Crazy for You
USA February 20th 1985
Picture Sleeve 7″ A Crazy for You - 4:08 B No More Words (Berlin) - 3:54
Lyricist John Bettis and his song-writing partner Jon Lind were more than a little shocked when they found out who was going to sing the ballad they had written for the film Vision Quest.
"I was on vacation out in the desert, and Joel Sill (then an executive in charge of music for Warner Brothers Pictures) called and said Phil Ramone was in love with the song and wanted to cut it on Madonna," Bettis recalls with a laugh. " 'Borderline' was out at the time and I said, 'Excuse me? This is for Madonna? Really? Can she sing a song like this?' Jon and I were surprised at the choice of artist at the time, if you want to know the truth."
Bettis and Lind had written "Crazy For You" after receiving a copy of the Vision Quest script from Sill. "In reading the script, the place I wanted to write a song for was the first time that the two main characters, a young boy and girl who's a boarder at the house, dance together at a club," Bettis elaborates. "We were noodling around and ('Crazy For You') was something that Jon was singing over that section of the song. It was really descriptive of the scene in the film."
Some time elapsed before they received the call from Sill letting them know that Madonna was going to sing their composition. "We went to one of the sessions, and, to be honest, that particular session didn't go all that well" Bettis continues. "Jon and I were depressed about the way the song had come out. We heard nothing else about it, and we were a little nervous the song was going to be dropped from the picture."
"I went to England to work on the film Legend with Jerry Goldsmith," says Bettis. "When I got home, Jon Lind called me and said, 'Have you heard the new record of "Crazy For You"? I've got a single here for you.' I said, 'What are you talking about? A single? What?' So I went over to his house and he played me a brand new version of it (with) a new arrangement. We owe a big debt of gratitude to a guy named Rob Mounsey, because he completely rearranged the original track and added the background vocals and really made a hit record out of it."
The man who brought Mounsey in to arrange the new recording was the producer John "Jellybean" Benitez. "It was the first time I ever produced a ballad," Jellybean says. "Prior to that I had only produced dance/pop songs or dance songs. It was the first time I ever produced a live session, as opposed to having synthesizers and drum machines do everything.
"I was tense because I had never done a record like this," admits Jellybean, who produced "Holiday" on Madonna's first album. "Everything I did was totally on instinct. I tried to make the song stand on its own, but at the same time work in the two scenes (in which) it was used in the movie."
Jellybean notes that the song was important to Madonna. "She had just (charted with) 'Like a Virgin' and 'Material Girl.' This song really opened up radio as far as Adult Contemporary was concerned. I think people saw that she could really do other things."
Bettis was happy to collect his second number one song ("Top of the World"), but he had his doubts that "Crazy For You" would make it to the top after being stuck at number two for three weeks in a row. "(Going to number one) surprised me very much because we were out at the same time 'We Are the World' was out. Jon and I (said), 'If you gotta lose to something, it might as well be that. Luckily enough, the final week of the upward surge of the record, we topped 'We Are the World,' which lets you know how hot the song and how hot the artist were."
