Rich Girl (Hall & Oates song)

"Rich Girl" is a song by Daryl Hall and John Oates. On March 26, 1977, it became their first (of six) number one single on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The single originally appeared on the 1976 album Bigger Than Both of Us.

Content

The song's lyrics are about a spoiled girl who can rely on her parents' money to do whatever she wants. The song was rumored to be about the then-scandalous newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. In fact, the title character in the song is based on a spoiled heir to a fast-food chain who was an ex-boyfriend of Daryl Hall's girlfriend, Sara Allen. "But you can't write, 'You're a rich boy' in a song, so I changed it to a girl," Hall told Rolling Stone.^[1]

Hall elaborated on the song in an interview with American Songwriter:

"Rich Girl" was written about an old boyfriend of Sara [Allen]’s from college that she was still friends with at the time. His name is Victor Walker. He came to our apartment, and he was acting sort of strange. His father was quite rich. I think he was involved with some kind of a fast-food chain. I said, "This guy is out of his mind, but he doesn't have to worry about it because his father's gonna bail him out of any problems he gets in." So I sat down and wrote that chorus. [Sings] "He can rely on the old man’s money/he can rely on the old man’s money/he's a rich guy." I thought that didn’t sound right, so I changed it to "Rich Girl." He knows the song was written about him.

Several years later, Hall read an interview with David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, in which Berkowitz claimed that "Rich Girl" had motivated him to murder (although the song was not released until after the Son of Sam murders had already begun, casting doubts on that suggestion). Hall & Oates later reflected this disturbing fact in the lyrics of the song "Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear Voices)" on the album Voices.^[1]

Sample by Down With Webster

Canadian Pop/Hip-Hop group Down With Webster's song "Rich Girl$" borrows many elements from the original, and although not a full cover, samples part of the original recording and also lifts the melody and some lyrics.

Cover versions

The song has been covered by Selwyn (on Meant To Be), by The Bird and the Bee (on Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates) by Everclear (on The Vegas Years), by Nina Simone (on Baltimore), by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (on Have Another Ball), and by Butch Walker during concerts on his 2010 American concert tour with his backing band, the Black Widows. In 2009, Canadian group Down With Webster sampled the Hall & Oates song for their song Rich Girl$ on their EP Time to Win, Vol. 1.

Chart performance

References