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Girls & Boys (Blur song)

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"Girls & Boys"
Song

"Girls & Boys" is a 1994 song by British rock band Blur. It was released as the lead single from the group's third album Parklife. Charting at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, "Girls & Boys" was Blur's first top 5 hit and their most successful single until "Country House" reached number 1 the following year.[5] The single surpassed their previous commercial peak "There's No Other Way" by three spots on the UK Singles Chart, and saw the group achieve greater worldwide success. In the US, the track reached number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, becoming the band's second single to hit the chart after "There's No Other Way".[6] It also reached number 4 on the Modern Rock songs chart.[6]

Composition

"'Girls & Boys'? Four notes. And the chorus is 'Boys, Girls, Love'. That's quite an universal message, isn't it?"

—Damon Albarn summing up the song[7]

Damon Albarn was inspired to write the song once he vacationed in Magaluf, Spain with then-girlfriend Justine Frischmann. According to Albarn, the city had "really tacky Essex nightclubs" and a rampant sexual scene among visitors, with "All these blokes and all these girls meeting at the watering hole and then just copulating. There's no morality involved, I'm not saying it should or shouldn't happen." The music has a convergence of various pop and dance styles, summed up by bassist Alex James as "Disco drums, nasty guitars and Duran Duran bass."[7] Drummer Dave Rowntree admitted he is not on the track, being replaced by a drum machine he programmed. Thus he said it was his favourite song on Blur: The Best Of because he "isn't really in it. It's cool not being in your own song."[8] The vocals were recorded with a demo featuring only the keyboards.[9]

Video

The video, directed by Kevin Godley, featured Blur performing the song against a bluescreen backdrop of documentary footage of people on Club 18-30 package holidays. Godley branded the video as "Page 3 rubbish" while Blur found it "perfect". The front cover of the single was taken from a pack of Durex condoms.[7]

Reception

Producer Stephen Street felt that while "Girls & Boys" was not like Blur's previous songs, "I thought it would be Top 5 – it was so downright basic. I felt the way I had when I produced the Smiths: that as long as Morrissey was singing on it, it would be the Smiths. It was the same with Blur: they could put their hands to anything, and it would still sound like Blur."[10] The song indeed reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, Blur's first foray into the top 5. Despite the band having big expectations for the single, guitarist Graham Coxon said "going top five was a bit of a shocker", and Albarn confessed on having his first panic attack shortly after the single entered the charts.[7]

In 1994, "Girls & Boys" was named single of the year by NME and Melody Maker.[11][12] It was also nominated for best song at the MTV Europe Music Awards.[13]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described the song as "undeniably catchy" and "one of the best (songs) Blur ever recorded", praising the band for making the song "feel exactly like Eurotrash", and specifying that the chorus's reference to "girls who are boys/who like boys to be girls/who do boys like they're girls/who do girls like they're boys" is "an absolutely devastating put-down of '90s gender-bending, where even ambi-sexuals didn't know whose fantasy they were fulfilling."[14]

Legacy

The song is included on two compilations albums: Blur: The Best Of[15] and Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur.

Pet Shop Boys, who provided a remix of the track for the single release, later covered the song during their Discovery tour in 1994. Their remix was also included on the Japanese version of the Parklife album.

In 2003, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke confessed on BBC Radio 1 that he wished he had written the song, jokingly calling Blur "bastards" for writing it first.[16]

In 2007, electronic band Blaqk Audio released a cover of the song as a Hot Topic exclusive bonus track for their debut album CexCells. The song was covered by the French singer Mélanie Pain in her 2009 album My Name. American alternative rock band The Get Up Kids performed a version of the song in July 2011 for The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover series.[17] It was also featured in the Wii game Just Dance and on the Xbox 360 Kinect title Dance Central as a downloadable song off Xbox Live.

In 2010, Pitchfork Media included the song at number 26 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.[18]

"Blurred" by Pianoman features the chorus (sampled from the Pet Shop Boys 12" remix) as its key lyric. The single peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1996.

Track listings

All music composed by Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree. All lyrics composed by Albarn, with the exception of "Maggie May" written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton.

Production credits

  • "Girls & Boys", "Magpie", "Anniversary Waltz", "People in Europe" and "Peter Panic" produced by Stephen Street
  • "Maggie May" produced by Steve Lovell
  • Damon Albarn – lead vocals, synthesizers, programming
  • Stephen Street – synthesizers, programming
  • Graham Coxon – guitar, backing vocals
  • Alex James – bass guitar
  • Dave Rowntree – drums

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Vandalism version

"Girls & Boys"
Song

"Boys & Girls" was covered by Australian dance band Vandalism in 2004.

Track listing

Australian CD Single
  1. Boys & Girls (Radio edit)
  2. Boys & Girls (Ivan Gough And Grant Smillie Remix Radio Edit)
  3. Boys & Girls (Extended Mix)
  4. Boys & Girls (Ivan Gough & Grant Smillie Remix)

Charts

Year Chart Peak
position
2004 ARIA Club Chart 8[31]
2005 ARIA Singles Chart 80[31]
2005 ARIA Dance Singles 11[31]

Release history

Country Release Date Format Label Catalogue
Australia 4 January 2005 CD Single, download Vicious VG12029CD

References

  1. ^ Collins, Andrew (19 May 2003). "Straight in at No 10". New Statesman. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  2. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Blur – Artist Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  3. ^ DiCrescenzo, Brent (5 May 2003). "Blur – Think Tank". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  4. ^ Pappademas, Alex (February 2003). "Essential Britpop". Spin. Vol. 19, no. 2. p. 56. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ^ "Blur". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Blur – Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d Power, Martin (2013). The Life of Blur. Omnibus Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-085712-862-1.
  8. ^ Blur: The Best Of...The Interview (Media notes). Track 4.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  9. ^ Rachel, Daniel (2013). Isle of Noises: Conversations with great British songwriters. Pan Macmillan. p. 445. ISBN 978-1-44722-677-2.
  10. ^ Sullivan, Caroline (16 July 2012). "How we made: Graham Coxon and Stephen Street on Parklife by Blur". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  11. ^ "NME End Of Year Lists 1994". NME. Rocklist.net. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  12. ^ "Melody Maker End Of Year Critic Lists – 1990". Rocklist.net. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  13. ^ "Awards – Blur". Veikko's Blur Page. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  14. ^ Thomas Erlewine, Stephen. "Girls & Boys – Song Review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  15. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Blur – The Best of Blur". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  16. ^ Radiohead at Maida Vale Studios. BBC Radio 1. Post-gig Q&A. 8 December 2003.
  17. ^ Modell, Josh. "The Get Up Kids cover "Girls And Boys" by Blur". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  18. ^ "The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 50-21". Pitchfork Media. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  19. ^ "Blur – Girls And Boys". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  20. ^ "Blur – Girls And Boys" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  21. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2578." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  22. ^ a b "Blur – Girls And Boys" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  23. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Girls & Boys". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  24. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Blur - Girls Boys" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  25. ^ "Blur – Girls And Boys" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  26. ^ "Blur – Girls And Boys". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  27. ^ "Blur – Girls And Boys". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  28. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  29. ^ "50 Back Catalogue Singles – 13/07/2013". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  30. ^ Template:Fr icon Classement Singles – année 1994 at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 February 2014). Snepmusique.com.
  31. ^ a b c "The ARIA Report!" (PDF). Pandora Archive. 23 August 2006. Retrieved 13 June 2016.

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