"She Drives Me Crazy" is a song recorded by the Fine Young
Cannibals, included on their 1989 album
The Raw and the Cooked. The song peaked at #5 in the
band's native UK in January 1989 before hitting #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. on April 15, 1989. It also made
number 3 on the Dutch Top 40. A remixed version was released in
1997.
During a short time in 1999, the song was used temporarily
(because of legal issues with the theme song) as the theme for
Rush Limbaugh's radio show, and is currently used by WSB
Radio's Clark Howard.
The unique snare drum "pop" sound was created by recording
the snare drum portion separately. A speaker was then placed on
top of the snare drum, and a microphone below. The original
recording of the snare drum part was played back through the
speaker and re-recorded.
This song is one of five songs played on the main menu of
the arcade game compilation Namco Museum 50th Anniversary.
Two music videos were produced for the video, one by
Philippe Decouflé and one by Pedro Romhanyi. Similar to
Decouflé's only other music video, New Order's "True Faith",
his version includes extensive choreography and performers in
unusual costumes, including two identical dancers with
completely different colored-outfits, as well as a person with
a television on their head. This version received several
nominations at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best
Video.
Dolly Parton recorded a cover of the song for her 2008
album,
Backwoods Barbie, titled "Drives Me Crazy." It was
released as a single to Adult Contemporary stations in January
2009.
The song was parodied twice: In 1989, by "Weird Al" Yankovic
as "She Drives Like Crazy" on the soundtrack album "UHF"; and
in 1991 by Guns and Moses as "They Drive me Brady", which
featured audio snippets of
The Brady Bunch.
The Muppets parodied the song with additional lyrics by Jim
Lewis for the 1994 album Kermit Unpigged.[1] A music video
(directed by Jim Yukich) featured cameo appearances by
celebrities such as Fran Drescher, John Landis, Ozzy Osbourne,
Phil Collins, Pam Tillis, David Hasselhoff and Helen Hunt. In
the UK version there were still some American stars, but it was
edited to include more of Ozzy Osbourne, along with some UK
stars like Gloria Hunniford and even a member of
Eastenders.
Sesame Streetparodied the song
andthe group performing it as "C Drives Me Crazy" by the
"Fine Young Camels".
British a cappella group The Flying Pickets covered the song
on the album
The Original Flying Pickets.