The Crusaders ft Randy Crawford - Street Life (MCA Records 1979)

"Street Life" is a song by Will Jennings and Joe Sample and a studio album by the American jazz band The Crusaders. It was a top 20 album on three Billboard charts and represents the peak of the band's commercial popularity. The title track, featuring singer Randy Crawford, was a Top 40 pop single (No. 36) and became the group's most successful entry on the soul chart (No. 17). It was No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. "Street Life" also hit the disco chart, peaking at No. 75, and was re-recorded by Doc Severinsen with Crawford reprising her vocal for the opening sequence of the noir crime drama Sharky's Machine, directed by Burt Reynolds in 1981. This faster paced and more powerful version was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, released in 1997.

The cover photograph was taken at 409 N Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, California.

The Crusaders were an American jazz fusion group that was popular in the 1970s. The group was known as the Jazz Crusaders before shortening its name in 1971.

Wayne Henderson died on April 5, 2014. Joe Sample died in Houston on September 12, 2014. Wilton Felder died on September 27, 2015.

Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952, Macon, Georgia) is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist. Her only appearance on the Hot 100 chart was in 1979 as a guest vocalist on The Crusaders's top 40 hit "Street Life". She has had five Top 20 hits in the UK, including her 1980 number 2 hit, "One Day I'll Fly Away", as well as six UK Top 10 albums. Despite her American nationality, she won Best British Female Solo Artist in recognition of her popularity in the UK at the 1982 Brit Awards. In the late 2000s she received her first two Grammy Award nominations.

Crawford first performed at club gigs from Cincinnati to Saint-Tropez, but made her name in mid 1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen George Benson and Cannonball Adderley. She signed with Columbia Records and released her first single, "Knock On Wood" / "If You Say the Word" in 1972. Adderley invited her to sing on his album, Big Man: The Legend Of John Henry (1975). During a brief tenure at Columbia Records, Crawford recorded "Don't Get Caught in Love's Triangle". She is also one of the vocalists on Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns – A Blow For Me, A Toot To You (1977).

In 1978, Crawford sang vocals on "Hoping Love Will Last", the opening song on side two of Please Don't Touch!, which was the second solo album by the former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett.

She led R&B veterans the Crusaders on the transatlantic hit "Street Life" (1979). A specially re-recorded version was featured in the soundtrack for the films Sharky's Machine and Jackie Brown, and appeared in commercials in the early 2000s. She later recorded for Warner Bros. Records. Crawford was named the 'Most Outstanding Performer' at the 1980 Tokyo Music Festival. Crawford also recorded the love theme ("People Alone") for the film soundtrack of The Competition on MCA Records in 1980.

I still hang around
Neither lost nor found
Hear the lonely sound
Of music in the night
Nights are always bright
That's all that's left for me, yeah
I play the street life because there's no place I can go
Street life, it's the only life I know
Street life and there's a thousand cards to play
Street life, until you play your life away
You let the people see
Just who you wanna be
And every night you sang
Just like a superstar
The type of life that's played
A temptin' masquerade
You dress and walk and talk
You're who you think you are
Street life, you can run away from time
Street life, for a nickel, for a dime
Street life, but you better not get old
Street life, or you're gonna feel the cold
There's always love for sale
A grown up fairy tale
Prince charming always smiles
Behind a silver spoon
And if you keep it young
Your song is always sung
Your love will pay your way
Beneath the silver moon
Street life
Street life
Street life
Oh, street life
I play the street life because there's no place I can go
Street life, it's the only life I know
Street life and there's a thousand cards to play
Street life, until you play your life away
You let the people see
Just who you wanna be
And every night you sang
Just like a superstar
The type of life that's played
A temptin' masquerade
You dress and walk and talk
You're who you think you are
Street life, you can run away from time
Street life, for a nickel, for a dime
Street life, but you better not get old
Street life, or you're gonna feel the cold
There's always love for sale
A grown up fairy tale
Prince charming always smiles
Behind a silver spoon
And if you keep it young
Your song is always sung
Your love will pay your way
Beneath the silver moon
Street life
Street life
Street life
Oh, street life
Oh, street life
Yeah, street life
Street life
Oh, street life

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