Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCVI--Shakin' Stevens: You Drive Me Crazy

When my first wife and I were still newlyweds, I used to bring home all the promotional singles from the Camelot Music store that I managed and after dinner we'd listen to several of them to entertain ourselves, in the days when we were too poor to do much else.  Admittedly, it was probably more enjoyable for me than her, but I was amazed at the number of songs (mostly from up and coming artists, most of whom we'd never heard of, some who never did hit the big time) that we ended up liking.  One such tune was this week's featured song--and it still serves as a reminder to me that there's a hell of a lot of music out there, and even though I'll never be able to discover all of it, to try and enjoy all the more the tunes I do find.

Shakin' Stevens was born Michael Barrat in Cardiff, Wales in 1948 (first artist from Wales here on FNJ, I believe).  He started his working career as a milkman while playing gigs on the weekends before embarking on a music career in earnest with his first band, Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets, in the late sixties.  Stevens' band had very little commercial success though they toured a lot before he was offered a role in the musical Elvis! in London in 1977.  Stevens parlayed the hit show into a solo career, and throughout the eighties was the best selling singles artist in the UK.  While Stevens has never done anything here in the States, in his native UK he has had 33 top forty singles, four number one singles, two number two singles, and three top ten albums.  Over the course of his career, he has released twenty studio albums, twenty-one compilation albums, and 69 singles.  He released his last album in 2016, and will be touring the UK and Europe in 2019.  Good thing he gave up on that milkman gig....

"You Drive Me Crazy" was released in 1981 on Steven's only #1 LP, Shaky (Stevens' nickname, for those wondering, which is probably no one...).  The single would hit #2 (with a bullet...maybe, because I don't know if the UK Top 75 has bullets on hit records) on the UK  Singles chart, and #1 on the charts in Australia, Denmark, and Ireland (so many cool kids in Australia, Denmark, and Ireland...).

Fun Fact:  Though I'm sure she doesn't remember it, my daughter did a mean two legged stomp to "You Drive Me Crazy" when she was a toddler...

For those not familiar with Shakin' Stevens (which would probably be most anyone outside of Europe and the UK), his shtick is basically as a fifties cover artist extraordinaire (great gig in the UK which is nuts for fifties rock and roll), though he generally sticks to less well known songs from that era.  While "You Drive Me Crazy" definitely has a fifties vibe to it, it is actually an original song written around the time the song was recorded.  There's nothing fancy about this one--catchy music, love song lyrics, and an echoed chorus (Cray-ay-zee...).  Stevens sings with a lot of joy and gives the song a real rockabilly feel and there's a short guitar solo as well as some "It's got a good beat and I could dance to it" drumming.  If you're looking for "Born to Run" or "Baba O'Reilly" this one probably isn't for you, but if you like to shake your hips a bit and sing along, it'll do just fine.

Lyric Sheet:  "And when I'm looking in those big blue eyes/I start a'floating 'round in paradise/You drive me crazy..."

Enjoy:

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emaycee