The Evolution of “Crazy”
June 28, 2006
Origin: You all have heard Gnarles Barkley’s “Crazy” (it’s pretty much impossible to get away from at this point), but have you heard “Nel Cimitero Di Tucson”, which is essentially a raw instrumental form of Crazy. Unless you check alot of random world-music blogs (like me) you probably haven’t. It seems that Gnarles Barkley heavily sampled the song, which comes from the soundtrack of the film, Preparati la bara! (IMDB link here).
It’s very interesting to listen to the original version and be able to hear the progression to it’s current chart-topping form, most noticeably the trumpets from the original were replaced with strings for Gnarles Barkley’s version, but the bass line stays the same nearly the whole song though.
Gianfranco Reverberi – Nel Cimitero Di Tucson
The blogger that found this goes by the name Guuzbourg and he writes for The Spleninda Project. The original post is here. Great find, Guuz!
Covers: You can’t mention the song without talking about the covers, three of which feature an acoustic/stripped down version of the song and one (Twilight Singers) which turns it into a soulful piano jam. Time will tell, what Paris Hilton will do with the song when she covers it. Here’s all four versions:
MP3 The Kooks – Crazy
MP3 Ray Lamontagne – Crazy
MP3 Nelly Furtado – Crazy
MP3 The Twilight Singers – Crazy
MP3 Mates of State – Like U Crazy / Crazy (Gnarles Barkley Cover) update*
Live: Finally, the live performances of Crazy have all have had variations. The MTV version varies the least, other than some wind effects and added a piano melody on “who do you think you are”. The Top of the Pops version slows down the tempo and adds in marching drums, and the Conan version is completely remixed with some funky sound effects at the end. View all three:
Crazy @ MTV Movie Awards – Darth Vader
Crazy @ Top of the Pops – Airplane Pilot
Crazy @ Conan O’Brien – Bathrobe
(courtesy of YouTube)
Overall, I’ve heard this song more than any other single played this year, and I still enjoy it. Does that me crazy? possibly…
![[del.icio.us]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/272216537_6bdbc1edb7.jpg?v=0){kind=small}
Tags: Gnarls Barkley, Mates of State, Nelly Furtado, The Kooks
Posted by Taylor in Covers, Television, Track Review
I absolutly love it!
content rss
June 28th, 2006 at 8:14 am
If you fix these links, youwill make someone very happy!
June 28th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
The Zutons did a version of this for the Radio 1’s live lounge, I can’t find it anywhere or I’d send you it for completeness!
June 28th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
The links are all up, EZarchive has been acting a bit funny today though.
July 5th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Nice find on the origins!
July 6th, 2006 at 2:05 am
is reverberi credited anywhere? shouldn’t he be cashing i on some of the crazy chart-topping?
July 6th, 2006 at 10:50 am
The credits for the song won’t be cashed if you look at the sleeve of the soundtrack hahaha
July 6th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
I think the drum line for the song comes from a Motels song as well, Suddenly Last Summer. Love what Gnarls Barkley did with the pieces and parts.
July 7th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest music posts I’ve seen in a while. Nice find on the source material and nice followup with the covers and performance vids.
July 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
is reverberi credited anywhere?
From the liner notes:
“CRAZY” written by Brian Burton/Thomas Callaway/Gianfranco Reverberi/Gianpiero Reverberi. [...] Incorporates elements of “Last Men Standing” written by Gianfranco Reverberi/Gianpiero Reverberi. [...] The sample of “Last Men Standing” is courtesy of BMG Zomba Production Music Ltd. Used by permission.
shouldn’t he be cashing i[n] on some of the crazy chart-topping?
As credited co-composers, the Reverberis are clearly getting a significant cut of the royalties from airplay and album sales.
July 8th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
where can i find some of these world music blogs?
July 9th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
http://www.myspace.com/reverberi
July 10th, 2006 at 10:02 am
The link to the MTV Awards Performance on YouTube is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCWJVvE0Fk
July 10th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
I love the version from The Kooks and by Ray Lamontagne!
-http://jeepneydiaries.blogspot.com
July 13th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
extremely awesome post. thanks for the links.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Anybody know who snag the version heard on the TV show Medium.
August 8th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
The Racontours did a very entertaining verison of Crazy this weekend at Lollapalooza…Apparently Gnarls returned the complement a day later on the same stage by covering a greenhornes song.
September 9th, 2006 at 1:11 am
Just curious…why did you leave the apostrophe out of the title in “Can’t” yet you added it where it doesn’t belong in the phrase “the progression to it’s current chart-topping form”.
It should be “its” not “it’s”
September 9th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
ralphie, read the name of this blog.
Just curious, why are you checking people’s grammar at 1 a.m.?
September 14th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
What a wonderful post. Highly informative and nicely compiled with the covers and videos. If anyone asked me what music blogs are about I’d show hiim this post as an example. Brillant job!
September 18th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Great post! I be linking.
December 2nd, 2006 at 11:16 am
Links are down again – can you please fix? Thanks!
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Is it possible to update the Nelly Furtado link. My computer crashed and I lost the file and this is the BEST version of “Crazy” out there. Nelly’s voice alone is chilling…
February 12th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Vbulletin…
vulnerabilities have been reported in vBulletin, which can be e…
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
August 17th, 2008 at 2:01 am
how could you possibly for get OF Montreal’s cover??????????
November 28th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Mike Mossberg, I know you reading this forum, please contact me, because I can’t find your contact details.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Hello
As a fresh musicforants.com user i just wanted to say hello to everyone else who uses this forum B-)
January 6th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
What is bumburbia?
January 15th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Hey forum!
You have a very interesting forum.
So i’d like to ask you if a world financial crisis affected someone among you?