My Boyfriend's Back (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"My Boyfriend's Back" was a hit song in 1963 for The Angels, an American girl group. It was written by the songwriting team of Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer. The recording was originally intended as a demo for The Shirelles, but ended up being released as recorded.^{[citation needed]} The result was a single that spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number two on the R&B Billboard.

The song is a word of warning to a would-be suitor who, after the narrator of the song rebuffed his advances, went on to spread nasty rumours accusing the narrator's of romantic indiscretions. Now, the narrator declares, her boyfriend is back and ready to settle the score, and she tells the rebuffed would-be suitor to watch his back.

[edit] Covers, parodies and references

"My Boyfriend's Back" has been the subject of several notable cover versions.

Rival girl groups The Chiffons and Martha and the Vandellas recorded covers shortly after The Angels' original release. Nearly twenty years later, Melissa Manchester released a faithful cover version as a single in 1983 which became a minor Adult Contemporary hit.^{[citation needed]} More than twenty years after that, the song was also covered by former American Idol contestant Paris Bennett on her 2007 album "Princess P."

The song has also been covered in punk rock-influenced recordings by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Raveonettes, Bracket, and Australian female punk trio The Spazzys.

The rap music group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's track "Guess Who's Back" borrows heavily from the structure and lyrics of "My Boyfriend's Back".

The song is featured in the 2006 Tony award winning musical, Jersey Boys. It was also featured on the U.S. television show "American Dreams," where it was sung by Christian Pop singer Stacie Orrico playing the lead singer of the Angels.

A version of the tune has been used in a commercial jingle for the Hess toy truck, sung as "The Hess Truck's Back".

The song was parodied by Bob Ricci on his debut album Get a Life as "My Girlfriend's Back".

Sarah Brightman released a cover version of the song on a single in 1981.

In 1981, the band Dire Straits made a reference to the song in their hit Romeo and Juliet, from the album Making Movies. The song title was referenced for the 1993 film My Boyfriend's Back, directed by Bob Balaban.

The Disney Channel did a DTV music video of the song set to clips from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Preceded by "Fingertips Pt. 2" by Little Stevie Wonder

Billboard Hot 100 number one single August 31, 1963

Succeeded by "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton