"My Girl" is a song by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 Wales ...

group

Hoodoo Gurus Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, ha ...

. It was released in October 1983 as the third single from the group's debut studio album, ''

Stoneage Romeos ''Stoneage Romeos'' is the debut album by Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. Released in March 1984 by Big Time Records in Australia, the album's release saw them receive record sales to complement their already strong reputation for live perf ...

'' and peaked at #35 on the Australian charts. It was written by Dave Faulkner The song was also subsequently released in the United Kingdom in 1985 by

Demon Records Demon Music Group (DMG) is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media (CDs and vinyl) via supermarkets and specialist stores. History DM ...

with a different cover sleeve and a different B-side, " Leilani".

Details

The quirky video for the song was shown on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's popular TV series ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' and is based around a dog trainer and his former champion greyhound: as suggested by former member

Kimble Rendall Kimble Rendall (born 1957) is an Australian Film director, director, musician and writer mostly known for his Second unit direction of ''The Matrix Reloaded'' (2003), ''The Matrix Revolutions'' (2003), ''I, Robot (film), I, Robot'' (2004), ''Cas ...

, who had left Gurus to return to film-making.

"To this day people insist the song was 'written about a dog'. Oh, well. The truth is, it was meant to be part of a never-made home movie, a tribute to 60's beach movies entitled '
Gidget Gidget () is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner (based on his teenaged daughter, Kathy) in his 1957 novel, ''Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas''. The novel follows the adventures of a teenaged girl and her surfing frie ...
Goes Ape'." - Dave Faulkner.

"It was a love song ''about'' love songs, a tribute to all the ‘60s boy-girl love songs, and I felt bad that some people would get quite sad about it —‘That poor guy!’—because it was just a joke!" - Dave Faulkner.

According to Faulkner the B-side, "Be My Guru",

"has always been our unofficial anthem and we loved to play it whenever we felt an audience was too comfortable during a show. This was the first of what we called our 'Punishment Songs'. It was put on the flip-side of 'My Girl' to add a bit of acid to the sugar, so to speak."- Dave Faulkner.

The music video locations include: Belvue St,

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

;

Wentworth Park Wentworth Park is a park near the suburbs of Glebe and Ultimo in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park contains several muti-purpose sporting pitches, cricket nets and a number of fitness installations. There is a playground in the s ...

; the pub was the Central Markets in

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, was next to what is now the Pumphouse. The

UTS Tower UTS Building 1, also known as the UTS Tower, is prominent landmark on Broadway at the southern gateway to Sydney's central business district. Many of the administrative units of the University of Technology, Sydney are located across the building ...

is also briefly visible as Faulkner grooms the greyhound early in the video. The greyhound that wins the race in the video is Winifred Bale and the race is the 1983 National Sprint at

Harold Park Harold Park is a place in the London Borough of Havering. History Harold Park is north-eastern part of Harold Wood, occupying an isthmus of land between the A12 and the Ingrebourne River (The River Ingrebourne at Harold Park and Hornchurch). ...

in Australia.

"The dog was called Defiant Lee. That dog was very beautiful: I could have kissed that dog myself, I must admit. The dog was a champion. All those trophies you see in the video were, in fact, real, from that one dog. It was incredible. I forget the trainer's name, I've got to be honest."- Dave Faulkner.

"My Girl" was performed by

Spiderbait Spiderbait is an Australian alternative rock band from Finley, New South Wales, formed in 1991 by bass guitarist and singer Janet English, drummer and singer Kram (musician), Kram, and guitarist Damian Whitty. In 2004 the group's cover version o ...

on the 2005 tribute album ''Stoneage Cameos'' (see ''

''), Spiderbait also performed "My Girl Part 2"; where "Be My Guru" was performed by Persian Rugs (containing Hoodoo Gurus' Faulkner,

Brad Shepherd Bradley Mark Shepherd (born 1 February 1961) is an Australian rock musician. Shepherd is a guitarist, singer-songwriter and harmonica player; he has performed with several bands, especially Hoodoo Gurus. Biography Early life Shepherd was born ...

and Mark Kingsmill together with bassist Kendall James). The album was launched at the Meadows Greyhound Racing Track in

Broadmeadows, Victoria Broadmeadows is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume local government area. Broadmeadows recorded a population of 12,524 at the 2021 census. Broadmea ...

in reference to the video for "My Girl".

Track listing

; 7" single (BTS1072) # "My Girl" (Dave Faulkner) — 2:36 # "Be My Guru" (Dave Faulkner, James Baker) — 2:35

Personnel

Credited to: *

James Baker James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...

— Drums * Clyde Bramley — Bass, vocals * Dave Faulkner — Lead vocals, guitar *

— Guitar, vocals * Producer, Engineer — Alan Thorne

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:My Girl (Hoodoo Gurus Song) 1983 singles Hoodoo Gurus songs 1983 songs Demon Music Group singles Songs written by Dave Faulkner (musician) Jangle pop songs