Peaches (song)

This article is about the song by The Stranglers. For the song of the same name by the rock group The Presidents of the United States of America please see Peaches (Presidents of the United States of America song)

"Peaches" is a song and single by The Stranglers. It was one of the big summer hits of 1977 in the UK, a close rival to The Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" in terms of notoriety.

While "God Save the Queen" was notorious for its political sentiment, "Peaches" was controversial because of its sexual content: the song's narrator (Hugh Cornwell) is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as "there goes a girl and a half") are an interior monologue, comments to his mates, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. Critic Tom Maginnis writes that Cornwell sings with "a lecherous sneer, the sexual tension is so unrelenting as to spill into macho parody or even censor bating[sic] territory."^[1]

The lyrics of the song include a word that sounds somewhat like clitoris (albeit pronounced in a non-standard way: "cli-tar-is", with the same emphasis as "guitarist"). There is some debate over whether the word is really "clitoris" or whether it is in fact "clitares," a French bathing costume, which more closely fits the context of the word. It is likely, however, that the line is actually a double entendre encompassing both meanings. Because of the sexual nature of the lyrics, the B-side "Go Buddy Go" was the song played on UK radio at the time. It reached #8 in the UK singles chart and the radio cut had to be rerecorded with less explicit lyrics. 'Clitoris' was replaced with 'bikini', 'oh shit' with 'oh no' and 'what a bummer' with 'what a summer'. The catalogue number of the radio version was FREE 4.

The song is driven by a simple bassline. An edited version of Peaches, minus the lyrics was used as the closing theme tune to many of TV Chef Keith Floyd's Floyd on... television shows. It also featured in the opening sequence of 2000 British film Sexy Beast. The song is also on the sound track of the game Driver: Parallel Lines. It featured on the opening sequence of an episode of soap opera Hollyoaks in early October, 2006.^{[citation needed]}