I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Encyclopedia
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" is the fifth song from U2
's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The song was released as the album's third single in a digital format on 25 August 2009 and in a physical version released on 7 September 2009. Two music videos were made, one directed by David O'Reilly
, and one by Alex Courtes.
in the creation of the track. It was first developed by Brian Eno
under the title "Diorama" during a break in the recording sessions. The band reworked the track under the new title of "Crazy Tonight" before retitling it again as "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight". Several of the song's lyrics were influenced by Barack Obama
's presidential campaign. Bono stated to Q
magazine that the lyrics "[sound] like a T-shirt slogan to me", also noting that it was No Line on the Horizons equivalent to "Beautiful Day
".
, one of three performances of the song during No Line on the Horizon promotional appearances.
Redanka's "Kick the Darkness" remix arrangement of the song was played throughout the U2 360° Tour
. Club feel lighting accompanied the song, while Larry Mullen, Jr. walked around the outer stage playing a djembe
. The performance in this unfamiliar style was intended to disorient the audience as the band moved from the "personal" first half of the concert into the "political" second half. (The only time the album version was performed during the tour was during the second show of the 360 Tour° in Barcelona
where it was performed two times. For the first time the band played the remix and, then, as one of the encores, the album version was performed for a video shoot.)
channel. Directed by David O'Reilly and designed by Jon Klassen, it is the band's first animated music video since 1995's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
", and is one of the few not to feature the band. It depicts several people in a city undergoing hardships, and the events that interconnect them and bring them happiness as they decide to make changes in their lives. The video was entered in the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival
.
The second music video was directed by Alex Courtes and produced by Malachy Mcanenny. While the O'Reilly video plays over the studio version of the song, the Courtes version is the single edit. It consists of a live performance taken from the U2 360° Tour, filmed at Camp Nou
in Barcelona
, Spain
, on 2 July 2009.
called "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" the band's "most unabashed pop song since 'Sweetest Thing'," while Mojo
labelled it a "superficial pop anthem formed around a dainty kernel of pure melodic gold", calling the performance "[s]o cumulatively devastating is the band's delivery that it enobles the succession of cute self-referential Bono homilies." Blender
likened the "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"'s piano parts to the hook of the Journey
song "Faithfully
", while Rolling Stone
noted that the lyrics reflected Bono's inability to meet his own ideals. Rolling Stone also likened the "harrowing" beginning of the O'Reilly video to a Disney film, calling the animation "incredible". Eoin Butler, writing in The Irish Times
The Ticket supplement, was less enthused about the release, labelling it U2's "most lacklustre offering to date" The song was nominated in the categories "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals" and "Best Rock Song" for the 52nd Grammy Awards
in 2010.
The song appeared in the Dutch Tipparade and the Triple-A chart prior to its release, peaking at 4 on the Tipparade and 8 on the Triple-A.
's sponsorship of the U2 360° Tour
.
, all music composed by U2, except "Magnificent" (music also by Brian Eno
and Danny Lanois
, and lyrics also by The Edge
).
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The song was released as the album's third single in a digital format on 25 August 2009 and in a physical version released on 7 September 2009. Two music videos were made, one directed by David O'Reilly
David O'Reilly (artist)
David O'Reilly is an Irish film director and artist based in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for creating animated short films with a stripped down aesthetic.-Work:...
, and one by Alex Courtes.
Writing and recording
The band collaborated with will.i.amWill.i.am
William James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...
in the creation of the track. It was first developed by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
under the title "Diorama" during a break in the recording sessions. The band reworked the track under the new title of "Crazy Tonight" before retitling it again as "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight". Several of the song's lyrics were influenced by Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's presidential campaign. Bono stated to Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine that the lyrics "[sound] like a T-shirt slogan to me", also noting that it was No Line on the Horizons equivalent to "Beautiful Day
Beautiful Day
"Beautiful Day" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the first track from their 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and it was released as the album's lead single. It was a commercial success, helping launch the album to multi-platinum status, and is one of U2's biggest hits to date...
".
Live performances
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" was first played on 4 March 2009 on the Late Show with David LettermanLate Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, one of three performances of the song during No Line on the Horizon promotional appearances.
Redanka's "Kick the Darkness" remix arrangement of the song was played throughout the U2 360° Tour
U2 360° Tour
The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It was named for a stage configuration that allowed the audience to almost completely surround the stage...
. Club feel lighting accompanied the song, while Larry Mullen, Jr. walked around the outer stage playing a djembe
Djembe
A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
. The performance in this unfamiliar style was intended to disorient the audience as the band moved from the "personal" first half of the concert into the "political" second half. (The only time the album version was performed during the tour was during the second show of the 360 Tour° in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
where it was performed two times. For the first time the band played the remix and, then, as one of the encores, the album version was performed for a video shoot.)
Music videos
The first music video received its world premiere on 17 July 2009 through U2's YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel. Directed by David O'Reilly and designed by Jon Klassen, it is the band's first animated music video since 1995's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" is a 1995 single by U2 from the Batman Forever soundtrack album. A number-one single in their home country of Ireland, the single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, number sixteen on the Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the Billboard Album Rock...
", and is one of the few not to feature the band. It depicts several people in a city undergoing hardships, and the events that interconnect them and bring them happiness as they decide to make changes in their lives. The video was entered in the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival
Ottawa International Animation Festival
-History:In 1976, the Canadian Film Institute founded the biennial Ottawa International Animation Festival . First held August 10 to 15, 1976, the OIAF created a gathering place for North American animation professionals and enthusiasts to ponder the craft and business of animation...
.
The second music video was directed by Alex Courtes and produced by Malachy Mcanenny. While the O'Reilly video plays over the studio version of the song, the Courtes version is the single edit. It consists of a live performance taken from the U2 360° Tour, filmed at Camp Nou
Camp Nou
Camp Nou , sometimes called "the Nou Camp" in English, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The stadium, located in the west of the city, has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957....
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, on 2 July 2009.
Reception
QQ (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
called "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" the band's "most unabashed pop song since 'Sweetest Thing'," while Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
labelled it a "superficial pop anthem formed around a dainty kernel of pure melodic gold", calling the performance "[s]o cumulatively devastating is the band's delivery that it enobles the succession of cute self-referential Bono homilies." Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
likened the "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"'s piano parts to the hook of the Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
song "Faithfully
Faithfully (song)
"Faithfully" is a popular song and power ballad by the band Journey, and the second single from their album Frontiers. It was written by Neal Schon, Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their second consecutive top twenty hit from Frontiers...
", while Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
noted that the lyrics reflected Bono's inability to meet his own ideals. Rolling Stone also likened the "harrowing" beginning of the O'Reilly video to a Disney film, calling the animation "incredible". Eoin Butler, writing in The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
The Ticket supplement, was less enthused about the release, labelling it U2's "most lacklustre offering to date" The song was nominated in the categories "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals" and "Best Rock Song" for the 52nd Grammy Awards
52nd Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, two days prior to the Grammy telecast. Only ten of the 109 awards were received during the broadcast...
in 2010.
The song appeared in the Dutch Tipparade and the Triple-A chart prior to its release, peaking at 4 on the Tipparade and 8 on the Triple-A.
Release
In promotion "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" was used in television commercials for a Blackberry application, called the "U2 Mobile App", which was developed as part of Research in MotionResearch In Motion
Research In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
's sponsorship of the U2 360° Tour
U2 360° Tour
The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It was named for a stage configuration that allowed the audience to almost completely surround the stage...
.
| Date | Type |
|---|---|
| 17 August 2009 | Amazon.com MP3 |
| 25 August 2009 | Digital EP |
| 7 September 2009 | CD |
Track listing
All lyrics written by BonoBono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
, all music composed by U2, except "Magnificent" (music also by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Danny Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
, and lyrics also by The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
).
Promotional releases
Commercial releases
Digital releases
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
7 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 34 |
| Belgian Singles Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Flanders Flemish Region The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system... ) |
18 |
| Belgian Singles Chart Ultratop 40 Ultratop 40 singles, often just Ultratop 40, is the weekly chart of best-selling singles in Wallonia and Brussels Capital Region, the french-speaking parts of Belgium. Its equivalent covering the Flanders region is Ultratop 50. Both charts are produced and published by the Ultratop organization... (Wallonia) |
18 |
| Canadian Hot 100 Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007... |
72 |
| Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
5 |
| Dutch Tipparade | 4 |
| Chart (2009) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Dutch MegaCharts MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
14 |
| French Singles Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
21 |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 32 |
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
47 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 49 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
32 |
| U.S. Billboard Triple-A Adult album alternative Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats.... Tracks |
8 |
See also
- List of covers of U2 songs - I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight