Their most famous song, Crazy, is based on a bass line from a spaghetti western theme called (the song, not the movie) Nel Cimitero di Tucson, which means, as you might expect, In the Tuscon Cemetery. It's a pretty sweet line, it's amazing no one sampled it before 2006. The movie was called Preparati la Bara! which means (You) Prepare a Coffin!
It turns out that Crazy is one of the most covered songs of the decade, even if it was overplayed at frat parties from coast to coast. Personally, I think it's a great song. It tied "Bohemian Rhapsody" for most consecutive weeks as #1 in the UK, but they pulled the song before people "got sick of it."
Gnarls Barkley, like Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull before them, is not a single person. In fact, they say they aren't really called Gnarls Barkley most of the time. That's just the name they record under. Whenever they play live, they give themselves a new name, and/or costumes that match to a theme. To wit:
- Chocolate John and the M.D.'s, dressed as doctors and nurses.
- John Nash and the Beautiful Minds, dressed as scientists, opened with "She Blinded Me with Science"
- Mean Ol' Lion and the Hearts, with a Wizard of Oz theme. They opened with "Breathe" by Pink Floyd
- Area 69, dressed as astronauts, played "Space Oddity"
- The Sam Cookes, dressed as chefs, opened with "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran
- Love 40, dressed in tennis whites
- School of Rock, dressed as private school girls and boys, played "Another Brick in the Wall"
- The Chariots of Fire, dressed as gladiators, played "We are the Champions"
- Dressed as pilots
The list continues, as you might imagine. Also, they seem to insist on doing publicity shoots in a similar way:
Hunter S. Thompson and attorney Dr. Gonzo
Wayne and Garth
Neo and Morpheus
Napoleon Dynamite and PedroThere are more examples, but, frankly, I tire of the chase.
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