Upon release, critical feedback towards Crazy for You" was generally positive. Biographer
J. Randy Taraborrelli said it was a "sassy" song that proved Madonna was "vocally capable of delivering a serious ballad". This opinion was shared by both David Marsh, and
The Guardians
Jude Rogers, who nonetheless deemed the track, "slightly soupy, but still sweet". Rikky Rooksby expressed that, when compared to Madonna's previous singles, "['Crazy for You'] exhibits a slight increase in sophistication". Similarly, the staff of
Cash Box magazine felt the song "displays [Madonna's] voice in a different context, one that is more mature and ultimately marketable", even if it's not as "infecitously danceable" as her previous works. Allen Metz and Carol Benson – authors of
The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary – wrote that "Crazy for You" sounded like a "remake of sweet-sixteen
Connie Francis tunes, dripping with old-fashioned, hand-held romance". For author Mark Bego, it's the "most remembered aspect of [
Vision Quest] [...] A sensitive and powerful ballad, delivered with sincerity and emotion". On her review of
Something to Remember,
USA Todays
Edna Gundersen referred to "Crazy for You" as "touching and beautifully arranged". "Crazy for You" was considered the singer's "purest ballad to date" by
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, writing for
The A.V. Club. For Matthew Jacobs from the
HuffPost, even though it features Madonna's "strongest vocals" from the time, and "may still be her greatest love ballad, ['Crazy for You'] is dull by today's standards". Both
Slant Magazines Eric Henderson and Duane Dudek from the
Star-News said "Crazy for You" exposed Madonna's early vocal weakness.
Recognition At the
28th Annual Grammy Awards, "Crazy for You" was nominated for
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, but lost to
Whitney Houston's "
Saving All My Love for You". From
PinkNews, Nayer Missim named it Madonna's 48th greatest song: "[A] rare early bit of floaty balladry [that] proved a point to all those who had dismissed [Madonna] as gloss and glamour without any sort of range", Missim wrote.
Billboards Katie Atkinson deemed it a "dreamy-eyed single" that, "foretold the versatility to come from [Madonna]", as well as her 43rd best song. In
Parades ranking, it came in at number 32. "Crazy for You" is Madonna's 12th and 11th greatest song for
Entertainment Weeklys Chuck Arnold, and the staff of
Rolling Stone, respectively. According to the former, "although [Madonna] would become a better singer on future ballads, the raw, soulful yearning on ['Crazy for You'] is something that they can't teach you in voice class", while for the latter, it was the "highlight" of
Vision Quest, "a carbonated ballad with propulsive production". Enio Chola from
PopMatters said that "Crazy for You" became "
the high-school slow dance song" of the 1980s, adding that, "although Madonna didn't have a hand in writing the ballad, it stings of her presence [...] [it] marked a new direction in which the pop-artiste would excel [...] Proved that she still possessed all of the same charisma and persona in a slowed-down sultry and subdued offering". "Crazy for You" was referred to as Madonna's first "big ballad" by
The Arizona Republics Ed Masley, who also named it her fifth best song. It was also named one of the greatest love songs by
VH1 and
Stereogum. On
Yahoo! Voices' ranking of the "Top 40 Romantic Love Songs of All Time", and "Best Love Ballads and Slow Songs of the 80's", it was allocated the 14th and sixth spot, respectively. == Chart performance ==