In the course of an earlier blog about car hops, I remembered that Britney Spears dressed up in a car hop costume for the beginning sequences in her song "(You Drive Me) Crazy." This was the third single from her debut album . . . Baby One More Time, released in the third quarter of 1999. The "The Stop Remix!" version, which was the single (rather than the original non-remix), was first included on the motion picture soundtrack of the film Drive Me Crazy (the soundtrack was released on 9-28-99).
-
So this is really a riff on the concept of "driving someone crazy." What exactly does that mean?
-
According to www.answers.com, "[it's about] driving someone mad or banannas or bonkers or nuts or up the wall (even driving someone to drink), meaning you are greatly exasperating someone and annoying them to distraction, even to the point of extreme frustration, if not [imagined] insanity. For example, 'his habitual lateness drives me crazy,' or 'apologizing over and over drives me bannanas,' or 'her constantly chewing gum drives me up the wall.'" These, by the way are also defined as "hyperbolic expressions."
-
I'm sure to many of us, Britney herself, certainly of late, "drives us crazy."
-
As the entry in Wikipedia notes "Britney's song was primarily written and produced by Spears' musical parent, Max Martin. This dance-based single is about her falling head over heels in love with someone, as she proclaims "you drive me crazy." It reached only #10 in the US, but was #1 in Chile and the Philippines. In 2000, the video for "Crazy" (directed by Nigel Dick) was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in the category of Best Dance Video.
-
Another song with elements of the same title, "She Drives Me Crazy," was released by the Fine Young Cannibals on their 1989 The Raw and the Cooked album. Here are a few tidbits from www.songfacts.com: "When FYC first tried to record this, lead singer Roland Gift used his regular voice and the song was originally titled "She's My Baby." No one involved with the recording liked it, but a revamping of the lyrics and a falsetto voice for the new "She Drives Me Crazy" changed everybody's opinion of the song.
-
'"After Berry Levinson heard the music the Fine Young Cannibals provided for Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild, he asked them for some songs for a new movie he was directing called Tin Men. One of the songs the group provided was "She Drives Me Crazy.""
-
This was the FYC's first #1 single in the US. Despite being from England, FYC never had a #1 single in the UK (although the album Raw went to #1).
-
The songtitle "You Drive Me Crazy" had earlier expressions and variants. Ray Scott recorded it for the Satellite label in 1958. "You Drive Me Out of My Mind" was recorded by Buddy Larrisson for the Jabar label in 1963, and Johnny Stark released "Drivin' Me Out of My Mind" for Crystalette in 1957. More recently, Quiet Riot may have released (I'm unclear here) their own inimitable rendition of the concept "You Drive Me Crazy," and NSync most assuredly recorded "I Drive Myself Crazy."
-
There is a wonderful piece on the recording of "She Drives Me Crazy" in Mix Magazine, from March 1, 2001 (you can read the full version at http://mixonline.com/) penned by Dan Daley. There I found these tidbits:
-
"In 1989, David Z was an engineer and producer based in his hometown of Minneapolis, working in the non-unpleasant shadow of the talented and demanding artist then (and now) known as Prince. Z had even recorded the demo that got Prince his first record deal. He continued to work with Prince and his musical minions over the next decade, but by the mid-1980s was chafing to establish his credentials outside of Prince's stable. But his association with Prince would turn out to be beneficial in an ironic way.
-
"""I got called out of the blue on FYC," recalled Z, whose production discography also includes records for Billy Idol, Big Head Todd, Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Prince offspring like Sheila E. "What it was, they wanted to work with Prince for their next record. They were told that Prince doesn't work with anybody that way, as a producer-for-hire. But they also were told there was someone who works with Prince who does. That was me, and they were willing to try it out."
-
"Z had a meeting with representatives of FYC's label, who mentioned the band, then living in London, had been taking an unusually long time between their first and second records. "The label suggested they come to Minneapolis so that they would have no choice but to work and get the record done," says Z, who also points out that there is precious little to do in Minnesota in the wintertime besides hibernate and work. "They faced extreme culture shock when they got over here," he recalled. "They had shaved heads and a punk attitude, and we didn't have a lot of that yet in Minnesota. I took them over to some clubs on First Avenue, and all they could do was comment on how everyone looked so big and blond and Swedish. I don't think they ever really got used to it over here."
-
"Regardless, the band and Z hit it off, and pre-production consisted of sending songs back and forth for consideration. When what would eventually become "She Drives Me Crazy" made it into Z's tape recorder, the melody got his immediate attention. "I called them up and said I love this melody and I could create a great groove for it," Z remembered. "They said they were ready to throw it away, but they started rewriting the lyrics to something they liked better, starting with the title, which immediately made a huge difference. [What was originally] "She's My Baby" is kind of a nebulous sentiment--it's something you say, but it doesn't hit home. Now, "She Drives Me Crazy," that's something every guy in the world has said at least once in his life with conviction.""
-
You absolutely must read Daley's full story to learn how Z created a drum groove using pure studio magic to get the sound that defined this great and everlasting song.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment