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Peaches (The Stranglers song)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Peaches/Go Buddy Go
| cover = Peaches_stranglers.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = The Stranglers
| album = Rattus Norvegicus
| B-side = Go Buddy Go
| released = 21 May 1977 (UK)
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Punk rock, reggae punk
| length = 4:03
| label = United Artists
| writer = Jean Jacques Burnel, Hugh Cornwell, Dave Greenfield, Jet Black.
| producer = Martin Rushent
| prev_title = (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
| prev_year = 1977
| next_title = Something Better Change
| next_year = 1977
| misc =
}}
"'Peaches'" is a punk rock single by The Stranglers, from the album 'Rattus Norvegicus'. The track peaked at No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart.
Song information
The lyrics to "Peaches" featured coarse sexual language and innuendo to a degree that was unusual for the time. The song's narrator is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as "there goes a girl and a half") are an interior monologue, comments to his mates, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. The critic Tom Maginnis wrote that Hugh Cornwell sings with "a lecherous sneer, the sexual tension is so unrelenting as to spill into macho parody or even censor-baiting territory".
The single was a double A-side with pub rock song "Go Buddy Go". The latter was played on UK radio at the time and also was performed on the band's first BBC TV 'Top of the Pops' appearance, because the sexual nature of the lyrics of "Peaches" caused the BBC to censor it. Still, "Peaches" was ranked at No. 18 among the top "Tracks of the Year" for 1977 by 'NME', and it reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart. The radio cut was re-recorded with less explicit lyrics: "clitoris" was replaced with "bikini", "oh shit" with "oh no" and "what a bummer" with "what a summer". The catalogue number of the radio version was FREE 4.
Legacy
An edited version of "Peaches", minus the lyrics, was used as the closing theme tune to many of the TV chef Keith Floyd's 'Floyd on...' television shows. It was also used as the title music in the opening sequence of 2000 British film 'Sexy Beast' and during a party scene in the 1997 film 'Metroland'. The song is also on the sound track of the game 'Driver: Parallel Lines'. It was used by Adidas in advertising in the Netherlands in 2002.
The song is used in episode 16 of the BBC series 'Being Human', when the hungry "teenage" vampire Adam stalks three teenage girls into a game arcade.
The song is heard in episode nine of series two of the TV series 'Gotham', the opening sequence of a 2006 'Hollyoaks' episode, and the 2011 film 'Killer Elite.'
Dub Pistols covered the song on their 2007 album, 'Speakers and Tweeters', with Rodney P on guest MC vocals and Terry Hall of The Specials singing the chorus. Audio Bullys and Liam Howlett included it in their installment of the 'Back to Mine' series of "after hours grooving" DJ mix albums, with Simon Franks of the duo referring to it as "raw UK old school".'Back to Mine: Audio Bullys' liner notes
The single was re-issued, with "Go Buddy Go", on green vinyl and with a new sleeve for the 2014 Record Store Day.
Charts
References
Category:The Stranglers songs
Category:1977 singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Martin Rushent
Category:1977 songs
Category:United Artists Records singles
Category:Controversies in the United Kingdom
Category:Obscenity controversies in music
Category:Songs written by Hugh Cornwell
Category:Songs written by Jean-Jacques Burnel
Category:Songs written by Dave Greenfield
Category:Songs written by Jet Black
Category:Songs banned by the BBC
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