(You Drive Me) Crazy
"(You Drive Me) Crazy" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her debut studio album, ...Baby One More Time (1999). Written and produced by Max Martin, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger with additional writing by Jörgen Elofsson and remix by Martin and Rami Yacoub, it was released as the album's third single on August 24, 1999, by Jive Records. It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1999 teen romantic comedy film Drive Me Crazy. The song garnered positive reviews from music critics, some of whom praised its simple formula and noted similarities to Spears's debut single, "...Baby One More Time".
This article is about the Britney Spears song. For the Shakin' Stevens song, see You Drive Me Crazy. For the NSYNC song, see U Drive Me Crazy."(You Drive Me) Crazy" was a commercial success and peaked inside the top ten on the singles charts of seventeen countries. In the United Kingdom, it became Spears's third consecutive single to peak inside the top five, while it reached number 10 in the United States' Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number one in Belgium (Wallonia) and Iceland. An accompanying music video, directed by Nigel Dick, portrays Spears as a waitress of a dance club and she performs a highly choreographed dance routine with the other waitresses. The video premiered on MTV's Making the Video special. It features cameo appearances of actors Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier, who star in the movie Drive Me Crazy, which is named for the song. As part of promotion for the song, Spears performed the song at the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards and 1999 Billboard Music Awards. It has also been included on five of her concert tours.
Background[edit]
Before recording her debut album, Spears had originally envisioned it in style of "Sheryl Crow music, but younger [and] more adult contemporary".[2] However, the singer agreed with her label's appointment of producers, who had the objective to target a teenage audience at the time.[2] She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded in May 1998,[1] with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others.[2] "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was written by Jörgen Elofsson, while song production and additional songwriting was done by Martin, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger.[3] Spears recorded the vocals for the song in March 1998, at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden.[3] It was also mixed at Cheiron Studios by Martin.[3] Esbjörn Öhrwall and Johan Carlberg played the guitar, while bass guitar was done by Thomas Lindberg.[3] Keyboards and programming was done by Kreuger, and additional keyboards by Magnusson.[3] Background vocals were provided by Jeanette Söderholm, Martin, Yacoub and THE FANCHOIR, formed by Chatrin Nyström, Jeanette Stenhammar, Johanna Stenhammar, Charlotte Björkman and Therese Ancker.[3] In May 1999, Martin and Spears went to the Battery Studios in New York City, New York, to re-record the vocals of the track,[4] due to the fact that a remixed version called "The Stop Remix!" was going to be included on the original motion picture soundtrack of the film Drive Me Crazy (1999).[5] "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was released as a remix package as the third single from ...Baby One More Time on August 23, 1999.[6]
Composition[edit]
"(You Drive Me) Crazy" is a pop song.[7] The song's composition follows a simple formula and infuses drums, guitar, and edgy synthesized instruments, including a recurring cowbell,[7][8] and having a roughly similar sound to Spears's debut single "...Baby One More Time" (1999).[9] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, "(You Drive Me) Crazy" is composed in the key of C minor and runs through a moderately slow dance beat infused metronome of 101 beats per minute. Spears's vocals were deemed as heavily processed when compared to the ones of her previous single, "Sometimes".[10] Her vocal range spans over an octave, from the low-key of G3 to the high-note of D♭5.[11] The song's primary chord progression is Cm–A♭-G (vi-IV-III), with a few deviations.[11]
Critical reception[edit]
The song garnered positive reviews from music critics. Kyle Anderson for MTV considered "(You Drive Me) Crazy" as "a similar-sounding anthem [to '...Baby One More Time'] with some streamlined rock guitar taking center stage (there's even a solo). It's catchy enough".[12] Spence D. of IGN considered "(You Drive Me) Crazy" a "[Max] Martin's glossy grown-up pop" song,[13] while Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone called "(You Drive Me) Crazy" a "further hit" from ...Baby One More Time, along with "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" and "Sometimes".[14] Music critic Walt Mueller wrote "When Spears starts to sing on this one, she sounds a lot like Janet Jackson".[15] Christy Lemire of the Associated Press noted that the song and "Stronger" are "so lamely feel-good" tracks that they "could have been the theme song to a 'Karate Kid' sequel".[16] Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called it a "lightly dorky" song,[17] and Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic deemed it as a "fluffy dance-pop at its best".[18] In a list compiled by Sara Anderson of AOL Radio, "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was ranked ninth in a list of Spears's best songs.[19] During the 2001 BMI Pop Awards, "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was honored with the award of Most Performed BMI Song.[20]
While reviewing ...Baby One More Time on its 20th anniversary, Billboard's Chuck Arnold felt that "sparkling with the Midas touch of Max Martin, 'Crazy' perfectly captures the crazy giddiness of young love -- the kind that keeps you up all night".[21] The staff from Entertainment Weekly placed it at number 22 on their ranking of Spears's songs and wrote: "highlighted by her overpronunciation of "you", bell rings, and a backup choir that turns the chorus into a massive singalong. ['(You Drive Me) Crazy'] captures Spears at full force, with a robust vocal performance and an ab-emphasizing choreographed dance, remembered best through its music video".[22] Bustle's Alex Kritelis Reilly preferred the Stop remix over the original album version.[23] Nayer Nissim, from Pink News, deemed it "another perfect bit of late '90s pop. Very nearly as catchy as her debut".[24] Shannon Barbour from Cosmopolitan opined that it was "not her best song, but it's insanely addictive".[25] Nicholas Hautman, from Us Weekly, deemed it the singer's ninth greatest single and said: "This quasi-dorky dance track can be easily summed up using just three words: pure ear candy".[26] For Digital Spy's Alim Kheraj the most notable thing was the song's prominent use of cowbells; "backed up by rock guitars and flawless Max Martin production, Britney sounds confident, her vocals clear and powerful".[27] In 2019, the staff of Billboard ranked the "Stop Remix!" as the 39th greatest song of 1999; Nolan Feeney said that although it was "hardly unrecognizable", Spears's re-recorded vocals, the song's new intro and "her headline 'Stop!' interjection in the reimagined bridge made it something truly worth losing your mind over".[28]
Credits for "(You Drive Me) Crazy" are taken from the single's liner notes.[64]
Technical
Personnel