I Go Crazy (Paul Davis song)

"I Go Crazy" is a song written, composed, and recorded by American singer-songwriter Paul Davis. It was the first single released from his 1977 album Singer of Songs: Teller of Tales, and his second-highest peaking pop hit, peaking at #7 on the Billboard chart in 1978. The song entered the Hot 100 on August 27, 1977 and began slowly climbing, peaking in March and April 1978, before dropping off the chart the week after May 27, 1978. Overall, it spent 40 weeks (nine months and one week) on the Hot 100, setting what was then the record for the longest run on that chart.

During the March 4, 1978 American Top 40 show, Casey Kasem said that Davis begged his studio to have the song presented to Lou Rawls, who he thought would make it a huge success. But when the studio saw how much faith he had in the chances of the song's success, it instead decided to release a lightly edited version of Davis's own studio demo version. (Rawls did release his cover version of the song two years later.)

Content
The lyrics describe the feelings of a man who has an unexpected meeting with a former girlfriend. Both have moved on from the relationship, and he had thought she was out of his life forever. Looking at her, however, rekindles his old affection and makes him "go crazy", at least inwardly. To his credit, he does not act on these feelings, though he does realize that he is not really over her.

Personnel
Instrumental credits taken from Mixonline.


 * Paul Davis - lead and backing vocals, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Crumar Univox Stringman
 * Alan Feingold - grand piano, ARP Odyssey
 * Kenny Mims - electric guitar
 * Ed Seay - backing vocals, bass guitar
 * James Stroud - drums
 * Michael Zager - string arrangement

Covers
The song has been covered by several artists, including four whose versions were released as singles:
 * Lee Greenwood, on his 1989 album If Only for One Night; Greenwood's version was issued as a single that summer for the country music market
 * Will Downing, on his 1991 album A Dream Fulfilled; Downing's version was also a single
 * David D also covered this song in the early nineties
 * Barry Manilow, on his 1996 album Summer of '78
 * DHT, on their 2005 album Listen to Your Heart
 * Hong Kong singer Leon Lai covered it in Cantonese titled "心爱"