Girls & Boys :: Blur
from the album, Parklife

About the song: 

Girls & Boys is a 1994 song by Blur. It was released as the lead single from the group’s third album Parklife. Charting at # 5 on the UK Singles Chart, Girls & Boys was Blur’s first Top 5 hit and their most successful single until Country House reached # 1 the following year.

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 # 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and # 4 on the Modern Rock songs chart. To date, it remains Blur’s highest charting single in the US.

The music 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 song’s single was taken from a pack of Durex condoms.

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

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.

My thoughts:

Have you ever had an album that you don’t remember buying, but that has always just been there in your collection? That is Parklife for me. I’ve had the CD since 1994, possibly a “cutout” from my years at Tower Records (it does have that mark on the side), or maybe one of my random purchases at one of my favorite used record stores that I wish were still around.

I know that this was the song I heard on the radio, and in a movie, though I can’t remember which one now. I loved it at first listen, adoring the gender-bending, fluid sexuality themes. The song did get a lot of radio play here in Los Angeles on the alternative radio stations, as well as in some Brit Pop themed club nights in and around Hollywood.

It is still a song that I have to dance to when I hear it – I HAVE TO.