“Girlfriend”
by Matthew Sweet
from the album Girlfriend
1991
Buy the album on Amazon
“Girlfriend” is unskippable. If it comes up on shuffle, I’ll always stop whatever search I was on and listen. The entire album is an amazing collection of songs. It’s both timeless and very specifically early 90s.
I remember sitting at home on Sunday nights watching 120 Minutes and desperately hoping Dave Kendall would hint that this song was coming up after the break. The video featured clips from the film Space Adventure Cobra and it was just the perfect choice for the song. And who didn’t want that silver-haired, blue jumpsuited vixen as his girlfriend?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9aWPTCc2r0
I perform “Girlfriend” almost every time we hit a karaoke spot that actually has it. It’s my go-to if I’ve got nothing ready to go, or I need to warm up. My favorite “Girlfriend” moment involved the time someone in my group decided to put it in to spite me, so then of course I had to sing it and then yet another person decided they wanted to sing it as well. A “Girlfriend”-off. We had the song in the queue at least three or four times. In a row. The bartender just rolling her eyes as we did the same song for 20 minutes.
I won.
You had to pour salt in the wounds! I used to look in the “new releases” almost every time we would go, hoping that this song had been added. Of course one of the few times I didn’t check it had been, and you saw it and claimed it. I respect that, but fine, I was probably the one to put it in “to spite you” as you claim. I still think I won the Girlfriend-off.
Nonetheless, it is such a great song that I’m happy just to hear it and to occasionally sing along the back-up “aaaahhhh”s.