The single has sold 2,082,000 copies as of October 2012 according to Nielsen SoundScan. The song entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number seven in the same week. “Crush” entered the Billboard Pop 100, at number 93 and peaked at number12 it also made the top ten on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. This was the highest entry for a song on the Hot 100 in 2008 and the highest for any song on this chart since Fall Out Boy‘s “ This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race“, which also entered the chart at number two in the chart week of February 3, 2007. Chart performanceĪfter being released digitally in the U.S., “Crush” entered at the Billboard Hot 100 at number two in the week of August 21, 2008, with 166,000 copies sold in its first week. Archuleta is also shown playing the piano near a lake throughout the video. At the end, Archuleta goes out on the deck of the cabin, and the girl follows him out, showing that she shares his feelings. Another scene shows the group by a campfire with several of them paired off into couples. The group is also shown in a cabin playing a game involving post its, while Archuleta is also shown playing his guitar in the cabin. After they have finished swimming, the guy runs off, while Archuleta stays behind to help the girl out of the lake. At the beginning, several teens go swimming in the lake near their summer house, with one of the guys flirting with the girl in the water.
It consists of Archuleta on a vacation trying to get the attention of a girl (played by Hagood Coxe) on whom he apparently has a crush. The video now has over 30 million hits on YouTube. The music video was first leaked on September 7, 2008, through AOL, initially restricted to Canada and then released on September 16, 2008, on iTunes. The music video was directed by Declan Whitebloom. Ken Barnes of USA Today liked the “effortless glides into falsetto and some rousing moments in the bridge and chorus”, but also said it “tends to plod”, and “could become pretty tedious with repetition.” Music video Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly called the song “surprisingly good!” as well as “hip and contemporary.” He stated, “David adroitly walks the line between giving his core fans their fill of vocal runs while showing enough restraint that he won’t automatically alienate non-Idol-loving listeners.” īlender Magazine also praised the song, giving it three and a half out of five stars and claiming to have “just listened to the thing six times in a row and we’re not terribly angry about spin seven.” They also liked that the song seemed perfectly crafted for radio, saying, “Songs like “Crush” are great because they sound as if the radio immaculately conceived them.” In a Seventeen interview he cites Sara Bareilles as a clever singer-songwriter he looks up to.“Crush” was met with positive reviews by many critics.Ĭhuck Taylor of Billboard praised it for being a suitable match for Archuleta, citing it as a “hummable, age-appropriate midtempo pop ditty for the 17-year-old, showcasing his fine mass-appeal vocal stylings with creamy harmonies and some nice falsetto effects.” He also predicted chart success for the song, saying “‘Crush’ is likely to put its money where its title is on the charts.” Like Elliott Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta tries to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe. When he listed his top pop music artists, he cited Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams. On his American Idol "Fast Facts" page, Archuleta cited his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams. Archuleta also said he enjoys Broadway musicals. He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father's collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and "soulful music." In a later interview, he revealed that his father was a jazz musician. She also "was big on dancing" according to Archuleta, and would "make" him dance to traditional music with his older sister. Archuleta's first single "Crush" was released in August 2008 his self-titled debut album was released in November 2008.Īrchuleta's mother is from Honduras, and much of the music he listened to as a child was Latin-influenced including watching his mom sing at events with her sisters. In May 2008, he became the runner-up on the seventh season of American Idol receiving 44 percent of over 97 million votes. David James Archuleta (born December 28, 1990) is an American singer.