"Crazy" is the debut single by Gnarls Barkley, a musical collaboration between Danger Mouse and CeeLo Green, taken from their 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and other countries.
The song was leaked in late 2005, months before its regular release, and consequently received massive airplay on BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom, most notably by radio DJ Zane Lowe, who also used the song in television commercials for his show. When it was finally released in March 2006, it became the first single to top the UK Singles Chart on download sales alone. The song remained at the top of the British charts for nine weeks (which no other song had achieved in over ten years, and was only surpassed by Rihanna's "Umbrella" in July 2007) before the band and their record company decided to remove the single from music stores in the country so people would "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it." In spite of this deletion, the song became best-selling single of 2006 in the UK. Due to continued download sales, it reached a million sales in January 2011.
The song won a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in 2007, and was also nominated for The Record of the Year in the United Kingdom, which it lost to "Patience" by Take That. It was also nominated and further won a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song. The song was also named the best song of 2006 by Rolling Stone and by the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. The song was listed at
#11 on Pitchfork Media's top 500 songs of the 2000s. The song is also in the
#45 place in the list of the best songs ever of Acclaimed Music. In 2010, it was placed at
#100 in the "updated" version of Rolling Stone 's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and ranked at the top position of Rolling Stone 's top 100 songs of the decade (2000–2009). "Crazy" was notably performed at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, with the band members dressed as various Star Wars characters.
CRAZY - Gnarls Barkley
I remember when,
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so special about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space
And when you're out there without care
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Possibly
And I hope that you are
Having the time of your life
But think twice
That's my only advice
Come on now, who do you
Who do you, who do you, who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control?
Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart
To live their lives out on a limb
And all I remember
Is thinking, I want to be like them
Ever since I was little
Ever since I was little
It looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done
But maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably
ouh ouh crazy