Crazy (Aerosmith song)

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"Crazy"
"Crazy" cover
Single by Aerosmith
from the album Get a Grip
B-side(s) "Gotta Love It"
Released 1994
Format Cassette, CD
Recorded 1993
Genre Hard Rock
Length 05:16
Label Geffen
Producer(s) Bruce Fairbairn
Chart positions
Aerosmith singles chronology
"Deuces Are Wild" (1994) "Crazy" (1994) "Blind Man" (1994)

"Crazy" is a song performed by American hard rock band Aerosmith and written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Desmond Child. It was the final single from Aerosmith's wildly popular 1993 album Get a Grip. It was released as a single in 1994 and peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Contents

[edit] Lyrical Interpretation

The song's lyrics are about a woman who comes and goes and is unfaithful, and the woman's "crazy ways" drive the narrator "crazy."

[edit] Video

A screenshot of Alicia Silverstone and  Liv Tyler exiting a gas station photobooth in the popular music video for "Crazy"
A screenshot of Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler exiting a gas station photobooth in the popular music video for "Crazy"

The video for the song (which was directed by Marty Callner) received heavy rotation on MTV and was one of the most requested videos of 1994. It featured the 3rd appearance of Alicia Silverstone in the band's videos, as well as the career debut of Steven's then-teenaged daughter Liv Tyler. The decision to cast Liv in the video for "Crazy" was based on the video's creators having seen her in a Pantene commercial, with absolutely no knowledge her father was in the band. The video was very film-like and depicted the two as schoolgirls who skip class and run away, driving off in a black Ford Mustang convertible. The two use their good looks to take advantage of a service station clerk, and needing money, enter an amateur dance competition. The video is noteworthy for its very risque and suggestive sexual scenes, many of which may suggest lesbianism in the characters. The video also shows the similarities in stage moves of Steven Tyler and daughter Liv. In the end, the girls win the amateur dance competition. They continue their joyride the following day, where they encounter a young farmer tilling land in the countryside. They persuade him to join them in their journeys, where they all go for a skinny dip in a lake, and nearly abandon him. The final seconds of the video show the word "Crazy" spelled out in cursive in the cropland by the still-running tractor.

On the video compilation Big Ones You Can Look At, a slightly altered director's cut of the video appears.

[edit] Success

The song was the second highest chart performance for the band out of all the singles for Get a Grip. The song also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal in 1994. This was the band's second Grammy win for Get a Grip and third Grammy award overall.

The video for "Crazy" was selected #23 in VH1's Top 100 Music Videos of All Time.

[edit] Legacy

Despite the song bringing much success for the band in the mid 1990s and appearing on a number of compilations including Big Ones, A Little South of Sanity, O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, and Devil's Got a New Disguise, the band has rarely performed it during their constant touring the past five years.