Crazy (Seal Song)

"Crazy" is a song written by the English singer Seal and British songwriter Guy Sigsworth. It was produced by Trevor Horn for Seal's debut album, ''Seal'' (1991) and became his first commercial hit. It reached the top five in the United Kingdom, while becoming his first top ten single in the United States. It has since been covered by several artists, including Alanis Morissette, whose version was released as a single from her 2005 compilation album, '' The Collection''.

Background and composition

Seal wrote "Crazy" in 1990 inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In 2015, Seal said of the song's conception in 1990: "I felt the cycle had reached its apex. I felt the world changing and I felt profound things happening."

According to the song's producer Trevor Horn, "Crazy" was made over the course of two months: "Crazy wasn't an easy record to make, because we were aiming high."

The song's signature is a keyboard mantra that continually swells and swirls, driven by bass-heavy beats and wah-wah pedal guitars played by Simply Red guitarist Kenji Suzuki. Its floating, ambient stylings established a sound years before ''The Politics of Dancing'' by Paul Van Dyk or William Orbit's work with Madonna and All Saints. Orbit produced a remix of the track for the single release. Seal's vocals are deeply melodic and soulful, at times with a characteristic rasp, while at others soaring high above the backing track. In an interview with Q, Seal told:

I had no doubt about 'Crazy'. I always thought it was a potential No. 1—even though it never was! It's the first song I wrote on the guitar, and the first song where I said everything I wanted to say in a concise way. Before that my songs had been too long. But as soon as I wrote the hook, I knew it was a potential hit.

Release and commercial performance

In the United Kingdom the song was released as the first single from the album ''Seal'' in November 1990 (see 1990 in music) and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in January 1991 and is Seal's biggest solo hit there.everyHit - UK Top 40 Hit Database
. Retrieved 17 December 2006. The single sold over 200,000 copies, thus earning a British Phonographic Industry, BPI Silver certification. It won Seal a number of awards including the 1992 Ivor Novello award for songwriting.

The single was released in the United States in 1991, debuting at number eighty-three on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in mid-June; it peaked at number seven in late August and remained on the chart for nineteen weeks, until October. It reached the top five on the Alternative Songs, Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top twenty on the Dance/Electronic Singles Sales, Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart.[ "Seal - Artist Chart History"]. ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard''. Retrieved 17 December 2006. It was the most commercially successful single from ''Seal'' and was Seal's biggest hit in the US until "Kiss from a Rose", which reached number 1 in 1995. In August 2003 an acoustic version of "Crazy" charted at number four on ''Billboards Hot Digital Tracks chart.''Billboard (magazine), Billboard''. 16 August 2003.

Critical reception

Larry Flick from ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' felt that the UK newcomer "comes on like a cross between Terence Trent D'Arby and Lenny Kravitz on this keyboard-driven funk'n'soul music, soul jam." The Daily Vault's Jason Warburg stated that it is "an obvious club track with its propulsive synthesizer melody and driving rhythm section. The Shaft guitar part closing out the bridge is a nice touch, too, demonstrating just how effectively Seal has grafted synthesized electronic dance music, dance music onto its funk roots." Pan-European magazine ''Music & Media'' called it "adventurous techno-pop by this promising UK singer who sang on Adamski's recent hit single Killer (Adamski song), Killer. Produced by Trevor Horn, this classy, galloping mix of funk, soul and pop is currently riding high on the UK charts. Europe should be next." Bob Mack from ''Spin (magazine), Spin'' noted Seal's "stirring vocal that's being compared to Marvin Gaye" and added that "based on a '70s cop-show-type bass synth line, "Crazy" flows natch enough that you hum along on first listening." Siobhan O'Neill commented on the song in the 2010 book ''10,001 Songs You Must Hear…'', "Full of drug and dance scene references, "Crazy" blends soulful lyrics and husky vocals with Horn's trademark sweeping orchestration and a voguish electronic backing—a combination that, in the wake of this and Massive Attack, became the template for a whole strand of dance music."

Music video and use in other media

The single's music video, directed by Big TV!, features multiple re-creations of Seal himself performing the song against a primarily white background. A female dancer appears just before the bridge (music), bridge of the song, and at the end Seal holds a dove while snow falls on him. The video received Rotation (music), heavy rotation on MTV Europe.

The song is played during a party scene in the film ''Naked in New York'' (1993), is heard in a ''Baywatch'' episode, in the trailer for the film ''The Basketball Diaries (film), The Basketball Diaries'' (1995) and featured in a scene in ''Clockers (film), Clockers'', released in 1995. It is also heard in the middle of "True Calling", the second episode of Season 6 of TV's ''Cold Case (TV series), Cold Case''. It was also used as a theme song for the ABC-TV series ''Murder One (TV series), Murder One,'' which was transmitted during the 1995–96 United States network television schedule, 1995–1996 television season. It is also heard in the film ''Mystery Date''. The song featured in the 1999 Robbie the Reindeer film ''Hooves of Fire'', where it is performed by a seal.

Track listing

* 7"
# "Crazy" – 4:30
# "Sparkle" – 3:36

* CD
# "Crazy" – 4:30
# "Crazy" – 5:09
# "Krazy" – 6:26 '

* CD maxi-single
# "Crazy" – 4:30
# "Crazy" – 5:25
# "Crazy" – 6:57
# "Crazy" – 3:27
# "Sparkle" – 6:23
# "Krazy" – 6:27
# "Crazy" – 3:50
# "Crazy" – 6:47

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Cover versions

The hard rock band Talisman (band), Talisman covered the song on their 1995 album ''Life (Talisman album), Life'', and a version by power metal band Iron Savior is included as a bonus track on their 2002 album, ''Condition Red (Iron Savior album), Condition Red''.

Two cover versions were released in 2003: one by punk covers band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their 2003 album ''Take a Break (album), Take a Break'', and another by alternative metal band Mushroomhead as a hidden track on their 2003 album, ''XIII (Mushroomhead album), XIII''. In 2004, the song was covered by Brooklyn Bounce.

Indie artist Brian Eaton covered the song on his 2011 pop/rock album, ''Graphic Nature''.

French pop singer Tal (singer), Tal covered this song for her debut album, ''Le droit de rêver'', in the deluxe edition released in 2012.

Alanis Morissette version

Alanis Morissette covered the song for a Gap (clothing retailer), Gap advertisement in 2005, and a James Michael-produced remix of her version, which was originally produced by Morissette's longtime collaborator Glen Ballard, was released as a single from her greatest hits album, '' The Collection'' (2005). Her version is briefly heard over an establishing shot of Central Park in the 2006 film ''The Devil Wears Prada (film), The Devil Wears Prada''. Morissette said of the cover, "it's poking fun not only at how I've been perceived but also at what I've accurately been perceived as." She called the main line in the song, "You're never going to survive/Unless you get a little crazy", "one of the simplest, yet most profound statements."

Chart performances

Released in the US in mid-October 2005 (see 2005 in music), Morissette's cover was less successful than Seal's original; it failed to chart on the Hot 100, instead debuting and peaking at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart (which comprises the most popular songs yet to enter the Hot 100) in late November.''Billboard (magazine), Billboard''. 3 December 2005. It was another top ten hit for Morissette on the Adult Top 40 chart and was popular in nightclubs, becoming Morissette's second top ten Hot Dance Club Play hit after "Eight Easy Steps" (2004). It reached number twenty-nine in Canada and the top forty across much of Continental Europe, but in the United Kingdom it became Morissette's lowest peaking single, reaching sixty-five.

Music video

The single's video was directed by Meiert Avis, who directed the video for Morissette's "Everything" (2004), and shot in Los Angeles, California in the week ending 24 September.Staff
"For The Record: Quick News On Young Buck, Dr. Dre, Bright Eyes, Switchfoot, Elliott Smith, Jin & More"
. MTV News. 30 September 2005. Retrieved 17 December 2006. In it Morissette is seen walking the streets at night, performing the song in a club and obsessively following a man (played by Chris William Martin) and his girlfriend. Eventually, Morissette confronts the man at a party. During a 22 October appearance on the UK television show ''popworld'', Morissette said the video's final shot, which is of a photo showing her and the woman close together, is supposed to reveal to the audience (who, before this point, are meant to believe the man is her ex-boyfriend) that she was actually following the woman.

Track listing

# "Crazy"
# "Crazy"
# "Crazy"
# "Crazy"
# "Crazy"

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crazy (Seal Song)
Seal (musician) songs
1990 debut singles
1991 singles
Alanis Morissette songs
2005 singles
Dance-pop songs
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Number-one singles in Sweden
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Song recordings produced by Trevor Horn
Songs written by Guy Sigsworth
Songs written by Seal (musician)
Music videos directed by Big T.V.
Music videos directed by Meiert Avis
1990 songs
ZTT Records singles
Sire Records singles