"Another Girl, Another Planet" is a song by the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

the Only Ones The Only Ones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976, whose original band members are Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry (musician), John Perry and Mike Kellie, they first disbanded in 1982. They were associated with pu ...

. It is the second track on their debut studio album, ''

The Only Ones The Only Ones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976, whose original band members are Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry (musician), John Perry and Mike Kellie, they first disbanded in 1982. They were associated with pu ...

'', released in 1978. The song is the band's most successful and has since been covered by several other performers.

Recording

It was recorded on a

16-track Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive who ...

analogue

Studer Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professi ...

tape machine An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

and an ex-

Steve Marriott Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991) was an English actor, musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and appeared in the West End, before taking a r ...

Helios mixing console at Escape Studios, a residential facility in

Egerton, Kent Egerton is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is on the Greensand Ridge 9 miles (14.4 km) north of Ashford and stretches three miles south into a lower plain towards the West Stour. The pari ...

, England, by engineer and producer

John Burns John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was ...

, assisted by Ian Maidman, and later worked on and mixed at

Basing Street Studios Basing Street Studios was a recording studio in a former 17th century chapel at 8–10 Basing Street, in Notting Hill, London, England. Originally established in 1969 as Island Studios by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, the studi ...

by Robert Ash.

Chart performance

The track was not a

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

hit upon its initial release in 1978. Its first chart appearance was 7 June 1981, at No. 44, for one week, on the New Zealand chart. It was re-released in the UK in January 1992, backed with "

Pretty in Pink ''Pretty in Pink'' is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. The film stars Molly Ringwald, alongside Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, a ...

" by

the Psychedelic Furs The Psychedelic Furs are an English rock band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler (singer), Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from ...

to promote the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, ''Sound of the Suburbs'', and appeared in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks, peaking at No. 57.

Recognition

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

describes it as "Arguably, the greatest rock single ever recorded". The song was placed at number 18 in

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

's all-time

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

millennium edition. Playing it in 1980's Festive Fifty, he introduced it as an "artful little caprice". In March 2005, '' Q'' magazine placed the song at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The song is widely believed to be about

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

"A fantastic song with an amazing guitar line," enthused

Tim Wheeler Timothy James Arthur Wheeler (born 4 January 1977) is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician from Northern Ireland. He is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Ash (band), Ash. He has written nearly all of Ash's notabl ...

of Northern Irish rock band Ash. "It took me a long time to figure out that it's about drugs – not a girl from another planet – and that space travel is a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for being high. It was Peter Perrett's heroin-heavy drawl that eventually gave it away". In an interview in 2015 Perrett declared that the song has been actually inspired by a girl and that it is not about heroin, nevertheless admitting that he always enjoyed "writing ambiguous lyrics that could be taken on two or three different levels".

In popular culture

The song's title was used as the name of a 1992 American independent film directed by

Michael Almereyda Michael Almereyda (born April 7, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He studied art history at Harvard University but dropped out after three years to pursue filmmaking. He acquired a Hollywood agent on the strengt ...

, though the song does not appear in the film. It does appear, though, in six films and their soundtracks: ''

That Summer! ''That Summer!'' is a 1979 British drama film directed by Harley Cokeliss and starring Ray Winstone, Tony London, Emily Moore and Julie Shipley. It was Ray Winstone's theatrical film debut, playing the character Steve Brodie. Both Ray Winstone ...

'' (1979), '' Different for Girls'' (1996), '' Me Without You'' (2001), '' D.E.B.S.'' (2004), ''Paul'' (2011), and ''

Her Smell ''Her Smell'' is a 2018 American drama film written, co-produced and directed by Alex Ross Perry. It stars Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, Ashley Benson, Amber Heard, Dylan Gelula, Eka Darville and ...

'' (2018).

Cover versions

Blink-182

The American rock band

Blink-182 Blink-182 is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Its current and best-known line-up consists of bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though its so ...

recorded a cover version of this song for the opening track of Travis Barker's

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

reality show ''

Meet the Barkers Meet may refer to: People with the name * Janek Meet (born 1974), Estonian footballer * Meet Mukhi (born 2005), Indian child actor Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Meet'' (TV series), an Australian television series * '' Meet: Badlegi Duniya K ...

''. It was later released in 2005 as the closing track on their ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' album.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Another Girl, Another Planet 1978 songs 1978 singles The Only Ones songs Blink-182 songs Columbia Records singles Songs containing the I–V-vi-IV progression