Originally known as the Annoying Thing, the helium-voiced, bluish-gray, anatomically correct CGI lump Crazy Frog turned into a pop culture epidemic across Europe, most notably in the U.K., through ringtones, TV commercials, pop songs, and relentless overexposure. Although the momentum of Crazy Frog mania gathered force in 2004, the character itself had taken shape over several prior years. In the late '90s, Swedish teen Daniel Malmedahl began capturing his impressions of internal combustion motors; once he showcased them on a television program, the recordings spread online and ignited a fad among file-sharers. Fellow Swede Erik Wernquist, a computer animator, encountered Malmedahl's sounds in 2000 and drew inspiration from the moped-motor impression to bring the Annoying Thing to life, then shared the animation on his website, where it quickly became another online sensation. Wernquist first listed the voice under the credit "Anonymous," yet Malmedahl eventually reached out, allowing proper acknowledgment.
The Annoying Thing entered the commercial realm in 2001 as a marketing device in Belgian ringtone advertisements. By 2004 the character, now renamed Crazy Frog, had been licensed for both sound and video ringtones on cellular phones and was backed by an intensive promotional campaign that flooded television with commercials. Its popularity reached a high point during the spring and summer of 2005, when the complete single version of the "Axel F" ringtone—produced by members of the German production team Bass Bumpers and derived from Harold Faltermeyer's instrumental theme for Beverly Hills Cop—held the top spot on the U.K. singles charts for several weeks. So dominant was the track that it blocked Coldplay's comeback single, "Speed of Sound," from entering at number one. Later that summer the ringtone and the full-length album Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits brought the Frog to the United States. In 2006 the phenomenon remained robust in Europe, supported by available toys and gadgets plus plans for a possible TV series; that summer another album, fittingly titled More Crazy Hits, appeared. The next installment arrived in 2009 as Everybody Dance Now, which featured the single "Cha Cha Slide" along with "No Limit."
