It’s one of those songs that pretty much has you in its thrall from the iconic opening moments. At the time it was released in late 1988, everything about it sounded alien in the best possible way.
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We’re talking about “She Drives Me Crazy”, the biggest hit in the somewhat short-lived career of the British trio named Fine Young Cannibals. The No. 1 smash in the US didn’t exactly inspire a host of imitators because, well, how could anybody try to copy this thing?
Cannibals Assemble!
Andy Cox and David Steele needed a new musical outlet after their previous band, The Beat (also known as The English Beat), called it quits. After auditioning countless singers, they settled on Roland Gift, who was mostly known as a saxophonist before taking the vocalist gig.
They called themselves Fine Young Cannibals after a somewhat obscure 60s movie (All The Fine Young Cannibals). Their self-titled debut album in 1985 immediately gained them solid exposure in Great Britain. Songs like “Johnny Come Home” and “Suspicious Minds” positioned them as a kind of neo-soul act, with Gift’s instantly recognizable vocal style their calling card.
An appearance in the American film Tin Men helped give them some face value in the US. They easily could have continued in the vein of the first album for their follow-up. But they wanted to make a big splash with their lead single from album #2, which led them to seek out none other than Prince as a potential producer.
“Crazy” Talk
Fine Young Cannibals were punching above their weight class in their attempts to corral Prince. But they did get the go-ahead to record at his Paisley Park studios in Minnesota as a consolation. And that’s where they connected with David Z, the producer-instrumentalist who had helped Prince construct his signature sound throughout the 1980s.
David Z proved instrumental in devising the snare drum sound that pops right out of the speakers on “She Drives Me Crazy”. Considering how much open space there is in the arrangement, every element stands out, including Cox’s guitar chord blasts.
Fine Young Cannibals struggled with realizing the song’s potential until Gift switched into a falsetto approach in the verses. “She Drives Me Crazy” took off in a hurry and rode to the top of the charts in 1989. It lifted the band’s follow-up single, “Good Thing”, which also went to No. 1 for the band.
Behind the Lyrics of “She Drives Me Crazy”
“She Drives Me Crazy” tells the age-old story of a guy who can’t quit a girl that she probably should. “I can’t stop the way I feel,” he admits at the beginning of the song. “Won’t you ever set me free?” he asks her. “This waiting ‘round is killing me.”
He realizes that he’s probably pursuing his passion way too far. “People say I’m obsessed,” he admits. After acknowledging that she’s giving him nothing but lies, he takes a pessimistic approach. “Things go wrong, they always do,” he surmises.
Fine Young Cannibals didn’t stick around much longer after that. The Raw And The Cooked, the album that contained this monster hit, would be their last studio LP. But “She Drives Me Crazy” isn’t going anywhere, a pop music classic full of exploding snare drums and falsetto-laced obsession.
Photo by Graham Tucker/Redferns
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