Naama Gheber: You're Driving Me Crazy

Vocalist Naama Gheber continues to release singles from her upcoming recording, If I Knew Then, presently due to drop in November 2022. She has previously released the singles "Old Mother Hubbard" and I'm A Fool To Want You. Staying in the same orbit with The Great American Songbook, Gheber affords us the 1930 Walter Donaldson composition, "You're Driving Me Crazy."

This song has been a popular feature in film, finding its way into cartoons featuring Betty Boop, Silly Scandals (Paramount, 1931) and Fleischer Studios 1931 cartoon Screen Songs; the 1991 film The Marrying Man (Buena Vista Pictures) performed by Alan Paul from The Manhattan Transfer; and the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck (Warner Independent Pictures, 2005) performed by Dianne Reeves.

Supported by the traditional jazz piano trio—pianist Ben Paterson, bassist Neal Miner, and drummer Evan Sherman—who establish a light samba beat, Gheber pulls out her youthful sassiness, singing the song with a laconic, good-natured voice until the band switches to double-time and she picks up the slack. Moving up a step, Gheber approaches scat for a chorus with a robust pleasure before dropping back into a stripper vamp to close the song. Gheber is proving to be a master of tempo and nuance, expertly molding her singing to the wants and needs of the lyrics.