Girls & Boys (Blur song)

"Girls & Boys"
Single by Blur
from the album Parklife
Released 7 March 1994
Format 7" vinyl, 2x CD, cassette
Recorded October 1993–January 1994
Genre
Length 4:50 (album version)
4:18 (single version)
Label Food
Producer(s) Stephen Street
Blur singles chronology
"Sunday Sunday"
(1993)		 "Girls & Boys"
(1994)		 "To the End"
(1994)
Parklife track listing
Music video
"Girls & Boys" on YouTube
Music sample
Girls & Boys

"Girls & Boys" is a 1994 song by British rock band Blur. It was released as the lead single from the group's third album Parklife. Charting at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, "Girls & Boys" was Blur's first top 5 hit and their most successful single until "Country House" reached number 1 the following year.[4] The single was seen as a comeback for the band, who had had a lean commercial period for a couple of years. It surpassed their previous commercial peak "There's No Other Way" by three spots on the UK Singles Chart, and saw the group achieve greater worldwide success. In the US, the track reached number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, becoming the band's second single to hit the chart after "There's No Other Way".[5] It also reached number 4 on the Modern Rock songs chart.[5]

Video

The video, directed by Kevin Godley, featured Blur performing the song against a bluescreen backdrop of documentary footage of people on Club 18-30 package holidays. Godley branded the video as "Page 3 rubbish" while Blur found it "perfect". The front cover of the single was taken from a pack of Durex condoms.

Reception

In 1994, "Girls & Boys" was named single of the year by NME and Melody Maker.[6] It was also nominated for best song at the MTV Europe Music Awards.[7]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described the song as "undeniably catchy" and "one of the best (songs) Blur ever recorded", praising the band for making the song "feel exactly like Eurotrash", and specifying that the chorus's reference to "girls who are boys/who like boys to be girls/who do boys like they're girls/who do girls like they're boys" is "an absolutely devastating put-down of '90s gender-bending, where even ambi-sexuals didn't know whose fantasy they were fulfilling."[8]

Legacy

The song is included on two compilations albums: Blur: The Best Of[9] and Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur.

Pet Shop Boys, who provided a remix of the track for the single release, later covered the song during their Discovery tour in 1994.

In 2003, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke confessed on BBC Radio 1 that he wished he had written the song, jokingly calling Blur "bastards" for writing it first.[10]

In 2007, electronic band Blaqk Audio released a cover of the song as a Hot Topic exclusive bonus track for their debut album CexCells. The song was covered by the French singer Mélanie Pain in her 2009 album My Name. American alternative rock band The Get Up Kids performed a version of the song in July 2011 for The A.V. Club‍‍ '​‍s A.V. Undercover series.[11] It was also featured in the Wii game Just Dance and on the Xbox 360 Kinect title Dance Central as a downloadable song off Xbox Live.

In 2010, Pitchfork Media included the song at number 26 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.[12]

"Blurred" by Pianoman features the chorus (sampled from the Pet Shop Boys 12" remix) as its key lyric. The single peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1996.

Dave Rowntree once said it was his favourite song on Blur: The Best Of because he "isn't really in it. It's cool not being in your own song."[13]

Track listings

All music composed by Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree. All lyrics composed by Albarn, with the exception of "Maggie May" written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton.

7" and Cassette
  1. "Girls & Boys" – 4:20
  2. "Magpie" – 4:15
  3. "People in Europe" – 3:28
CD1
  1. "Girls & Boys" – 4:20
  2. "Magpie" – 4:15 (mistakenly credited as "People in Europe" on the back cover.)
  3. "Anniversary Waltz" – 1:23
CD2 (released 14 March)
  1. "Girls & Boys" – 4:20
  2. "People in Europe" – 3:28
  3. "Peter Panic" – 4:22
US CD
  1. "Girls & Boys"
  2. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys radio edit)
  3. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys 12" mix)
  4. "Magpie"
  5. "Peter Panic"
  6. "Maggie May"
US Cassette
  1. "Girls & Boys"
  2. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys radio edit)
  3. "Maggie May"
US 12"
  1. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys 12" mix)
  2. "Girls & Boys" (album version)
  3. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys 7" mix)
Europe CD
  1. "Girls & Boys"
  2. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys radio edit)
  3. "Girls & Boys" (Pet Shop Boys 12" mix)
  4. "Magpie"
  5. "Anniversary Waltz"

Production credits

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Chart (1994) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[14] 19
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[15] 34
Belgium (VRT Top 30 Flanders)[16] 30
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[17] 27
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) 18
France (SNEP)[18] 11
Ireland (IRMA)[19] 23
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[20] 33
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[21] 24
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[22] 16
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 30
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[24] 5
US Billboard Hot 100[5] 59
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[5] 21
US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales[5] 23
US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[5] 4
US Billboard Top 40 Mainstream[5] 40
Chart (2013) Peak
position
Belgium (Back Catalogue Singles Flanders)[25] 27
France (SNEP)[18] 157

Year-end charts

Chart (1994) Position
France (SNEP)[26] 50

References

  1. ↑ Collins, Andrew (19 May 2003). "Straight in at No 10". New Statesman. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Blur – Artist Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  3. ↑ DiCrescenzo, Brent (5 May 2003). "Blur – Think Tank". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Blur". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 "Blur – Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Awards – Blur". Veikko's Blur Page. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  8. ↑ Thomas Erlewine, Stephen. "Girls & Boys – Song Review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  9. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Blur – The Best of Blur". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  10. ↑ Radiohead at Maida Vale Studios. BBC Radio 1. Post-gig Q&A. 8 December 2003.
  11. ↑ "The Get Up Kids cover "Girls And Boys" by Blur". The A.V. Club. Onion, Inc. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  12. ↑ "The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 50-21". Pitchfork Media. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  13. ↑ Blur: The Best Of...The Interview Track 4
  14. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – Blur – Girls And Boys". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  15. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Blur – Girls And Boys" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  16. ↑ "Girls And Boys – BLUR" (in Dutch). Top 30. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  17. ↑ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2578." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Lescharts.com – Blur – Girls And Boys" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  19. ↑ "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". IRMA. Retrieved 22 June 2013. 2nd result when searching "Girls & boys"
  20. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Blur - Girls & Boys search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  21. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Blur – Girls And Boys" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  22. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Blur – Girls And Boys". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  23. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Blur – Girls And Boys". Singles Top 60. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  24. ↑ "Archive Chart: 1994-03-19" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  25. ↑ "50 Back Catalogue Singles – 13/07/2013". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  26. ↑ (French) Classement Singles – année 1994 at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 February 2014). Snepmusique.com. Retrieved 17 July 2014.

External links