Personality Crisis (song)
{{Infobox song
| name = Personality Crisis
| cover = PersonalityCrisis.jpg
| type = single
| artist = New York Dolls
| album = New York Dolls
| A-side = Trash
| released = August 1973
| recorded = The Record Plant, New York City
| genre = {{hlist|Glam rock{{cite web|url=https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-glam-rock-2522012|title=What is Glam Rock?|last=Fontenot|first=Robert|website=LiveAbout|access-date=July 3, 2019}}|blues rock{{cite book|title= The Alternative Jukebox|first=Larry|last=Bradley|date= November 4, 2014|chapter= The 1970s: New York Dolls - "Personality Crisis|page= 63|publisher=Cassell|isbn=978-1-84403-789-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_phoAEACAAJ}}|rock and roll|proto-punk{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/personality-crisis-mt0044803788|title=Personality Crisis - New York Dolls {{!}} Song Info|last=Mason|first=Stewart|website=AllMusic|access-date=January 16, 2019}}}}
| length = 3:41
| label = Mercury Records
| writer = David Johansen, Johnny Thunders
| producer = Todd Rundgren
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| title = Trash
| title2 = Personality Crisis
| next_title = Jet Boy
| next_title2 = Vietnamese Baby
| next_year = 1973
| misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|2aQTGqqXHw4|"Personality Crisis"}}}}
}}
"Personality Crisis" is the lead track from the New York Dolls' self-titled debut album. It was written by Dolls lead singer David Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders.{{cite web|url=http://nightlysong.com/2010/06/09/personality-crisis-new-york-dolls/|title=Personality Crisis – New York Dolls|website=Nightly Song: Musings on Songs that Strike a Chord Tonight|date=June 9, 2010}}
An early demo version of it appears on the 1981 collection Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972.
Release
Mercury Records originally released "Personality Crisis" in 1973 as a double A-side single with "Trash" to coincide with the album's release. Promo singles of "Personality Crisis" were also distributed to radio stations. Following the band's break-up, it was rereleased by Bellaphon Records as a double A-side with "Looking for a Kiss" in 1978. In 1982, a 12" single of "Personality Crisis" & "Looking For A Kiss" b/w "Subway Train" & "Bad Girl" was released by Kamera Records. The same track listing appeared on the See For Miles Records CD single released in 1990.{{cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/New-York-Dolls-Personality-Crisis/master/266674|title=New York Dolls – Personality Crisis|website=Discogs®|year=1982 }}
Reception
Jack Douglas, who engineered New York Dolls, named "Personality Crisis" as his favorite song on the album.{{cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/New-York-Dolls-Personality-Crisis/master/266674|last=Buskin|first=Richard|date=December 2009|title=New York Dolls 'Personality Crisis'/Classic Tracks|newspaper=Sound on Sound}} Music journalist Tony Fletcher called it an "instant glitter rock anthem",{{cite book|last=Fletcher|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Fletcher|year=2009|title=All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927–77|url=https://archive.org/details/allhoppedupready00flet|url-access=registration|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0393334838|page=[https://archive.org/details/allhoppedupready00flet/page/319 319]}} while writer and historian David Szatmary called it an anthemic and dynamic protopunk song.{{cite book|last=Szatmary|first=David|year=1996|title=A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock and Roll|publisher=Schirmer Books|edition=3rd|isbn=0028646703|url=https://archive.org/details/timetorocksocial00szat|url-access=registration|quote=Personality Crisis.|access-date=March 22, 2015}} In Rolling Stone magazine, Tony Glover wrote that "Personality Crisis" serves as "a jumping companion piece to classics" such as The Doors' "Twentieth Century Fox" and "Cool, Calm & Collected" by the Rolling Stones.{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/new-york-dolls-19730913|last=Glover|first=Tony|date=September 13, 1973|title=New York Dolls (Review)|newspaper=Rolling Stone}} It is number 267 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (#271 on the 2010 list).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/new-york-dolls-personality-crisis-20110526|title=#271 New York Dolls, 'Personality Crisis'|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=April 7, 2011}}
Covers
- "Personality Crisis" is the closing track on David Johansen's 1982 live album, Live It Up. It is the only New York Dolls original on the album.
- Sonic Youth recorded "Personality Crisis" with Kim Gordon on lead vocals in July 1990. It was first released as a write-in offer promo 7" single in the November 1990 issue of Sassy Magazine,{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Sonic-Youth-Personality-Crisis/release/1038915 |title=Sonic Youth - Personality Crisis (Vinyl) |website=Discogs |date= November 1990|access-date=October 8, 2016}} then included on the 1993 Whores Moaning e.p. and later added to the Deluxe Edition bonus disc of Dirty.
- Teenage Fanclub featuring Donna Matthews of Elastica cover the song for the soundtrack to the 1998 Todd Haynes ode to glam rock, Velvet Goldmine.
- Scott Weiland included it on his 2011 album A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs
- Todd Rundgren included "Personality Crisis" in a 2011 collection of covers of songs that he'd produced, entitled (re)Production
- Rockhead covers it on the various artist collection, Sin City: Dirty Rock Anthems inspired by the Sin City comic books.