She Drives Me Crazy

Album

Black Star Elephant

Label

London Recordings

Genre

Dance-rock

Composer(s)

Roland Gift;David Steele

Entered Chart

Jan 28, 1989

Peak Date

Apr 15, 1989

Released

26 December 1988

Recorded

Studio Paisley Park, Chanhassen, Minnesota, US

Catalog #

I.R.S./MCA 53483

B-Side

Pull The Sucker Off

When Fine Young Cannibals first tried to record this, lead singer Roland Gift used his regular voice and the song was "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. This bizarre vocal styling had quite an impact and made the song both a huge hit and inescapable earworm, as it is now impossible to think of the title without Gift's variation burrowing into your brain. The rest of the chorus plays off this styling, ending in some extended words as Gift sings, "I can't he-elp my se-elf." After Barry Levinson heard the music the Fine Young Cannibals provided for Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, he asked them for some songs for a movie he was directing called Tin Men. Levinson wanted fresh music that would still convey the vibe of the '60s-era Baltimore portrayed in the film. "The sound of The Fine Young Cannibals has a sparseness to it," says Levinson in the film's production notes, "and reminds me very much of the uncluttered music of the early '60s. It's somewhat of a basic sound, yet it has an unusual kind of richness in combining modern rhythms with traditional soul music." "She Drives Me Crazy" was one of several songs the group provided for the soundtrack, including "Social Security," "Good Thing," "Hard As It Is" and "Tell Me What." They even appeared in the movie as a house band. This was their first #1 single in the US. They had another just months later - "Good Thing." Despite being from England, FYC never had a #1 single in the UK. The album The Raw and the Cooked went to #1, though. Dolly Parton covered this on her 2008 album, Backwoods Barbie. The country legend explained to Observer Music Monthly April 2008: "It's a song my husband loves. So I did it as bluegrass with a little hoedown towards the end." Report this ad This song got the Weird Al treatment when the parody artist turned it into "She Drives Like Crazy," about a woman you don't want in the driver's seat. Arsenio Hall also recorded a spoof, under the name "Chunky A," called "Ho is Crazy" in 1989. This song was also featured in several other movies, including The Other Sister (1999), Hitch (2005), Towelhead (2007) and The Back-up Plan (2010). Damon Wayans performed part of this song on In Living Color in a parody of the long-running musical variety show Soul Train called "Old Train."

I can't stop the way I feel
Things you do don't seem real
Tell me what you've got in mind
'Cause we're running out of time
Won't you ever set me free?
This waiting 'round's killing me

She drives me crazy like no one else
She drive me crazy and I can't help myself

I can't get any rest
People say I'm obsessed
Everything you say is lies
But to me that's no surprise
What I had for you was true
Things go wrong, they always do

She drives me crazy like no one else
She drive me crazy and I can't help myself

I won't make it on my own
No one likes to be a lone

She drives me crazy like no one else
She drive me crazy, and I can't help myself

She drives me crazy like no one else
She drive me crazy, and I can't help myself

She drives me crazy like no one else
She drive me crazy, and I can't help myself