Another Girl, Another Planet
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"Another Girl, Another Planet" is a song by British power pop/new wave group The Only Ones, the second track on their 1978 eponymous debut. It is by far their best remembered song and has become something of a standard, covered by several notable artists. Though the band is often considered a one-hit wonder for the song, ironically even that label eludes them since "Another Girl, Another Planet" failed to chart anywhere in the world and has only gained its current recognition in the intervening decades. It is distinguished by soaring guitars, wounded vocals, and Peter Perrett's elliptical lyrics framing a blasé, weary take on love and romance. The All Music Guide calls it "Arguably, the greatest rock single ever recorded". [1]
A common interpretation is that that the lyrics are about Perrett's problems with drugs ("space travels in my blood", "long journeys wear me out but I know can't live without it", "I always flirt with death; I look ill but I don't care about it").
Possibly the first cover of the song was recorded in 1986 by Greg Kihn. Another early cover was recorded by The Replacements live in concert; it first appeared on the B-side to one of their final singles, 1989's "Achin' to Be". The song also appeared as a b-side on The Lightning Seeds single Ready or Not. Another cover has been recorded by The Mighty Lemon Drops. The Mushuganas did a cover of it on their self-titled album in 1998. More recent covers include Blink-182 and Babyshambles, though the latter has not been commercially released, but the Perrett family was invited on stage at a Libertines gig at The Rhythmn Factory in 2004 to play the song which explains that link. A group called the London Punkharmonic Orchestra released Symphony Of Destruction: Punk Goes Classical, an album of late '70s punk/new wave songs redone in classical arrangements, including "Another Girl, Another Planet". The Nutley Brass have also done an easy-listening, brass-band synthesiser version.
The song also lends its name to a 1992 American independent movie. Though the song apparently does not appear in that film, it does appear in both the movies and commercially released soundtracks of 1979's That Summer and 2001's Me Without You, two British films. It also appears in the 1996 film Different for Girls [2]. The song was also on the soundtrack of D.E.B.S. in 2004.
In March 2005 blink-182 did a cover of this song for the opening track of Travis Barker's reality show Meet the Barkers. It was later released on 2005 on their greatest hits album. Also in March 2005, Q magazine placed the song at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
The Only One's original was in use for a Vodafone commercial in the UK in 2006, but was later replaced with a cover version by Bell X1.
[edit] External links
| The Only Ones |
| Alan Mair | John Perry | Mike Kellie | Peter Perrett |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: The Only Ones | Even Serpents Shine | Special View | Baby's Got a Gun |
| Compilations & live albums: Remains | The Peel Sessions Album | Live | Live in London | The Big Sleep | The Immortal Story | Darkness & Light | Why Don't You Kill Yourself? | Another Girl Another Planet: the Best of the Only Ones |
| Singles: "Another Girl, Another Planet" | "The Whole of the Law" |
| Related articles |
| The Beatstalkers | England's Glory | Spooky Tooth | The Ones | Love Minus Zero |
