‘You Might Think’ is a song by American rock band the Cars from their fifth studio album, Heartbeat City (1984). The track was written by Ric Ocasek and produced by Mutt Lange and the Cars, with Ocasek also providing the lead vocals. The song was released in February 1984, as the first single from Heartbeat City. ‘You Might Think’ peaked at number seven in the United States and number eight in Canada. It also reached number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US, the band's first song to do so. In the United Kingdom, the song reached number 88. It was featured heavily, and served as a plot device, in the 2016 American television series BrainDead and the Season 4 episode "Do or Diaper" from Regular Show.
The lyrical meaning of ‘You Might Think’ is open to interpretation, but it is generally considered to be a love song with a hint of obsession. The lyrics describe a man who is infatuated with a woman and is convinced that she feels the same way about him, despite all evidence to the contrary. The chorus of the song repeats the line “You might think I’m crazy” as he acknowledges his own irrational behavior. The song also touches on the idea of seeing someone in a unique light, recognizing their quirks and vulnerabilities. Phrases like 'when you flash that fragile smile' and 'so uniquely styled' suggest a deep familiarity and appreciation for the person's individuality. This admiration is so strong that it persists despite the difficulties ('there's no escape without a scrape') and the narrator's acknowledgment of the potential folly in their pursuit ('You might think it's foolish').
The music video is one of the first to use computer graphics. The video features Ocasek and model Susan Gallagher in a series of quirky encounters. Ocasek appears in her bathroom mirror, inside a large periscope that pops up in her bathtub, in her mouth, as a fly, as King Kong on top of the Empire State Building and as the Robot Monster, among other incarnations. The rest of the band appears together and separately throughout the video; after they all appear in the movie-theater scene, keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays the dentist in the scene in which Ocasek is jackhammering a tooth in the girl's mouth. In the King Kong scene, the other three members, guitarist Elliot Easton, bassist Benjamin Orr and drummer David Robinson, are paired off in the two planes flying around Ocasek.
‘You Might Think’ won the first MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and was nominated for five more awards at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. The video also won five awards (Best Video, Best Conceptual, Most Innovative, Best Editing and Best Special Effects) at Billboard's 1984 Video Music Awards and four awards (Best Achievement In Music Video, Best Editing In Music Video, Best Engineering In Music Video and Best Camerawork In Music Video) at the Videotape Production Association's 1985 Monitor Awards.
Label – Elektra
Songwriter – Ric Ocasek
Producers – Robert John "Mutt" Lange, the Cars
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]You might think I'm crazy
To hang around with you
Maybe you think I'm lucky
To have something to do
[Pre-Chorus 1]
But I think that you're wild
Inside me is some child
[Chorus 1]
You might think I'm foolish
Or maybe it's untrue (you might think)
You might think I'm crazy (but all I want)
All I want is you
[Verse 2]
You might think it's hysterical
But I know when you're weak
You think you're in the movies
And everything's so deep
[Pre-Chorus 2]
But I think that you're wild
When you flash that fragile smile
[Chorus 2]
You might think it's foolish
What you put me through (you might think)
You might think I'm crazy (but all I want)
All I want is you
[Bridge]
And it was hard, so hard to take
There's no escape without a scrape
But you kept it going till the sun fell down
You kept it going
[Verse 3]
Well, you might think I'm delirious
The way I run you down
But somewhere sometimes, when you're curious
I'll be back around
[Pre-Chorus 3]
Oh, I think that you're wild
And so uniquely styled
[Chorus 3]
You might think it's foolish
This chancy rendezvous
You might think I'm crazy (but all I want)
But all I want is you
[Refrain]
All I want is you
All I want is you