original hit, inspired by the catchphrases used by teenagers at the school dances where he and the band performed. Despite being right at the vanguard of the development of rock’n’roll, Haley and the band soon faded out of the spotlight, their clean-cut aesthetics unable to compete with the risqué and incendiary personas of acts that followed, like Elvis Presley and Little Richard.

Uptempo and jiving, the skittering drums and angular guitar and sax lines make for a riotous energy that elevates the spot’s sense of chaos and madness.