In 2006 the duo Gnarls Barkley (DJ Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo) released their first and biggest hit single: Crazy. Due to the immense popularity of the song, it soon got covered by countless artists (even a lovely theremin version). Most notable of the covers however is the version by The Violent Femmes in 2008. Notable because Gnarls Barkley covered the song Gone Daddy Gone by the Violent Femmes also in 2006. So they covered each other’s songs!

DJ Danger Mouse got a lot of attention in 2004 when he released the Grey Album, a mashup between the Beatles album nicknamed’ ‘the White Album‘ and Jay-Z’s Black Album. So it comes as no surprise that even though the lyrics on Crazy are original, the music is sampled.

In 1968 the film Django, Prepare a Coffin aka Preparati La Bara! aka Viva Django (not to be confused  with the rip-off Viva! Django from 1971) was released as a unofficial rip-off sequel to the film Django (1966). It was not uncommon in spaghetti western days to release a film that ripped title and main characters from other popular films as a cash in. The score however is original and written by brothers Gianfranco & Gian Piero Reverberi. You can hear a hint of the sample in the opening credits (which visually and musically are a rip-off from the style of James Bond opening credits), but if you fast forward to 2:30, you can hear Crazy in the original song titled Nel Cimitero Di Tucson (click here for just the song):

Like this? Buy me a drink!