Butterfly by Crazy Town

About

According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, Crazy Town’s third single was written by Seth “Shifty Shellshock” Binzer after his girlfriend heard the “male chauvinistic” songs the band was working on at the time like “Lollipop Porn” and asked, “Is this what you’re like?” This inspired him to write something “sweet and nice to a girl I cared about.” Her personal collection of butterflies inspired the chorus' lyrics. Musically, the song was based around a sample of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Pretty Little Ditty”. They cleared the sample as a way to “stay true to their hip-hop roots and pay homage to a great band.” The band’s first two singles did not chart and the band was on the verge of calling it quits after eight months of stressful, relentless touring. But after “Butterfly” was featured in the film Saving Silverman and on an episode of ER, the song began to cross over on to Top 40 radio. It debuted on the Hot 100 in January and topped the chart for two non-consecutive weeks in March/April of 2001 – later becoming the #29 song of the year. Unfortunately, Crazy Town has not had another US hit, giving them the label of ‘one-hit wonder’ there. The track also reached the top 10 in several other countries.