687 Hello Seal - Crazy

Chart  entered : 8  December  1990

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits : 15

It's  another  slice  of  chart  irony  that  just  as  Holly  Johnson  made  his  departure, his  old  adversaries  at  ZTT  resurrected  themselves  with  this  one.

Seal  Samuel  was  born  in  London  to  a  Nigerian  mother  and  Brazilian  father  in  1963. He  was  raised  by  a  foster  family  and  studied  architecture  at  college. He  started  singing  in  bars  and  joined  a  funk  band  Push  in  1987.  He  toured  with  them  in  Japan  and  stayed  in  the  Far  East  travelling  for  a  while. He  had  a  bout  of  lupus  which  left  scars  on  his  face. He  had  his  first  brush  with  fame  when  he  sang  on  S'Express's  1988  hit  "Superfly  Guy"  and  appeared  in  the  video. While  living  in  a  squat  in  London, he  started  attending  illegal  raves   and  met  producer  Adamski  who'd  recently  had  a  hit  with  "N-R-G".

The  two  got  together  to  work  on  a  track  marrying  Adamski's  instrumental  track  " The  Killer"  to  Seal's  lyric  about  overcoming  adversity. It  was  an  update  of  the  old  Yazoo  formula  of  matching  up  cold  electronics  with  soulful  vocals. Although  cheaply  recorded, the  track  took  off  like  a  bomb  and  quickly  reached  number  one  in  the  summer of  1990. Although  many  sources  now  refer  to  the  single  as  being  by   "Adamski  featuring  Seal"  or  similar  wording, the  release  at  the  time  credited  Adamski  alone. Seal  had  a   hit  with  a  re-recorded  version  in  November  1991.

Seal  was  now  a  hot  property  and  ZTT  won  the  race  for  his  signature  , Seal  wanting  to  work  with  Trevor  Horn. Seal  wrote  the  lyrics  to  "Crazy"  about  the  ordinary  man's  response  to  momentous  events  like  the  fall  of  the   Berlin  Wall and  Tiananmen  Square  and  keyboardist  Guy  Sigsworth  wrote  the  music. Horn  worked  on  the  song  for  a  couple  of  months  before  he  was  satisfied  with  the  mix. "Crazy"  is  set  to  a  lightly  funky  rhythm  helped  along  by  the  wah-wah  work  of  Simply  Red  guitarist  Kenji  Suzuki   and  a  swirling  semi-ambient  keyboard  wash  that  became  one  of  the  signature  sounds  of  the  decade. Seal  rasps  in  laidback  version  until  the  impassioned  section  after  the  hip  hop  break. Seal's  New  Age  leanings  were  not  to  everyone's  taste  but  this  is  one  of  the  most  well-crafted  singles  of  the  nineties. It  was  a  Top  10  hit  all  over  the  world  reaching  number  7  in  the  US.