Song: “She Drives Me Crazy”
A 1989 hit with a weird drum sound and unusual falsetto stands the test of time
This 1989 song was originally titled “She’s My Baby” and sung by Roland Gift in his normal voice. It didn’t make it past the musicians in the studio, who uniformly hated it. In a panic, it was revamped as “She Drives Me Crazy” with Gift using his clean falsetto, and the Fine Young Cannibals immediately realized they had captured lightning in a bottle.
The song was featured in the Barry Levinson film, Tin Men, where the Fine Young Cannibals also appeared as a house band. The song reached #1 on the US charts, #5 in the UK, and the album (The Raw and the Cooked) spawned another #1 US hit, “Good Thing.”
Produced by Prince associate David Z and recorded in Studio B of Prince’s Paisley Park complex, the unique snare drum “pop” was created by recording the snare drum portion, placing a speaker on top of the snare drum and a microphone below, and then playing the snare drum back through the speaker and recording the result.
Weird Al performed a parody of the song (“She Drives Like Crazy”), and Dolly Parton recorded a bluegrass version on her 2008 album, Backwoods Barbie.
Enjoy!