When Fine Young Cannibals first tried to record this, lead singer Roland Gift used his regular voice and the song was "She's My Baby." No one involved with the recording liked it, but a revamping of the lyrics and a falsetto voice for the new "She Drives Me Crazy" changed everybody's opinion of the song. This bizarre vocal styling had quite an impact and made the song both a huge hit and inescapable earworm, as it is now impossible to think of the title without Gift's variation burrowing into your brain. The rest of the chorus plays off this styling, ending in some extended words as Gift sings, "I can't he-elp my se-elf."
After Barry Levinson heard the music the Fine Young Cannibals provided for Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, he asked them for some songs for a movie he was directing called Tin Men. Levinson wanted fresh music that would still convey the vibe of the '60s-era Baltimore portrayed in the film. "The sound of The Fine Young Cannibals has a sparseness to it," says Levinson in the film's production notes, "and reminds me very much of the uncluttered music of the early '60s. It's somewhat of a basic sound, yet it has an unusual kind of richness in combining modern rhythms with traditional soul music." "She Drives Me Crazy" was one of several songs the group provided for the soundtrack, including "Social Security," "Good Thing," "Hard As It Is" and "Tell Me What." They even appeared in the movie as a house band.
This was their first #1 single in the US. They had another just months later - "Good Thing."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.