#MusicMonday – January 20, 2020

It’s Monday, and we’re never gonna survive, unless…we get a little crazy.

Hey, gotta survive somehow!

When I was twelve years old, I went to see Batman Forever in the movie theater…twice.  I also bought the soundtrack, and for some reason, was totally in love with a song about being kissed by a rose on the grave.  Which I’m sure made some kind of sense.  Its singer, Seal, was someone I knew because of a song I’d heard on VH1 the previous summer, “Prayer for the Dying.”  But it was a show called Pop Up Video that would introduce me to yet another very popular song Seal performed, which came before a song about kisses by roses and prayers for dying.  It talked of having to possess a certain condition in order to survive.

“Crazy” is the debut single from British singer Seal, from his 1991 debut album Seal.  Released in September 1990, it was written as inspired by the events of the Berlin Wall falling and the Tiananmen Square Massacre, both occurring in 1989.  He felt the world changing and this song reflects that change.

Based on the lyrics and the music video, I thought it was about mental health.

See if you get that same vibe from the song and video.

“Crazy” reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991, placing at #75 for the year-end charts in 1991.  The song was featured on Pop Up Video in 1995, and parlayed its facts and “did you know” format to discuss mental health, treatment for skin disorders, and the colorblindness of seals, among other facts about different Seals.

By the way, this Seal is not colorblind.

Seal had made his actual debut in 1990, on a single called “Killer,” a collaboration with DJ, singer, and producer Adamski (Adam Paul Tinley), but it was “Crazy” that propelled him to international success.  And it would only get better from there.  A few years later, a song about getting kissed by a certain flower would be a minor hit, but gain much more recognition once it was included on a soundtrack about a vigilante rich playboy with cool gadgets and a black cape.

But before all that, a changing world inspired a small-time singer to write a song that would write his ticket to fame. These days, Seal has been a judge on The Voice Australia, has married Heidi Klum (and divorced her), and is still releasing albums and singles to this day.

Call me crazy, but I think he’s done alright for himself.

Have a great Monday, and enjoy the music!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s