2006 Gnarls Barkley: Crazy

Unique insofar as it's the first number one to date to be crowned the best selling single in the UK on the strength of downloads alone, Gnarls Barkley are/were a readymade combination of noted producer Dangermouse and funk soul singer Cee Lo Green. The input of both pronounced and obvious; Dangermouse provides a sprung floor of a beat built on the shoulders of a moody Reverberi Brothers spaghetti Western sample* that in turn provides the wide open sky room for Green to float through with a loose limbed (check out the chuckle at 1:20) vocal of gravel and honey that tips a hat to both Al Green and Sam Cooke. Instantly likeable with an impressionistic lyric ("Even your emotions have an echo in so much space") you can take as meaning nothing or everything, 'Crazy' is a work of organic timelessness that manages to sound spontaneous yet controlled, experimental yet traditional all at the same time. And it does it all in less than three minutes to boot - 'Crazy' is exactly the kind of song that modern day naysayers and deniers believe 'they' don't write anymore, and it really is rather fine.