Fell in Love with a Girl

"Fell in Love with a Girl"
Single by The White Stripes
from the album White Blood Cells
Released April 23, 2002 (UK)
Format CD single, 7" single
Recorded Easley Studio
(Memphis, Tennessee)
Genre Garage punk
Length 1:50
Label Sympathy, V2, Third Man, XL
Writer(s) Jack White
Producer Jack White
The White Stripes singles chronology
"Hotel Yorba"
(2001)
"Fell in Love with a Girl"
(2002)
"Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"
(2002)

"Fell in Love with a Girl" is a song by the American garage rock band The White Stripes, written and produced by Jack White for the band's third studio album, White Blood Cells (2001). Released as the album's second single in 2002, it reached number twenty-one on both the U.S. Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and the UK Singles Chart. The song was covered in 2003 as "Fell in Love with a Boy" by Joss Stone and as a lounge song by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine for their 2002 album Tuxicity. It was also included on a polka medley by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Angry White Boy Polka", from his 2003 album Poodle Hat.

The April 2007 issue of Rolling Stone magazine listed the song as one of the forty songs that changed the world. In 2011, NME placed it at number 6 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[1]

Contents

Music video

The music video is a LEGO animation directed by Michel Gondry. Gondry's son was featured at the beginning of the video, building LEGO blocks. It was shot frame by frame with each frame having the LEGO bricks rebuilt, sometimes in a complex manner to seem as if it were an actual shot, and then formed together to give the illusion of motion. The video mostly consists of red, white, and black color. The White Stripes couldn't strike a deal with Lego, so they had to buy a large amount of LEGO boxes for the video.[2]

In an interview for The Work of Director Michel Gondry DVD, Jack stated that the White Stripes' long-time collaboration with Michel Gondry started by accident; for "Fell in Love with a Girl", Jack stated that he wanted to work with the director who did Beck's video for "Devils Haircut", referring to Mark Romanek. Their record company mistakenly hired Gondry, thinking he was the director of "Devils Haircut". Jack didn't mind, as he did the video for Beck's "Deadweight", which Jack also liked.

Also revealed in The Work of Director Michel Gondry interview, The White Stripes contacted LEGO Group in hopes of having a small LEGO set packaged with each single of the record, with which one could build a LEGO version of Jack and Meg White. LEGO Group refused, saying: "We don't market our product to people over the age of twelve." Once the video became a hit, however, LEGO contacted The White Stripes again and asked if they could reconstruct the deal to have LEGO packaged with the single. This time, however, Jack White refused, stating it to be American.

The The Work of Director Michel Gondry DVD also reveals that one section, lasting only a few seconds, used computer animation to simulate the LEGO bricks.

The video won three MTV Video Music Awards in 2002: Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects, and Best Editing. It also received a nomination for Video of the Year, but lost out to Eminem's "Without Me".

Pitchfork Media deemed it the best video of the decade.[3] Entertainment Weekly included it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An idea so simple it's a wonder no one thought of it before 2002: rock & roll Legos!"[4]

The video was spoofed on the Family Guy episode "Ocean's Three and a Half".

Track listings

CD single
  1. "Fell in Love with a Girl"
  2. "Let's Shake Hands"
  3. "Lafayette Blues"
CD single (UK Version – Part 2)*
  1. "Fell in Love with a Girl"
  2. "Lovesick" (Live at the Forum, London December 6, 2001)
  3. "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (Live at BBC Radio-1 Evening Session)**

The single comes with a multimedia section featuring the "Fell in Love with a Girl" video. *Part 1 with the identical track listing as the US Version.

7" single
  1. "Fell in Love with a Girl"
  2. "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (Live at BBC Radio-1 Evening Session)**

**This is the same recording of the song that would one year later be an album track on Elephant and eventually be released as a single.

Charts

Chart (2004) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 21
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles 21
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 12

Joss Stone version

"Fell in Love with a Boy"
Single by Joss Stone
from the album The Soul Sessions
Released January 26, 2004 (UK)
Format CD single, digital download,
7" single
Recorded May 5, 2003; The Studio
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Genre Soul blues
Length 3:38
Label Relentless, S-Curve, Virgin
Writer(s) Jack White
Producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Betty Wright, Steve Greenberg, Mike Mangini
Joss Stone singles chronology
"Fell in Love with a Boy"
(2004)
"Super Duper Love"
(2004)
Alternative covers
UK promo CD single cover
U.S. promo CD single cover

In 2003, English soul singer Joss Stone covered the song, retitled "Fell in Love with a Boy", for her debut album, The Soul Sessions (2003). It was released in early 2004 as the album's lead single.

Critical reception

Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian raved that "Fell in Love with a Boy" is the best track from The Soul Sessions as well as "the freshest and most deliciously inauthentic."[5] PopMatters reviewer Jason MacNeil commented that Stone gives the song "a groove-riddled, funky hip-shaker that never loses momentum."[6] However, Jim Greer of Entertainment Weekly regarded her version as "the only misguided ploy" on the album.[7] Andrew McGregor wrote for BBC Music that it "blends so well into the funky soul landscape that those less familiar with contemporary rock might miss the ironic juxtaposition altogether."[8]

Track listings

UK CD single
  1. "Fell in Love with a Boy" (Radio Version) – 2:25
  2. "Victim of a Foolish Heart" (Live at Ronnie Scott's, London, November 25, 2003) – 6:25
European CD single
  1. "Fell in Love with a Boy" (Radio Version) – 2:25
  2. "Victim of a Foolish Heart" (Live at Ronnie Scott's, London, November 25, 2003) – 6:25
  3. "Fell in Love with a Boy" (Acoustic Version) – 3:30
UK 7" single
A. "Fell in Love with a Boy" (Radio Version) – 2:25
B. "Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin' on Me?) Pt. 1" – 4:20
UK and U.S. promo CD single
  1. "Fell in Love with a Boy" (Radio Version) – 2:25

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Charts

Chart (2004) Peak
position
Belgian Tip Chart (Flanders)[9] 16
Belgian Tip Chart (Wallonia)[9] 17
Dutch Single Top 100[9] 80
European Hot 100 Singles[10] 71
German Airplay Chart[10] 66
Irish Singles Chart[11] 46
Italian Singles Chart[10] 36
New Zealand Singles Chart[11] 23
UK Singles Chart[11] 18

Other appearances

References

  1. ^ http://www.nme.com/list/150-best-tracks-of-the-past-15-years/248648/page/15
  2. ^ Fell In Love With a Girl Songfacts
  3. ^ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7695-the-top-50-music-videos-of-the-2000s/5/
  4. ^ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84
  5. ^ Lynskey, Dorian (January 16, 2004). "CD: Joss Stone, The Soul Sessions – Music – The Guardian". The Guardian. UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/jan/16/popandrock.shopping6. Retrieved July 21, 2009. 
  6. ^ MacNeil, Jason (January 14, 2003). "Joss Stone: The Soul Sessions – PopMatters Music Review". PopMatters. http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/s/stonejoss-soulsessions.shtml. Retrieved July 21, 2009. 
  7. ^ Greer, Jim (October 10, 2003). "The Soul Sessions – Music Review – Entertainment Weekly". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,492393,00.html. Retrieved July 21, 2009. 
  8. ^ McGregor, Andrew (February 23, 2004). "BBC – Music – Review of Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions". BBC Music. BBC Online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8z63/. Retrieved July 21, 2009. 
  9. ^ a b c "ultratop.be – Joss Stone – Fell In Love With A Boy" (in Dutch). Ultratop. http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?key=13803&cat=s. Retrieved November 16, 2008. 
  10. ^ a b c "Chart Data: Joss Stone". mariah-charts.com. http://www.mariah-charts.com/chartdata/PJossStone.htm. Retrieved January 19, 2008. 
  11. ^ a b c "Joss Stone – Fell In Love With A Boy – Music Charts". αCharts.us. http://acharts.us/song/1432. Retrieved January 19, 2008. 
  12. ^ "The White Stripes Add Three More Tracks To Rock Band!". March 5, 2010. http://www.rockband.com/news/more-white-stripes-dlc. Retrieved October 4, 2010.