Axel F by Crazy Frog

26 Comments

1. 11 weeks… Good God…

   • Yes, Crazy Frog dominated the NZ chart in 2005. No idea why you’d want to buy the single. I think it was largely based on sales – digital and physical- in that era.

     • In the UK this was number one, but for a few weeks only. And none of the follow ups came close…

       • NZ has particularly bad taste sometimes for sure.

2. “In the US, ‘Axel F’ was far less successful – it crawled to #50 on the charts.”

   Not that I’m a big follower of Top 40 music, but I’m thankful for that relatively low position on the Billboard 100. Yeah, Americans don’t always have “good” taste, but I guess we knew better. The only reason I know of the existence of this song is because it comes up on Worst Ever lists, yours included.

   • It was big here. I’ve never heard their cover of Last Christmas though…

3. It was amusing the first time I heard but from the second time on, I found it annoying.

   • That’s pretty much the definition of a novelty song not done by Weird Al.

     • My kids are very into Weird Al’s Foil at the moment. It’s pretty funny.

   • You’re probably not the only one…

     • I honestly didn’t know this one . If it wasn’t for the stupid vocal effects it would be like pretty typical and kinda okay Eurodance. I love the original Axel F though cuz I’m a fan of Harold Faltermeyer because of all his stuff with Giorgio Moroder and all those disco albums on Casablanca Records like Donna Summer and all those. And all those soundtrack albums like American Gigolo and Midnight Express and Scarface. And those hits with Blondie and all of them other ones. I love all of them.

       • Yes, the stupid vocal effects are the problem really. I listened to the original (I don’t think I’d heard it before) a few days ago. It was oddly minimalist – you can kind of see why the cover was bigger, even though bad taste.

       • I didn’t know the link with Giorgio Moroder.

         • Yeah he was a real innovator in synthesizer music and dance music. It wasn’t all just disco and 80s though. He did later stuff too like Pet Shop Boys, Sparks, Billy idol and a bunch of stuff. But nothing beats the 70s stuff like American Gigolo and Bad Girls by Donna Summer. Those are awesome.

     • Most probably not.

4. Ugh! Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with people when songs like this hit #1. Are people really buying it and requesting it or is it simply payola from record companies. For this song, I’m thinking the latter.

   • It was the biggest single of the year – I assume it was more than payola? You’d think the record companies would put the money into someone with a long-term future – people were obviously going to burn out on Crazy Frog.

5. My wife can do a disturbingly accurate vocal impression of Crazy Frog. It’s one of many things I tolerate about her …

   • That’s pretty funny.

6. I remember the Harold Faltermeyer version, but have never heard this one by Crazy Frog. What a stupid piece of trash! Though 2005 had some good music – singles by Green Day from their “American Idiot” album, including “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “Holiday” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends”; Kelly Clarkson, including “Breakaway”, “Since You Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes”; as well as “Hysteria” by Muse, “Speed of Sound” by Coldplay; “E-Pro” by Beck and “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” by Death Cab for Cutie – it was a very weird year chart-wise in the U.S. as well. Only seven songs made it to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and most were downright shitty in my opinion: “Let Me Love You” by Mario (9 weeks), “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent (9 weeks), “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani (4 weeks), “We Belong Together by Maria Carey (13 weeks), interrupted for one week by “Inside Your Heaven” by Carrie Underwood, “Gold Digger” by Kanye West (10 weeks) and “Run It” by Chris Brown (5 weeks).

   • I love Brothers on a Hotel Bed as well. I’m surprised Since U Been Gone and Boulevard of Broken Dreams weren’t number ones – they were pretty big. Last gasp of guitar rock in the mainstream for a long time as well.

     Candy Shop made my 10 worst songs of the 2000s list.

     • Candy Shop is terrible. And my mistake on writing “You” rather than “U”, and Maria rather than Mariah.

7. Why did they have to put that little nubby thing between the frog’s legs? I’ll forget the recording within days but something tells me that nub is going to stay with me for a long time. The cover art is ten times crazier than the song.

   • Did you watch the video?

8. I didn’t. I just did. I got serious “Baby Shark” vibes from the song this time, too. Not the best association!

   So the video was edited because of the complaints? Is there an unedited version out there somewhere? Dear God I hope not.

   • I’ve never seen the unedited version….