Junk in the Trunk: Drive’s Daily Blog for Friday May 30

Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.

REAR VIEW MIRROR:

Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Gnarls Barkley and "Crazy." 

The biggest song of 2006 was inspired by Italian cowboy movies and music biz resentment.

"Crazy," the debut single by Gnarls Barkley, a collaboration between DJ and producerDanger Mouse and singer Cee Lo Green, was the biggest song of 2006 and the first song to go to number one on the charts on the strength of downloads alone.

The song became so huge and dominated thew charts in the UK for so long, the band made the unheard of decision to remove the song from record stores so people would remember the song fondly and not get sick of it.

The music for the song was inspired by the original scores of classic spaghetti westerns. Danger Mouse was a big fan of the composer Ennio Morricone, who was a frequent collaborator of the director Sergio Leone, who made films like A Fist Full of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

But in particular, Danger Mouse loved the music from a film called Viva! Django. He sampled a song from that film for "Crazy."

The lyrics of the song were inspired by a conversation between Danger Mouse and Cee Lo. Cee Lo offered to Danger Mouse his theory that people don't take artists seriously unless they think that artist is insane. They went on to joke about how they could make people think they were crazy. After that conversation, the song was written very quickly and was recorded in one take.

Here's the song that took over the world in 2006 – this is "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.



Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:

Big Joe Turner/Shake Rattle and Roll

Martha and the Muffins/Echo Beach

Wilson Pickett/In The Midnight Hour

The Band/The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Fleetwood Mac/Go Your Own Way

The Animals/House of the Rising Sun

Ian and Sylvia/Four Strong Winds

James Brown/Please Please Please

John Cougar Mellencamp, 'Pink Houses'

Leonard Cohen/Suzanne

The Ramones/I Wanna Be Sedated

Blue Rodeo/Try

The Guess Who/American Woman

U2/I Still Have't Found What I'm Looking For

Janis Joplin/Me and Bobby McGee

Gordon Lightfoot "If You Could Read My Mind"

The Byrds "Eight Miles High"

Simon and Garfunkel "The Sound of Silence"

Bill Haley and his Comets "Rock Around The Clock"

The Velvet Underground "I'm Waiting For The Man"

Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues"

Bobby Fuller "I Fought The Law"

Big Star "September Gurls"

The Hollies "Bus Stop"

Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Booker T and the MGs "Green Onions"

Jimi Hendrix "Hey Joe"

Neil Young "Rockin' in the Free World"

Dolly Parton "Jolene"

The Left Banke "Walk Away Renee"

Lou Reed "Walk On The Wild Side"

James Taylor "Fire And Rain"

The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing"

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"

M.I.A. "Paper Planes"

The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"

Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"

Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Cheap Trick "Surrender"

Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"

Beach Boys "Sloop John B"

Amy Winehouse "Rehab"

New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"

Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"

George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"

The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Rolling Stones 'Miss You'

The Coasters 'Run Red Run'

Elvis Costello, 'Alison'

James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'

Inner Circle, 'Tenement Yard'

Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'

Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'

Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'

Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley'

Aretha Franklin, 'Rocksteady'

CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'

Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'

Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'

Roy Orbison, 'In Dreams'

Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'

Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'

Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'

Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'

Little Eva, 'Loco-Motion'

Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'

Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'

The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'

Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'

R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe'

Radiohead, 'No Surprises'

Led Zeppelin, 'Ramble On'

Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'

Rolling Stones, 'Beast of Burden'

JUNK IN THE TRUNK:

Jenga cat: 

A concerned sea lion: 

Dog helps baby escape: 

RICH'S PICK: "Tippi Toes" by The Meters:

MARK'S PICK: "Would" by Alice in Chains