Chuck E.'s In Love

"Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list.^[1]

"Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1 of the Rickie Lee Jones LP, on which it runs 3:28 minutes long. It is Side A on the single; the B-side is “On Saturday Afternoon in 1963”.

Inspiration

Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. Eventually Weiss, affectionately referred to as "Chuck E." disappeared. Later Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived. Waits took the call, at which time Weiss explained the reason for his disappearance, he was now in Denver, and had moved there because he had fallen in love with a cousin in Colorado. Waits hung up, then explained to Jones, "Chuck E.’s in love." Jones liked the sound of the sentence and wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of "Chuck E.’s In Love" the lyrics state, "Chuck E.’s in love with the little girl singing this song," the twist ending is fictional; Jones was never the girl with whom Chuck E. was in love.^[2]

P.L.P.

The first line of the song says, "How come he don't come and PLP with me down at the meter no more?" PLP stands for Public Leaning Post, old American slang for one person (usually female) leaning against another (usually male) in a friendly fashion.^[3]

References