The line "What a show, there they go, smoking up the sky" had to be sung higher, so I did that and Jay did the verses because his voice was growlier, and this track was heavier than anything we’d ever done."

[4] "Crazy Horses" also helped open up the band to a male audience that had largely ignored the group until then; Alan once recalled touring to promote the song and, instead of being greeted by screaming girls hoping to hear Donny's teen idol songs, found themselves in front of a raucous crowd of boys and young men, prompting Alan to turn to the rest of the band and tell them, "Cut 'Puppy Love!

The record was co-produced by Alan Osmond and Michael Lloyd, who had previously been in the psychedelic rock group The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

It's a song about ecology and the environment: those 'crazy horses, smoking up the sky' are gas-guzzling cars, destroying the planet with their fumes.

Sales of the song were prohibited in South Africa, where government censors interpreted the word 'horses' as referring to heroin.

[4] The censorship amused Wayne Osmond, especially in light of the band's rejection of drug and alcohol use for religious reasons.

[5] It has been covered by numerous other artists including the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, the Mission, Tank, Lawnmower Deth, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, the Frames, KMFDM, Electric Six, Pretty Maids, Tigertailz, and Butcher Babies.

In 1995, the electronic music group Utah Saints released a remixed version of the song, which reached number 50 on the UK Singles Chart.

Revolution 409 (which in reality was American band Redd Kross) covered the song on the SST Records 1989 compilation The Melting Pot.