This is a chart I did on Microsoft Excel this morning of the “single” version, downloaded from iTunes, of Gnarls Barkley’s #1—for days on iTunes at least—of the song called Crazy.
As far as the history of the song, what one would consider standard liner notes: I found the best information at the blog of a college student/working his way through school– a man from a college in Illinois. His name is Taylor Johnston, and he writes a fantastic set of entries in wikipedia, at http://www.musicblogwiki.elwiki.com/index.php/Music_For_Kids_Who_Can’t_Read_Good and at http://www.musicformats.blogspot.com, and other places. I emailed TJ for permission for this effective, efficient entry—have not heard back yet—so I may have to take this down! (enjoy it while we have it).
From TJ’s blog:
“…The Evolution of “Crazy”
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….”
Thank you TJ, I hope. I prefer doing the number to the words, and if you allow this post to stay: good job. If not…oh well.
Thank you also to “The Sexiest Man On 83rd Street,” 1999, 2000—the Yankees fan with perfect hair and a musical family: “JVC.” JVC told me over a month before Barkley broke through: Look out for that song. And JVC is one to believe—when there was a voting dispute in 2000, he said, “first, Pat counted all seven votes and he’s objective, and second, neither I or my wife ever vote for me. And, man, even if we had, you had plenty of other voters.”
