Let's Go Crazy

"Let's Go Crazy" is a 1984 song by Prince and The Revolution, from the album Purple Rain. It is the opening track on both the album and the film Purple Rain. "Let's Go Crazy" was one of Prince's most popular songs, and was a staple for concert performances, often segueing into other hits. When released as a single, the song became Prince's second number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the two component charts, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs^[7] and Hot Dance Club Play charts,^[8] as well as becoming a UK Top 10 hit. The B-side was the lyrically controversial "Erotic City". In the UK, the song was released as a double A-side with "Take Me with U".

Common to much of Prince's writing, the song is thought to be exhortation to follow Christian ethics, with the "De-elevator" of the lyrics being a metaphor for the Devil.^[9] The extended "Special Dance Mix" of the song was performed in a slightly edited version in the film Purple Rain. It contains a longer instrumental section in the middle that includes a chugging guitar riff, an atonal piano solo and some muddled samples of the spoken word intro. This version was originally going to be used on the album but when "Take Me With U" was added to the track list, it was edited down to its current length.

Cash Box called the song "one of the finest fusions of jump rock and synth pump."^[10]

Following Prince's death, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at number 39 and rose to number 25 by the week of May 14, 2016. As of April 30, 2016, it has sold 964,403 digital copies in the United States.^[11]

In 2013, British rock band The Darkness performed the song at the 44th Annual Rock Music Awards.

Musical style

The song was also notable for opening with a funeral-like organ solo with Prince giving the "eulogy" for "this thing called life."^[12] The introduction's words are overlapped with each other on the single version. The song climaxes with a distinctive drum machine pattern and then features a heavy guitar lead, electronic drums, bass and whirring synthesizers and a climatic drum outro. The song's percussion was programmed with a Linn LM-1 drum machine, an instrument frequently used in many of Prince's songs. The song is also known for its two guitar solos both performed by Prince.^[12]

Track listing

7" Warner Bros. / 7-29216 (US)

1. "Let's Go Crazy" (edit) – 3:46
2. "Erotic City" (edit) – 3:53

7" Warner Bros. / W2000 (UK)

1. "Let's Go Crazy" (edit) – 3:46
2. "Take Me with U" – 3:51

12" Warner Bros. / 0-20246 (US)

1. "Let's Go Crazy" (Special Dance Mix) – 7:35
2. "Erotic City ("make love not war Erotic City come alive")" – 7:24

12" Warner Bros. / W2000T (UK)

1. "Let's Go Crazy" (Special Dance Mix) – 7:35
2. "Take Me with U" – 3:51
3. "Erotic City ("make love not war Erotic City come alive")" – 7:24

Personnel

Credits are sourced from Duane Tudahl, Benoît Clerc, Guitarcloud and Mix.^{[13][14][15][16]}

• Prince – lead and backing vocals, electric lead guitar, piano (Special Dance Mix), Linn LM-1, tambourine
• Wendy Melvoin – electric rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Lisa Coleman – Oberheim OB-SX, backing vocals
• Doctor Fink – Oberheim OB-Xa, backing vocals
• Brown Mark – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Bobby Z. – Linn LM-1, Simmons SDSV, Pearl SY-1 Syncussion, cymbals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Lenz v. Universal

In 2007, Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to "Let's Go Crazy" and posted a 29-second video on the video-sharing site YouTube. Four months after the video was originally uploaded, Universal Music Group, which owned the copyrights to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks—not two weeks, as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act—to see whether Universal planned to sue Lenz for infringement. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair use of the song.^[23]

Later in August 2008, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, of San Jose, California, ruled that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected "fair use" of the copyrighted material. In 2015 the court affirmed the holding that Universal was required to consider fair use before sending its initial takedown request.

See also

• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1984

References

• Uptown: The Vault – The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince: Nilsen Publishing 2004, ISBN 91-631-5482-X

1. ^ Uptown, 2004, p. 50
2. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (June 7, 2023). "Essential Prince: His greatest songs of all time, ranked". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 13, 2025. The hardest rocker Prince ever cut, “Let’s Go Crazy” finds the Purple One preaching that we “Better live now before the grim reaper comes knocking on your door.
3. ^ Elliott, Paul (May 30, 2016). "The Top 20 Greatest Funk Rock Songs". TeamRock. Team Rock Limited. Archived June 2, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
4. ^ Mitchell, Matt (December 8, 2024). "Every #1 Hit From 1984, Ranked Worst to Best". Paste. Retrieved June 16, 2025. Prince’s second #1 hit of 1984, “Let’s Go Crazy” is funk-rock turned to an 11.
5. ^ Levy, Joe (May 18, 2016). "Essential Prince: His Best, Most Overlooked Albums". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 7, 2025. ...and then the glam-garage rocker “Let’s Go Crazy.”
6. ^ The original single release credits the authors of the song as Prince and The Revolution, but the song's authorship is registered with ASCAP as solely by Prince.
7. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 471.
8. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 208.
9. ^ Woodworth, G.M. & University of California, Los Angeles (2008). "Just Another One of God's Gifts": Prince, African-American Masculinity, and the Sonic Legacy of the Eighties. University of California, Los Angeles. p. 268. ISBN 9781109120745. Retrieved 2015-06-22.
10. ^ "Reviews". Cash Box. August 4, 1984. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
11. ^ "Hip Hop Single Sales: Prince, Desiigner & Drake". HipHopDX. April 30, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
12. ^ Ariza, Sergio. "The 10 Best Prince Solos". Guitars Exchange. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
13. ^ Tudahl, Duane (2018). Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984. Expanded ed. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538116432.
14. ^ Clerc, Benoît (October 2022). Prince: All the Songs. Octopus. ISBN 9781784728816.
15. ^ "Purple Rain". guitarcloud.org. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
16. ^ ""Let's Go Crazy"". mixonline.com. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
17. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
18. ^ Nanda Lwin (1999). Top 40 Hits: The Essential Chart Guide. Music Data Canada. ISBN 1-896594-13-1.
19. ^ "Radio Luxembourg Singles". umdmusic.com. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
20. ^ "Prince Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
21. ^ "Talent Almanac 1985: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 51. December 22, 1984. p. TA-19.
22. ^ "Hot Rock Songs – Year-End 2016". Billboard. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
23. ^ Egelko, Bob (August 21, 2008). "Woman can sue over YouTube clip de-posting". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-25.