Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song)
Encyclopedia
"Crazy" is the debut single
from Gnarls Barkley
, a musical collaboration between Danger Mouse
and Cee Lo Green, and is taken from their 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere
. It became a top ten hit throughout Europe
, North America
and Australia
, in the first half of 2006, reaching number one of the single charts in the United Kingdom
, Ireland
, Denmark
, Canada
, New Zealand
and other countries.
The song was leaked
in late 2005, months before its regular release, and consequently received massive airplay on BBC Radio 1
in the United Kingdom, most notably by radio DJ Zane Lowe
, who also used the song in TV ads for his show. When it was finally released in March 2006, it became the first single to top the British charts on download sales alone. The song remained at number one in the United Kingdom for nine weeks (which no other song had achieved in over ten years, and was only surpassed by Rihanna
's "Umbrella
" in July 2007) before the band and their record company decided to remove the single from British stores so people would "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it." In spite of this deletion
, the song became the UK's best selling single of 2006. Due to continued download sales, it reached a million sales in January 2011.
The song won a 2007 Grammy Award
for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, and was also nominated for The Record of the Year
in the United Kingdom, which it lost to "Patience
" by Take That
. It was also nominated and further won a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award
for Best Song. The song was also named the best song of 2006 by Rolling Stone
and by the Village Voice' s annual Pazz & Jop
critics poll.
The song was listed at #11 on Pitchfork Media
's top 500 songs of the 2000s. The song is also in the #45 place in the list of the best songs ever of Acclaimed Music. In 2010 it was placed at #100 in the "updated" version of Rolling Stone
' s 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time and ranked at the top position of Rolling Stone
' s top 100 songs of the decade (2000–2009).
It was featured in the video game "NBA Live 07
".
. Brian Burton's manager sent the song to Downtown's A&R Josh Deutsch because they were looking for an independent label with the same resources as a major. According an interview with Deutsch in HitQuarters
, he heard the song and signed it after a single listen. He said:
By the time the record was signed to Downtown there was already a huge swell of anticipation, in part due to the established reputation of the two artists but even more as a result of the demo being played on BBC Radio One and sparking a big online awareness. The record began to break even before the deals with Downtown Records were complete. On its release "Crazy" became the most downloaded song in the history of the UK music business, going to number one in the strength of downloads alone.
s of spaghetti Western
s, in particular by the works of Ennio Morricone
, who is best known as the composer of Sergio Leone
's Dollars Trilogy
, but more specifically the song "Last Man Standing" by Gian Piero Reverberi and Gianfranco Reverberi from the 1968 spaghetti Western Viva! Django (Italian: Preparati la bara), a sequel to the better-known Django
.
"Crazy" not only samples the song, but utilizes the parts of the main melody and chord structure. The original songwriters for "Last Man Standing" are credited by Gnarls Barkley for this song alongside their own credits.
The lyrics for the song developed out of a conversation between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. According to Danger Mouse "I somehow got off on this tangent about how people won't take an artist seriously unless they're insane... So we started jokingly discussing ways in which we could make people think we were crazy... Cee-Lo took that conversation and made it into 'Crazy,' which we recorded in one take."
In October 2011, NME
placed it at number 32 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
At the time chart rules allowed a song to appear in the UK Singles Chart
based on their download sales if a physical equivalent was to be released the following week. "Crazy" became the first number one single based on download sales alone (selling over 31,000 times that week), on April 2, 2006, with the CD single
being released one day later. It remained on top of the single chart for nine weeks and on top of the download chart for a record 11 weeks, until the single was pulled from British stores by the band and their record label on May 29, 2006, after seven consecutive weeks at number one, so people will "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it." The last song to spend such a long time at number one in Great Britain was "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet
in 1994, which was number one for 15 weeks.
"Crazy"'s 11 weeks at the top of the UK Download Chart were the longest stay on that chart that any song has achieved as of 2006. Despite its official removal, record shops had enough stock remaining to sell 19,827 physical copies; along with download sales, this kept the song at number two in the chart week ending June 10, 2006. The following week, ending June 17, "Crazy" was at number five, before disappearing completely from the Top 75 a week later, as under chart rules a physically deleted single could not remain on the chart longer than two weeks after deletion date. Thus, "Crazy" made history at both ends of its chart run. It marked the most rapid exit from the British chart ever for a former number one, and makes number five the highest position at which a single has ever spent its final week on the chart.
In the first week of 2007, "Crazy" recharted at number 30, based purely on downloads. The chart rules had been changed yet again, allowing any sold song to chart, irrespective of whether or not it was still on sale in stores.
Due to continued download sales, the single became a million seller in January 2011. It was the 104th single to do this.
During its long stay in the British charts, the single also entered multiple other single charts throughout Europe, including the German, the Swedish, the Austrian and the Irish Singles Chart
s, and the Dutch Top 40
, resulting in a number one position on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles
.
It also performed strongly outside Europe, with top-five positions on the New Zealand and Australian Single Charts
, and was also certified gold
in both countries. On 29 May 2006, the single went down in New Zealand music history by becoming the 500th number one single in New Zealand since the official Top 40 chart was started in 1973. The Discount Rhinos Full Control Remix of the track also featured in the Top 20 of the Australian ARIA Club chart.
When the album St. Elsewhere was released in the United States on 9 May 2006, the song had debuted at #91 on the Billboard Hot 100
. The song reached the Top 40 on May 23, 2006. In the summer of 2006, "Crazy" spent seven consecutive weeks in the #2 spot, but because of the massive airplay and sales of Nelly Furtado
's "Promiscuous
," it never reached #1. It became the year's first single to peak at #2 and never reach #1. The song also charted well on other charts, hitting #7 on the US Modern Rock chart
and #53 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks
.
for "Crazy" is done in the style of the Rorschach inkblot test
. Animated, mirrored inkblots morph into another, while taking on ambiguous shapes. Both Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse appear in the shapes, as do the band's gunshot/heart logo, "Satan", a cranium and various animals, including centipede
s, birds, bat
s, spider
s, and insect
s.
The inkblot illustrations were done by art director and motion graphic designer Bryan Louie, whose other works include commercial campaigns for the Scion tC
. The music video for "Crazy" was directed by Robert Hales
, who had previously directed music videos for Jet
, Nine Inch Nails
and Richard Ashcroft
, amongst others.
The video was nominated for three 2006 MTV Video Music Awards
: Best Group Video
, Best Direction
, and Best Editing
, and won the latter two. It was also nominated for a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award
for Best Video, but lost to "We Are Your Friends" by Justice vs. Simian.
Before the final music video was finished, the band's UK label released a different video to media outlets such as the BBC. This early promo, directed by Mina Song, is also completely animated and features several symbol
s from many cultures and religions that appear in a disjointed harmony to the lyrics. Lyrics of the song, and again the band's gunshot/heart logo also appear prominently. The video also includes elements of the single's cover art.
The song was in the 2010 movie Kick-Ass
.
UK 12" Vinyl
Australian CD Single
have released a cover of the song on June 24, 2008, through the iTunes Store
and on a limited edition, baby blue 12" vinyl
. It was their first newly recorded song since 2000. Gnarls Barkley
had previously covered the Violent Femmes
song "Gone Daddy Gone
" on their album St. Elsewhere
.
Gnarls Barkley described the Violent Femmes' version as: "I might compare it to a calm pond. I caught my reflection in it. And I seemed to be momentarily at peace. This track sounds entirely different in the rain, and supports some intriguing lilypads." The Violent Femmes hosted a YouTube
contest beginning June 10, 2008, with a cash award of $1,000USD
and "other cool prizes" for creating and submitting a promotional video clip.
by other artists. The Kooks
,
Nelly Furtado
,
and The Zutons
have covered "Crazy" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge
. The Kooks' version was released on Radio1's Live Lounge, while Furtado's version was released as a B-side on her UK single "Promiscuous
" and she performed the song live with Welsh
singer Charlotte Church
on The Charlotte Church Show
.
Folk singer Ray LaMontagne
has also covered the song, a version very well received by critics and
Paris Hilton
had delayed the release of her debut album Paris
to include a cover of "Crazy" as well, although it was not included in the final track list.
G4
also included a cover of "Crazy" on their Act Three
album.
Other artists, including Maroon 5
, The Raconteurs
,
Billy Idol
,
The Academy Is...
(with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes
),
Butch Walker
,
Texas
, The Twilight Singers
, Mates of State
, Paco Estrada & One Love, and of Montreal
have performed cover versions of the song live in concert. Trey Lorenz
(Mariah Carey
's backup singer) has also performed the song on Carey's The Adventures of Mimi Tour
throughout the summer and autumn of 2006. Shawn Colvin
performed the song on A Prairie Home Companion
on 4 November 2006. On her recent tour, Cat Power
performed the song during her set. Singer-songwriter Jude
's cover of the song is available free on his website. Beyoncé has also performed the song intertwined with her own hit, "Crazy in Love
", at her performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
.. She has also decided to use this 'Crazy In Love/Crazy' collaboration for her The Beyoncé Experience
world tour, which has already travelled across Japan, Australia, Europe and now North America.
Prince
covered the song in his one-off performance at London's KOKO Club on 10 May 2007, and at several of his 21 concerts at London's O2 Arena in August & September 2007. Paolo Nutini frequently covers the song at his concerts. Australian Idol 2007 contestant Natalie Gauci
covered the song during the Doin' It For The Kids special, using her own arrangement. On November 6, 2008, the band OneRepublic
covered "Crazy" in front of a hometown crowd at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, CO. British soul singer Alice Russell
included a cover of the song in her 2008 album Pot Of Gold.
Similarly, many unofficial remix
es and mashups
of the song were released as white label
s and are circulating on file sharing networks
and MP3 blog
s. The Discount Rhinos Full Control Remix of the track even reached number 15 of the Australian ARIA Club chart.
Lil Wayne
performed a freestyle over "Crazy" on his mixtape Da Drought 3
. Many other rappers have created their own renditions/remixes of Crazy, including A.C., Joe Budden
, Remy Ma
and Kardinal Offishall
.
A video performance of the song with the vocal track played on a theremin
is available on YouTube
, as is a response video with the theremin and percussion being played by robots.
Pink Floyd
guitarist David Gilmour
has also been heard singing the song in soundchecks, notably on his On an Island
tour in Venice
.
Jason Castro, David Archuleta
, and Asia'h Epperson all performed this song on the seventh season of American Idol
, but were not aired. Following the end of the season, Archuleta performed the song on Good Day Utah, and Castro performed the song during his set on the American Idols LIVE! Tour. Adam Lambert
, American Idol
Season 8 finalist, performed this song at the Art 4 Life Benefit Show 2008. Lambert also performs this song in numerous stages, most popularly at the Upright Cabaret.
An a cappella version of this song was performed by Overboard
, a Boston-based a cappella group, for their 2006 album, "Shipwrecked".
Take That
used part of this song in the middle of "Relight My Fire" at the Beautiful World tour in 2007. Vocalist Lloyd Wade sang the snippet, whilst Take That were dancing a voodoo themed cover.
Pink
performed a cover version of the song on her 2009 Funhouse Tour
.
The musical duo Scratch Track
performs a cover of "Crazy" at their live shows.
On 25 June 2009, OneRepublic
performed a cover version of "Crazy" as part of their set on the PBS
program Soundstage
.
On 12 February 2010, American Idol
season 8
finalists Kris Allen
, Adam Lambert
, and Allison Iraheta
, dubbing themselves "Kradison", performed "Crazy" as the final encore of Allen's set during Ryan Seacrest
’s Rock My Town concert.
In 2011, Israel
i singer Ninet Tayeb released a duet version of the song with a puppet
. This version was a part of the Israeli musical-puppet TV show Red Band.
The song was performed on the new NBC
Reality show The Voice by the judges Christina Aguilera
, Adam Levine
, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton
.
In 2011, alternative rock band Relient K
covered the song on their Is for Karaoke
EP.
Norwegian jazz singer Solveig Slettahjell
recorded a slow jazz version of the song on her 2011 album Antologie.
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!Country
!Certifications
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|Germany
|Platinum
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|Platinum & Million Seller
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Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley is an American soul duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. Their first studio album St. Elsewhere was released in 2006; along with its first single "Crazy". Both single and album were a major commercial success and have been noted for their large sales by download...
, a musical collaboration between Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
and Cee Lo Green, and is taken from their 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere (album)
St. Elsewhere is the debut album by United States hip hop soul duo Gnarls Barkley. It was released on April 24, 2006 in the United Kingdom, where it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, and on May 9, 2006 in the United States, although it was available for purchase one week earlier as a...
. It became a top ten hit throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in the first half of 2006, reaching number one of the single charts in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and other countries.
The song was leaked
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
in late 2005, months before its regular release, and consequently received massive airplay on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
in the United Kingdom, most notably by radio DJ Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
, who also used the song in TV ads for his show. When it was finally released in March 2006, it became the first single to top the British charts on download sales alone. The song remained at number one in the United Kingdom for nine weeks (which no other song had achieved in over ten years, and was only surpassed by Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
's "Umbrella
Umbrella (song)
"Umbrella" is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna, featuring a rap verse by Jay-Z. The song was written by The-Dream, Christopher Stewart, Kuk Harrell and Jay-Z, and was produced by Stewart and The-Dream for Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad...
" in July 2007) before the band and their record company decided to remove the single from British stores so people would "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it." In spite of this deletion
Deletion (music industry)
Deletion is a music industry term referring to the removal of a record or records from a label's official catalog, so that it is out of print, but usually at a record artist's request....
, the song became the UK's best selling single of 2006. Due to continued download sales, it reached a million sales in January 2011.
The song won a 2007 Grammy Award
Grammy Awards of 2007
The 49th Annual Grammy Awards was a ceremony honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning September 15, 2005 and ending September 14, 2006 in the United States. The awards were handed out on Sunday February 11, 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The Dixie Chicks...
for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, and was also nominated for The Record of the Year
The Record of the Year
The Record of the Year is an award voted by the UK public. For many years it was given in conjunction with television programmes of the same name...
in the United Kingdom, which it lost to "Patience
Patience (Take That song)
"Patience" is a song by British boy band Take That. It was released on 13 November 2006 as the first single from their comeback album Beautiful World...
" by Take That
Take That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
. It was also nominated and further won a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award
MTV Europe Music Awards 2006
The MTV Europe Music Awards hit Copenhagen at the Bella Center/Rådhuspladsen in 2006. The venue was made to feel like a VIP club with exclusive, intimate performances...
for Best Song. The song was also named the best song of 2006 by Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
and by the Village Voice
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics poll.
The song was listed at #11 on Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's top 500 songs of the 2000s. The song is also in the #45 place in the list of the best songs ever of Acclaimed Music. In 2010 it was placed at #100 in the "updated" version of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
It was featured in the video game "NBA Live 07
NBA Live 07
NBA Live 07 is a video game released on the Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PC by EA Sports. The product features Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets on the cover. In the Spanish version Pau Gasol is featured.-Features:...
".
Background
The song was picked up by Downtown RecordsDowntown Records
Downtown Records is a record label owned and operated by Downtown Music LLC. Music on the Downtown label is distributed by Universal Music's Fontana Distribution and, for certain releases, as a joint venture with Atlantic Records and also for select releases, by Alternative Distribution Alliance...
. Brian Burton's manager sent the song to Downtown's A&R Josh Deutsch because they were looking for an independent label with the same resources as a major. According an interview with Deutsch in HitQuarters
HitQuarters
HitQuarters is an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It is noted for in-depth interviews with industry figures, with past subjects including Simon Cowell, Martin Kierszenbaum, Jason Flom, Diane Warren, Peter Edge, Ron Fair and RedOne, as well as its A&R...
, he heard the song and signed it after a single listen. He said:
"Once in a while you hear a record that is obviously so important on so many levels. The beauty of my position is that it's very direct. If I find something I like there’s no bureaucratic process associated with signing it."
By the time the record was signed to Downtown there was already a huge swell of anticipation, in part due to the established reputation of the two artists but even more as a result of the demo being played on BBC Radio One and sparking a big online awareness. The record began to break even before the deals with Downtown Records were complete. On its release "Crazy" became the most downloaded song in the history of the UK music business, going to number one in the strength of downloads alone.
Composition and inspiration
Musically, "Crazy" was inspired by film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
s of spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s, in particular by the works of Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
, who is best known as the composer of Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
's Dollars Trilogy
Dollars Trilogy
The "Dollars Trilogy" , also known as the "Man with No Name Trilogy", refers to the three Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars , For a Few Dollars More , and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly .A Fistful of Dollars is an unofficial remake of...
, but more specifically the song "Last Man Standing" by Gian Piero Reverberi and Gianfranco Reverberi from the 1968 spaghetti Western Viva! Django (Italian: Preparati la bara), a sequel to the better-known Django
Django (film)
Django is a 1966 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the eponymous role. The film earned a reputation as being one of the most violent films ever made up to that point and was subsequently refused a certificate in Britain until 1993, when it was...
.
"Crazy" not only samples the song, but utilizes the parts of the main melody and chord structure. The original songwriters for "Last Man Standing" are credited by Gnarls Barkley for this song alongside their own credits.
The lyrics for the song developed out of a conversation between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. According to Danger Mouse "I somehow got off on this tangent about how people won't take an artist seriously unless they're insane... So we started jokingly discussing ways in which we could make people think we were crazy... Cee-Lo took that conversation and made it into 'Crazy,' which we recorded in one take."
Critical
This song was number one on Rolling Stone′s 2009 list of the 100 Best Songs of the Decade. They also placed it as the 100th greatest song of all time.In October 2011, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
placed it at number 32 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Chart performance
In the United Kingdom, following its release as a digital download on March 13, 2006, the song debuted at the number one spot on the UK Download Chart on March 22, 2006.At the time chart rules allowed a song to appear in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
based on their download sales if a physical equivalent was to be released the following week. "Crazy" became the first number one single based on download sales alone (selling over 31,000 times that week), on April 2, 2006, with the CD single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
being released one day later. It remained on top of the single chart for nine weeks and on top of the download chart for a record 11 weeks, until the single was pulled from British stores by the band and their record label on May 29, 2006, after seven consecutive weeks at number one, so people will "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it." The last song to spend such a long time at number one in Great Britain was "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish pop rock band that formed in the 1980s. They scored a number of hits in the British charts and around the world. The band is composed of Marti Pellow , Tommy Cunningham , Graeme Clark and Neil Mitchell...
in 1994, which was number one for 15 weeks.
"Crazy"'s 11 weeks at the top of the UK Download Chart were the longest stay on that chart that any song has achieved as of 2006. Despite its official removal, record shops had enough stock remaining to sell 19,827 physical copies; along with download sales, this kept the song at number two in the chart week ending June 10, 2006. The following week, ending June 17, "Crazy" was at number five, before disappearing completely from the Top 75 a week later, as under chart rules a physically deleted single could not remain on the chart longer than two weeks after deletion date. Thus, "Crazy" made history at both ends of its chart run. It marked the most rapid exit from the British chart ever for a former number one, and makes number five the highest position at which a single has ever spent its final week on the chart.
In the first week of 2007, "Crazy" recharted at number 30, based purely on downloads. The chart rules had been changed yet again, allowing any sold song to chart, irrespective of whether or not it was still on sale in stores.
Due to continued download sales, the single became a million seller in January 2011. It was the 104th single to do this.
During its long stay in the British charts, the single also entered multiple other single charts throughout Europe, including the German, the Swedish, the Austrian and the Irish Singles Chart
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...
s, and the Dutch Top 40
Dutch Top 40
The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...
, resulting in a number one position on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles
The European Hot 100 Singles has been compiled by Billboard and Music & Media magazine since March, 1984. The chart is based on national singles sales charts in 15 European countries: Austria, Belgium , Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden,...
.
It also performed strongly outside Europe, with top-five positions on the New Zealand and Australian Single Charts
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
, and was also certified gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in both countries. On 29 May 2006, the single went down in New Zealand music history by becoming the 500th number one single in New Zealand since the official Top 40 chart was started in 1973. The Discount Rhinos Full Control Remix of the track also featured in the Top 20 of the Australian ARIA Club chart.
When the album St. Elsewhere was released in the United States on 9 May 2006, the song had debuted at #91 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. The song reached the Top 40 on May 23, 2006. In the summer of 2006, "Crazy" spent seven consecutive weeks in the #2 spot, but because of the massive airplay and sales of Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...
's "Promiscuous
Promiscuous (song)
"Promiscuous" is a dance-pop/R&B song by Canadian recording artist Nelly Furtado, from the album, Loose . It was written by Furtado, Timothy "Attitude" Clayton, Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills, with the latter pair handling production of the song...
," it never reached #1. It became the year's first single to peak at #2 and never reach #1. The song also charted well on other charts, hitting #7 on the US Modern Rock chart
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
and #53 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
.
Music videos
Going along with the psychiatric theme of the song, Gnarls Barkley's music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Crazy" is done in the style of the Rorschach inkblot test
Rorschach inkblot test
The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning...
. Animated, mirrored inkblots morph into another, while taking on ambiguous shapes. Both Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse appear in the shapes, as do the band's gunshot/heart logo, "Satan", a cranium and various animals, including centipede
Centipede
Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
s, birds, bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s, and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s.
The inkblot illustrations were done by art director and motion graphic designer Bryan Louie, whose other works include commercial campaigns for the Scion tC
Scion tC
The Scion tC is an automobile manufactured and sold by Scion, a division of Toyota. Introduced in the United States in June 2004 and Canada in 2010. The name tC does not fit in with its stablemates the xA, xB, and xD, because the name XC designation has already been used by Volvo for its lineup of...
. The music video for "Crazy" was directed by Robert Hales
Robert Hales (director)
Robert Hales is a graphic designer and music video director from the United Kingdom. Hales has directed music videos by artists such as Jet, The Veronicas, Fuel, Stereophonics, The Donnas, Justin Timberlake, Nine Inch Nails, Miley Cyrus, Gnarls Barkley and Crowded House...
, who had previously directed music videos for Jet
Jet (band)
Jet are an Australian rock band formed in 2001 while attending St Bede's College Mentone in Melbourne, . The band consists of lead guitarist Cameron Muncey, bassist Mark Wilson, and brothers Nic and Chris Cester on vocals/rhythm guitar and drums respectively...
, Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
and Richard Ashcroft
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999, and continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards...
, amongst others.
The video was nominated for three 2006 MTV Video Music Awards
2006 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on August 31, 2006, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. The show was hosted by Jack Black at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
: Best Group Video
MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video was first given out at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards; and in 2007, going along with how the VMAs were revamped that year, the award was renamed Best Group, as it awarded the artist's body of work for the full year rather than a specific video...
, Best Direction
MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction
The following is a list of MTV Video Music Awards winners for Best Direction in a Video. In 2007, the award was briefly renamed Best Director, but it returned to its original name for the 2008 awards....
, and Best Editing
MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing
The following is a list of MTV Video Music Awards winners for Best Editing in a Video. Five artists are tied for the record of biggest winner in this category, each having won the award twice: Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., Madonna, The White Stripes, and Gnarls Barkley. The latter two, in fact, won...
, and won the latter two. It was also nominated for a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award
MTV Europe Music Awards 2006
The MTV Europe Music Awards hit Copenhagen at the Bella Center/Rådhuspladsen in 2006. The venue was made to feel like a VIP club with exclusive, intimate performances...
for Best Video, but lost to "We Are Your Friends" by Justice vs. Simian.
Before the final music video was finished, the band's UK label released a different video to media outlets such as the BBC. This early promo, directed by Mina Song, is also completely animated and features several symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
s from many cultures and religions that appear in a disjointed harmony to the lyrics. Lyrics of the song, and again the band's gunshot/heart logo also appear prominently. The video also includes elements of the single's cover art.
The song was in the 2010 movie Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass is a creator-owned comic book series written by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita, Jr. It is published by Marvel Comics under the company's Icon imprint....
.
Tracklisting
UK CD Single- "Crazy" – 2:58
- "Just a Thought" (Edit) – 2:41
UK 12" Vinyl
- "Crazy" – 2:58
- "Crazy" (Instrumental) – 3:03
Australian CD Single
- "Crazy" – 2:58
- "Just a Thought" (Edit) – 2:41
- "The Boogie Monster" – 2:50
Violent Femmes cover
Violent FemmesViolent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
have released a cover of the song on June 24, 2008, through the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
and on a limited edition, baby blue 12" vinyl
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
. It was their first newly recorded song since 2000. Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley is an American soul duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. Their first studio album St. Elsewhere was released in 2006; along with its first single "Crazy". Both single and album were a major commercial success and have been noted for their large sales by download...
had previously covered the Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
song "Gone Daddy Gone
Gone Daddy Gone
"Gone Daddy Gone" is a song written by Gordon Gano and originally recorded by his group Violent Femmes for their 1983 eponymous debut album....
" on their album St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere (album)
St. Elsewhere is the debut album by United States hip hop soul duo Gnarls Barkley. It was released on April 24, 2006 in the United Kingdom, where it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, and on May 9, 2006 in the United States, although it was available for purchase one week earlier as a...
.
Gnarls Barkley described the Violent Femmes' version as: "I might compare it to a calm pond. I caught my reflection in it. And I seemed to be momentarily at peace. This track sounds entirely different in the rain, and supports some intriguing lilypads." The Violent Femmes hosted a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
contest beginning June 10, 2008, with a cash award of $1,000USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
and "other cool prizes" for creating and submitting a promotional video clip.
Violent Femmes track listing
- "Crazy" – 3:28
- "Crazy (Instrumental)" – 3:30
- "Crazy (A Capella)" – 3:04
Other covers and remixes
Possibly due to the song's enormous success and international popularity it is frequently coveredCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by other artists. The Kooks
The Kooks
The Kooks are an English indie rock band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2001. Formed by Luke Pritchard , Hugh Harris , Paul Garred , and Max Rafferty , the lineup of the band remained constant until 2008 and the departure of Rafferty...
,
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...
,
and The Zutons
The Zutons
The Zutons are an English indie rock band from Liverpool. They were formed in 2001 but did not release their first album, Who Killed...... The Zutons?, until May 2004. They achieved their biggest hits with "Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?" and "Valerie", both taken from their second studio album...
have covered "Crazy" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge
Live Lounge
The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio station BBC Radio 1. Originally hosted by Jo Whiley on her mid-morning radio show and now hosted by Fearne Cotton, it exhibits well-known artists usually performing one song of their own and one by another artist, in an acoustic format...
. The Kooks' version was released on Radio1's Live Lounge, while Furtado's version was released as a B-side on her UK single "Promiscuous
Promiscuous (song)
"Promiscuous" is a dance-pop/R&B song by Canadian recording artist Nelly Furtado, from the album, Loose . It was written by Furtado, Timothy "Attitude" Clayton, Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills, with the latter pair handling production of the song...
" and she performed the song live with Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
singer Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church
Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...
on The Charlotte Church Show
The Charlotte Church Show
The Charlotte Church Show was a Channel 4 entertainment television show presented by Welsh singer Charlotte Church. It was first broadcast on 1 September 2006 and ran for 6 subsequent Fridays. The show was commissioned for a further two series, the first of which aired from 23 February to 6 April...
.
Folk singer Ray LaMontagne
Ray LaMontagne
Raymond "Ray" Charles Jack LaMontagne is a Grammy-award winning American singer-songwriter. LaMontagne has released four studio albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain and God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise. He was born in New Hampshire and was inspired to create music after...
has also covered the song, a version very well received by critics and
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
had delayed the release of her debut album Paris
Paris (Paris Hilton album)
Paris is the debut studio album by American media personality and singer Paris Hilton, released on her own label, Heiress Records, in association with Warner Bros. Records. The album was released in the United States on August 22, 2006...
to include a cover of "Crazy" as well, although it was not included in the final track list.
G4
G4 (band)
G4 were a four-piece British vocal troupe who first came to prominence when they finished second in ITV's talent show The X Factor in 2004. The members met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which the name G4, standing for "Guildhall 4", derives.-The X Factor:G4 auditioned for the...
also included a cover of "Crazy" on their Act Three
Act Three
Act Three was the third and final album to be released by X Factor runners-up G4. The album included a duet with Stephen Gately on the song "No Matter What", Gately having sung the lead on the original version of the song with his band Boyzone. This was the third album of rock, pop and...
album.
Other artists, including Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
, The Raconteurs
The Raconteurs
The Raconteurs is an American rock band that was formed in Detroit, Michigan, featuring four members known for other musical projects: Jack White , Brendan Benson , Jack Lawrence , and Patrick Keeler .-Formation:The...
,
Billy Idol
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad , better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X...
,
The Academy Is...
The Academy Is...
The Academy Is... was an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 2003. Before dispersing, they were signed by the Decaydance imprint of the Fueled by Ramen label. They were originally known as "The Academy", but added the "Is..." in 2004 to avoid legal complications with other...
(with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
),
Butch Walker
Butch Walker
Butch Walker is an American recording artist, songwriter, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the metal band SouthGang from the late 80s to early 90s as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for rock band Marvelous 3 from 1997 until 2001.-Career:Walker grew up in Cartersville,...
,
Texas
Texas (band)
Texas are a Scottish pop band from Bearsden, near Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone in 1986 and feature Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee...
, The Twilight Singers
The Twilight Singers
The Twilight Singers is an American indie rock band. The group was initially formed as a side project of The Afghan Whigs leader Greg Dulli in 1997...
, Mates of State
Mates of State
Mates of State are an American indie pop duo, active since 1997. The group is composed of the husband-and-wife team of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel .Over the course of the band's fourteen year career, they've released three EPs and six full-length, studio...
, Paco Estrada & One Love, and of Montreal
Of Montreal
Of Montreal is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontman Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a failed romance with a woman "of Montreal." The band is one of the bands of the Elephant 6 collective...
have performed cover versions of the song live in concert. Trey Lorenz
Trey Lorenz
Trey Lorenz is an African American singer and songwriter. He was born in Florence, South Carolina and is a graduate of Wilson High School.-Biography:...
(Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
's backup singer) has also performed the song on Carey's The Adventures of Mimi Tour
The Adventures of Mimi Tour
The Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, The Hits, The Tour was a 2006 concert tour of arenas by American R&B singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was one of a few tours in her then-sixteen year career and was named after a fan's "Carey-centric" diary of the same name...
throughout the summer and autumn of 2006. Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
performed the song on A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
on 4 November 2006. On her recent tour, Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
performed the song during her set. Singer-songwriter Jude
Jude (singer)
Jude , is an American singer and songwriter. His music ranges from acoustic to pop, featuring poetic lyrics, Beatles-esque melodies, and memorable vocals.-History:...
's cover of the song is available free on his website. Beyoncé has also performed the song intertwined with her own hit, "Crazy in Love
Crazy in Love (song)
"Crazy in Love" is the debut single by R&B singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles, featuring rapper and now-husband Jay-Z. Producer Rich Harrison, Knowles and Jay-Z wrote the song for Knowles' debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. "Crazy in Love" is an R&B love song which incorporates elements of...
", at her performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston, is the world's largest live entertainment and livestock exhibition. It also includes the richest regular-season rodeo event. It has been held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003...
.. She has also decided to use this 'Crazy In Love/Crazy' collaboration for her The Beyoncé Experience
The Beyoncé Experience
The Beyoncé Experience was the second worldwide concert tour by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé in support to her second solo album B'Day. According to Vibe, the tour grossed over $18.1 million.-Background:...
world tour, which has already travelled across Japan, Australia, Europe and now North America.
Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
covered the song in his one-off performance at London's KOKO Club on 10 May 2007, and at several of his 21 concerts at London's O2 Arena in August & September 2007. Paolo Nutini frequently covers the song at his concerts. Australian Idol 2007 contestant Natalie Gauci
Natalie Gauci
Natalie Gauci is an Australian singer of Italian and Maltese descent. Gauci undertook music tuition at the Victorian College of the Arts, formed her own band that played gigs in Melbourne, while also working as a music teacher...
covered the song during the Doin' It For The Kids special, using her own arrangement. On November 6, 2008, the band OneRepublic
OneRepublic
OneRepublic is an American pop rock band from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins, the band achieved massive success on MySpace, becoming the most prominent unsigned act on the website then...
covered "Crazy" in front of a hometown crowd at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, CO. British soul singer Alice Russell
Alice Russell (singer)
Alice Russell is a British soul singer. She was born in 1975, the daughter of an organist, and grew up in Framlingham in Suffolk. At the age of nine, following in her father and sisters' musical footsteps, Alice began taking lessons on Cello, and sang in choirs, before studying art and music in...
included a cover of the song in her 2008 album Pot Of Gold.
Similarly, many unofficial remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es and mashups
Mashup (music)
A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
of the song were released as white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
s and are circulating on file sharing networks
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
and MP3 blog
MP3 blog
An MP3 blog is a type of blog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. They are also known as "musicblogs" or "audioblogs". MP3 blogs have become increasingly popular since 2003...
s. The Discount Rhinos Full Control Remix of the track even reached number 15 of the Australian ARIA Club chart.
Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
performed a freestyle over "Crazy" on his mixtape Da Drought 3
Da Drought 3
- Background :This is the third in the trilogy of mixtapes in Da Drought series. Released in 2007, the mixtape was delayed slightly as a result of Wayne's last-minute decision to add songs to the album's second disc. The album is available as a free legal download. It contains mostly remixes of...
. Many other rappers have created their own renditions/remixes of Crazy, including A.C., Joe Budden
Joe Budden
-Early life:Budden was born in Spanish Harlem, but lived in Queens until he was 12 and from there moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. He is one of five boys...
, Remy Ma
Remy Ma
Reminisce Smith , better known by her stage name Remy Ma, formerly known as Remy Martin, is a Grammy nominated American rapper and former member of Fat Joe's rap crew, Terror Squad...
and Kardinal Offishall
Kardinal Offishall
Jason D. Harrow , better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall , is a Canadian rapper and record producer. He is often credited as Canada's "hip-hop ambassador", and is best known for his distinctive reggae and dancehall-influenced style of hip-hop.-Life and career:Harrow was born in...
.
A video performance of the song with the vocal track played on a theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
is available on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, as is a response video with the theremin and percussion being played by robots.
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
guitarist David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
has also been heard singing the song in soundchecks, notably on his On an Island
On an Island
On an Island is the third solo album by David Gilmour, best known as vocalist and lead guitarist for Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was Gilmour's first new solo album in 22 years...
tour in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
.
Jason Castro, David Archuleta
David Archuleta
David Archuleta, is a former United States Air Force Airman of Okinawan stationary troops and is currently an American male kickboxer.-Biography:...
, and Asia'h Epperson all performed this song on the seventh season of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, but were not aired. Following the end of the season, Archuleta performed the song on Good Day Utah, and Castro performed the song during his set on the American Idols LIVE! Tour. Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...
, American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
Season 8 finalist, performed this song at the Art 4 Life Benefit Show 2008. Lambert also performs this song in numerous stages, most popularly at the Upright Cabaret.
An a cappella version of this song was performed by Overboard
Overboard (a cappella)
Overboard is a male a cappella group based in Boston, MA. The group's repertoire consists of a cappella covers of popular contemporary pop/rock artists, such as Train, The Script, and Rascal Flatts, and of a cappella standards, such as "Blue Moon", "In the Still of the Night" and "Stand by Me".-...
, a Boston-based a cappella group, for their 2006 album, "Shipwrecked".
Take That
Take That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
used part of this song in the middle of "Relight My Fire" at the Beautiful World tour in 2007. Vocalist Lloyd Wade sang the snippet, whilst Take That were dancing a voodoo themed cover.
Pink
Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
performed a cover version of the song on her 2009 Funhouse Tour
Funhouse Tour
The Funhouse Tour was the fourth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Pink. The tour supported her fifth studio album, Funhouse. The tour visited Europe, Australia and North America....
.
The musical duo Scratch Track
Scratch Track
Scratch Track is best described as an Acoustic Hip-Hop Soul band that formed in Tennessee in 2000. The group is composed of Vocalist/Beatboxer DJ Lee and Guitarist Jason Hamlin. Scratch Track is currently based out of Kansas City, MO...
performs a cover of "Crazy" at their live shows.
On 25 June 2009, OneRepublic
OneRepublic
OneRepublic is an American pop rock band from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins, the band achieved massive success on MySpace, becoming the most prominent unsigned act on the website then...
performed a cover version of "Crazy" as part of their set on the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
program Soundstage
Soundstage (TV program)
Soundstage is an American live concert television series produced by WTTW Chicago and HD Ready. The original series aired for 13 seasons between 1974 and 1985; a new series of seasons began in 2003, with the latest running through summer 2009, each presented in high definition with surround...
.
On 12 February 2010, American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
season 8
American Idol (season 8)
The eighth season of American Idol premiered on January 13, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2009. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson continued to judge the show's contestants, along with Ryan Seacrest as host. The season introduced Kara DioGuardi as the fourth judge on the Idol...
finalists Kris Allen
Kris Allen
Kristopher Neil "Kris" Allen is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol...
, Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...
, and Allison Iraheta
Allison Iraheta
Allison Iraheta is an American singer from Los Angeles, California, who was the fourth place finalist on the eighth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, Iraheta won the Telemundo competition Quinceañera: Mamá Quiero Ser Artista. Following the conclusion of Idol, Iraheta was signed to a record...
, dubbing themselves "Kradison", performed "Crazy" as the final encore of Allen's set during Ryan Seacrest
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan John Seacrest is an American radio personality, television host, network producer and voice actor. He is the host of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, a nationally syndicated Top 40 radio show that airs on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and throughout the United States and Canada on Premiere Radio Networks,...
’s Rock My Town concert.
In 2011, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i singer Ninet Tayeb released a duet version of the song with a puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
. This version was a part of the Israeli musical-puppet TV show Red Band.
The song was performed on the new NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Reality show The Voice by the judges Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Adam Levine
Adam Levine
Adam Noah Levine is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the front man and guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is also a coach on the American talent show The Voice.-Early life:...
, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton
Blake Shelton
Blake Tollison Shelton is an American country music artist. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". Released as the lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" went on to spend five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...
.
In 2011, alternative rock band Relient K
Relient K
Relient K is an American rock band formed in 1998 in Canton, Ohio by Matt Thiessen, Brian Pittman, and Matt Hoopes during the band's junior year in high school and their time at Malone University...
covered the song on their Is for Karaoke
Is for Karaoke
Is For Karaoke is a 2011 cover album by American rock band Relient K. The first seven songs were released on July 28 as Is for Karaoke EP, and on October 4 the remaining songs were released as Is for Karaoke Pt...
EP.
Norwegian jazz singer Solveig Slettahjell
Solveig Slettahjell
Solveig Slettahjell, born 2 April 1971, is a Norwegian jazz singer, known for her soulful, seductive voice. Her debut album 'Slow Motion Orchestra' was released in 2003, and contains jazz standards like "All the Way" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". For her second album, Silver , 'Silver', her band...
recorded a slow jazz version of the song on her 2011 album Antologie.
Charts
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
2 |
| Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
1 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 3 |
| Hot Canadian Digital Singles | 1 |
| Dutch Singles Chart Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
3 |
| Eurochart Hot 100 Singles Eurochart Hot 100 Singles The European Hot 100 Singles has been compiled by Billboard and Music & Media magazine since March, 1984. The chart is based on national singles sales charts in 15 European countries: Austria, Belgium , Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden,... |
1 |
| French Singles Chart | 3 |
| German Singles Chart | 3 |
| Hungarian Singles Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
1 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
1 |
| Italian FIMI Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... Singles Chart |
2 |
| Norwegian Top 20 Single Charts VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
2 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... Singles Chart |
1 |
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
4 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
2 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
53 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
6 |
Year-end
| End of year chart (2006) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Singles Chart | 4 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 7 |
Decade-end charts
| (2000–2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Singles Chart | 20 |
Certifications
{| class="wikitable"|-
!Country
!Certifications
(sales thresholds)
|-
|Germany
|Platinum
|-
|United Kingdom
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
|Platinum & Million Seller
|-