| "Let's Go Crazy" | |||||||||||||||||||
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U.S. 7" single |
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| Single by Prince and The Revolution | |||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Purple Rain | |||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Erotic City" "Take Me with U" (UK) |
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| Released | July 18, 1984[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Format | 7" single 12" single |
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| Recorded | The Warehouse, St. Louis Park, Summer 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Funk, hard rock, dance-rock | ||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 7" edit: 3:46 Album: 4:39 12": 7:35 |
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| Label | Warner Bros. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Prince | ||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Prince | ||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA) - November 7, 1984 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Prince singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||
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"Let's Go Crazy" is a 1984 song by Prince and The Revolution, from the album, Purple Rain. It was the opening track on both the album, and the film Purple Rain. "Let's Go Crazy" is one of Prince's most popular songs, and is almost always a staple for concert performances, often segueing into other hits. When released as a single, the song became Prince's second number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the two component charts, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[2] and Hot Dance Club Play charts,[3] as well as becoming a UK Top 10 hit. The B-side was the lyrically controversial "Erotic City". In the UK, the song was released as a double A-side with "Take Me with U".
Common to much of Prince's writing the song is thought to be exhortation to follow Christian ethics, with the "De-elevator" of the lyrics being a metaphor for the Devil.
The extended "Special Dance Mix" of the song was performed in a slightly edited version in the film Purple Rain. It contains a longer instrumental section in the middle, including a solo on an apparently out-of-tune piano and some muddled lyrics, repeating the track's introduction.
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The song was also notable for opening with a funeral-like organ solo with Prince giving the "eulogy" for "this thing called life." That eulogy ends with a distinctive drum machine pattern and then quickly becomes a hard rock number with heavy guitar, bass and synthesizers. The song's percussion was programmed with a Linn LM-1 drum machine, an instrument frequently used in many of Prince's songs.
In 2007, Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to "Let's Go Crazy" and posted a 29-second video on the video-sharing site YouTube. Four months after the video was originally uploaded, Universal Music Group, which owned the copyrights to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Later in August 2008, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California ruled that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected "fair use" of the copyrighted material. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks—not two weeks, as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act—to see whether Universal planned to sue Lenz for infringement. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair use of the song.[5]
| Preceded by "Missing You" by John Waite |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single September 29, 1984- October 6, 1984 |
Succeeded by "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder |
| Preceded by "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean |
Billboard's Hot Soul Singles number one single October 6, 1984 |
Succeeded by "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder |
| Preceded by "No Favors" by Temper |
Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single (with "Erotic City") September 29, 1984 |
Succeeded by "The Medicine Song" by Stephanie Mills |