Crazy Love
Encyclopedia
"Crazy Love" is a romantic ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

  written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

 and included on his 1970 album, Moondance
Moondance
Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on Warner Bros. Records on 28 February 1970 and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart....

. The song was released as a single in May 1970 with "Come Running
Come Running
"Come Running" is a song written by singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1970 album Moondance."Come Running" was also the only song to survive the Astral Weeks demos for Warner Bros. in 1968.-Recording:...

" as the A side, and again in Holland with "Come Running" as the B side. The cover of the single shows Morrison with his then-wife, Janet "Planet" Rigsbee. The photograph was taken by Elliot Landy, the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...

.

Duets with Van Morrison

Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 introduced Van Morrison by starting the first verse before Van's appearance when he was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2003. Morrison and Charles then finished with a duet of "Crazy Love". Ray Charles remarked about this performance: "It meant a lot to sing 'Crazy Love' on stage that evening." Genius Loves Company
Genius Loves Company
Genius Loves Company is the final studio album by rhythm and blues and soul musician Ray Charles, posthumously released August 31, 2004 on Concord Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between June 2003 and March 2004...

, Ray Charles' 2004 album, includes this duet featuring the two singers.

Van Morrison and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 sang a duet of "Crazy Love" on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 film, One Irish Rover in 1991.

In the media

"Crazy Love" has featured in several movies including: She's Having a Baby
She's Having a Baby
She's Having a Baby is a 1988 American romance film directed by John Hughes.The film portrays a young newlywed couple, Kristy and Jake Briggs played by Elizabeth McGovern and Kevin Bacon, who try to cope with being married and what is expected of them by their parents. Jake must also deal with the...

(1988), starring Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....

, Always (1989) with Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...

, Leaving Normal
Leaving Normal (film)
Leaving Normal was a 1992 American road movie which featured two female leads. Directed by Edward Zwick and written by Ed Solomon, the film's plot resembled the more commercially-lucrative 1991 film Thelma & Louise...

(1992) and Phenomenon
Phenomenon (film)
Phenomenon is a 1996 romantic fantasy-drama film written by Gerald Di Pego, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, and Robert Duvall....

(as covered by Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville is an American soul and R&B singer and musician. He has had four top-20 hits in the United States along with four platinum-certified albums...

 and Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

), (1996) starring John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

. Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy (singer)
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...

's cover of "Crazy Love" was featured in the 1994 movie, When a Man Loves a Woman
When a Man Loves a Woman (film)
When a Man Loves a Woman is a 1994 American romantic drama film written by Al Franken and Ronald Bass, starring Andy García, Meg Ryan, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Tom and Philip Seymour Hoffman....

.

Acclaim

"Crazy Love" was listed as No. 198 on the All Time 885 Greatest Songs compiled in 2004 by WXPN
WXPN
WXPN is a non-commercial, public radio station operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that broadcasts a music radio format called adult album alternative , along with many other format shows supported all with an indie slant...

 from listener's votes.

Other releases

The duet featuring Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 and Van Morrison as performed at the 2003 SHOF awards is one of the 31 songs on the compilation album The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3
The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3
The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3 is a compilation album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, that was released on June 11, 2007 in the UK with a digital version released in the U.S. on iTunes Music Store, on June 12, 2007. Manhattan/EMI Music Catalog Marketing released the CD...

released in 2007. The original version from Moondance
Moondance
Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on Warner Bros. Records on 28 February 1970 and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart....

is one of the hits included on the 2007 compilation album, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits
Still on Top - The Greatest Hits
Still on Top – The Greatest Hits is the third compilation album to be issued by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison in 2007 . It was released...

.

Covers

"Crazy Love" has proven to be a classic cover song over the years and has been performed by many popular artists. Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy (singer)
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...

's and Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville is an American soul and R&B singer and musician. He has had four top-20 hits in the United States along with four platinum-certified albums...

 and Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

's versions were featured in movies. Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy , often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop", is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10...

 scored her first Adult Contemporary Billboard Top 10 hit with her cover version. Some of the other artists who have recorded the song are: Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B/Pop musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet....

, A cappella versions include Overboard's
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".-...

 rendition on their 2008 album, "Castaways". 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 3 finalist Jon Peter Lewis
Jon Peter Lewis
Jon Peter Lewis is an American singer and songwriter, and was one of the finalists on the third season of the reality/talent-search television series American Idol...

 included his version on his 2010 EP Jon Peter Lewis. Cara Dillon
Cara Dillon
Cara Dillon is an Irish folk singer. In 2001, she launched her career as a solo artist in the UK with the eponymous Cara Dillon album...

's live performance of "Crazy Love" was featured on the Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 show in April 2010.

Personnel

  • Van Morrison
    Van Morrison
    Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

     - vocals
  • John Klingberg - bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  • Jeff Labes
    Jeff Labes
    Jef Labes is an American keyboardist, best known from his work with Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. He has also arranged for string and woodwind instruments on numerous albums.-Career:...

     - piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  • Gary Mallaber
    Gary Mallaber
    Gary Mallaber is a Los Angeles session drummer, percussionist and singer. He got his start playing drums in a band from Buffalo, New York, known as Raven....

     - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , vibraphone
    Vibraphone
    The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

  • John Platania
    John Platania
    John Platania is a well-known session musician, guitar player, and record producer.Platania was born in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, in Ulster County, near Woodstock....

     - guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

  • Judy Clay
    Judy Clay
    Judy Clay was an American soul and gospel singer, who achieved greatest success as a member of two recording duos in the 1960s.-Life:...

     - background vocals
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

  • Emily Houston
    Cissy Houston
    Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...

     - background vocals
  • Jackie Verdell
    Jackie Verdell
    Jackie Verdell was an American gospel singer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Musical career:After leaving high school, she joined the The Davis Sisters in 1955, at the start of their tenure with Herman Lubinsky and Ozzie Cadena's record label Savoy Records of Newark, New Jersey...

    -background vocals

External links

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