Album: Dizzy Up The Girl (1998)
Charted: 108
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Songfacts®:

  • After their first blush of success with their previous album, A Boy Named Goo, which featured their first major hit, "Name," the Buffalo, New York-based Goo Goo Dolls found themselves adjusting to life in Los Angeles' fast lane. For lead singer Johnny Rzeznik, that meant hanging out with a girl who was a lot of fun, but also "toxic and dangerous." She inspired him to write "Dizzy," an affectionate tribute to a girl who has all the wrong qualities.
  • This was the third single from the Dizzy Up The Girl album. Although it didn't reach the heights of the hits "Iris" and "Slide," it did manage a #13 entry on the Mainstream Rock chart.
  • The action-packed music video, directed by Nancy Bardawil, finds the band on the run from sinister enemies. The shoot was on Rzeznik's birthday, and he recalls renting two vintage Mustangs that were used in the car chase scene, trashing them, and then returning them to the lot. At least he remembered to insure them beforehand. The female lead is Shannyn Sossamon, who went on to star in A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger a few years later. Sossamon can also be spotted in videos for Cher's "Strong Enough" and Korn's "Make Me Bad."
  • This was used on the TV show 7th Heaven in the 2000 episode "Losers."
  • In the song's behind-the-track commentary video, Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac said it took them a lot of time and experimentation with different machinery to achieve the square-wave tremolo on the guitar, which produces a fast-and-choppy effect.

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