Factory Girl is a

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

song. It has been performed by The Roches, The Chieftains with

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor on 8 December 1966; ) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her debut album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second album, ''I Do Not Want What ...

, Lisa O'Neill with Radie Peat,

Margaret Barry Margaret Barry (1917–1989) was an Irish Traveller, traditional singer and banjo player. Biography Born Margaret Cleary in Cork into a family of Travellers and street singers, she taught herself how to play the zither banjo and the fiddle ...

Rhiannon Giddens Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. Giddens i ...

, and Eric Burdon. Its lyrics tell the story of a youngster who meets a poor girl on her way to her job at a factory. She initially resists the singer's advances due to her class pride and ability to support herself. Endings of the song vary; in some, the two characters end up marrying, but in others, the girl ultimately rejects the suitor. In Gidden's version, the lyrics are rewritten so that the song ends with the collapse of the factory and death of the titular girl, in reference to disasters such as the

2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse (also referred to as the 2013 Savar building collapse or the Collapse of Rana Plaza) was a structural failure that occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh, where an ei ...

References

Eric Burdon songs Irish folk songs Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown {{folk-song-stub