Song Profile
"#1 Crush" was written and recorded between March, 1994 and May, 1995 during sessions between band members Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig in either Marker's basement recording studio or at their own Smart Studios in Madison. Manson was concerned that listeners wouldn't realise that the song was about a stalker: "It's about somebody who wasn't quite right. The song however were slightly autobiographical. Everybody's felt obsessive about something or somebody in their life. I've felt crazy about somebody before," she explained, "That feeling - usually when you've split up with somebody - when you're absolutely obsessed with what they are doing. It's all to do with being pathetic".
Reflecting on the lyrics, Manson felt, "All real love is a form of obsession. If you love someone more than anything else, that degree of exclusivity requires an abnormal amount of passion and care. And that can be positive," contrasting with the protagonist of "#1 Crush, "It's just that keeping it short of unhealthy, short of violence, really requires a bit of moderation. You can't let something like that take over all of your thought processes". Butch Vig later described "#1 Crush" as "disturbing".
Garbage's debut international single release "Vow" featured "#1 Crush" on the b-side, and was released in Europe, South Africa and Australasia in June 1995. The August re-release for the United Kingdom saw the track order reversed, with accompanying b-side "Subhuman" released in its own right, with "#1 Crush" remaining as its b-side, and "Vow" being added as a CD single bonus track. In Japan, both "#1 Crush" and "Subhuman" were included as bonus tracks on the Japanese pressings of the band's debut album (titled G in Japan). At the end of 1995, BMG France included "#1 Crush" on an album sampler titled Rare Track Collection to give away free with copies of the debut album purchased in Virgin Megastores.
Nellee Hooper remixed "#1 Crush" for inclusion on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, working with producers Marius de Vries and Jim Abbiss. In addition to downplaying the guitars and reworking the percussion and synth elements of the song, Hooper added a distorted vocal sample from Madonna's 1995 single "Bedtime Story".
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