"Oh Girl" is a song written by

Eugene Record Eugene Booker Record (December 23, 1940 – July 22, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was best known as the lead vocalist of the Chicago-based vocal group The Chi-Lites from their formation in 1959 un ...

and recorded by American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

vocal group

the Chi-Lites The Chi-Lites (, ) are an American R&B/soul vocal quartet from Chicago, Illinois, United States. Forming at Chicago's Hyde Park High School in 1959, The group's original lineup consisted of singers Robert Lester, Eugene Record, Creadel Jones, ...

, with Record on vocals and also producing. It was released as a single on

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...

in 1972. Included on the group's 1972 album '' A Lonely Man'', "Oh Girl" centers on a relationship on the verge of break-up. "Oh Girl" was the Chi-Lites' first and only No. 1 single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at that position in May 1972 for one week. The single also reached the top position of the ''Billboard''

R&B Singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs record chart, chart ranks the most popular Contemporary R&B, R&B and Hip hop music, hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of rad ...

the following month, remaining in that position for two weeks. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the No. 13 song for 1972. In addition, it reached No. 14 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in July 1972, and was a UK hit again in 1975 when reissued as a double A-side with "

Have You Seen Her "Have You Seen Her" is a song by American soul vocal group the Chi-Lites, released on Brunswick Records in 1971. Composed by the lead singer Eugene Record and Barbara Acklin, the song was included on the group's 1971 album '' (For God's Sake) Give ...

", this time reaching a new peak of No. 5. The song prominently features a

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

- lead vocals, guitar, bass, composer, producer * Robert "Squirrel" Lester - vocals *Creadel "Red" Jones - vocals *Marshall Thompson - vocals, harmonica,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

*Floyd Morris - piano *Quinton Joseph - drums *Tom Tom (Thomas Washington) - arranger

Paul Young version

The track was most prominently covered in 1990 by

Paul Young Paul Antony Young (born 17 January 1956) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. ...

, from his album '' Other Voices''. It became a top 10 hit in the U.S. (#8) and Canada (#4). It was also a major adult contemporary hit, reaching number one on both the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts.

Charts

Other covers and uses in the media

* "Oh Boy" was a gender-reversed cover of the song by

Renée Geyer Renée Rebecca Geyer (born 11 September 1953) is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's Worl ...

released in 1973. * "Oh Girl" was also covered by

British hip hop British hip hop, also known as UK hip hop or UK rap, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/Hip-Hop. Britis ...

artist Hard Livin' *

Leo Sayer Gerard Hugh "Leo" Sayer (born 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter whose singing career has spanned five decades. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom ...

on his 1979 album, ''

Here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

'', and *

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Con Hunley Conard Logan Hunley (born April 9, 1945) is an American country music singer. Life and career Hunley was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. After graduating from Central High School in Knoxville, Hunley began playing with local bands ...

, who took his version of the song to number 12 on the ''Billboard''

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart in 1982 with

the Oak Ridge Boys The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was change ...

on background vocals. * It was featured as a plot device in the Season Four episode of ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'' entitled Watching Too Much Television in 2002. * It was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

in a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

style by

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (often shortened to just Me First or the Gimmes) are a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in San Francisco in 1995. The band's lineup consists of Spike Slawson, Fat Mike, Joey Cape, and Dave Raun. Ch ...

on their 2003 album, '' Take a Break''. * Also covered by

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and most influential group ...

on their album ''

Flying High Together ''Flying High Together'' is an album by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label, released in 1972. It is noted as The Miracles' last studio album with original lead singer Smokey Robinson, who retired from the act to conc ...

'' (1972) * Over thirty years after the original release of "Oh Girl", the recording was

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

by the

Southern rap Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphi ...

per,

Paul Wall Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse Records, and has released several albums under the label and collabor ...

, for his 2006 single "

Girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary ...

". *In 1987,

Glenn Jones Glenn Jones (born September 27, 1962 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American R&B/soul singer. He is best known for his songs "Show Me", "We've Only Just Begun (The Romance Is Not Over)" and "Here I Go Again" which reached No. 1 on the Billboa ...

had a moderate hit on the US Soul singles chart. * It was also covered by

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

as the last track on his ''

Soul 2 ''Soul 2'' is the eighth studio album by British soul/ R&B singer Seal. The album was released on 4 November 2011. Like its predecessor, ''Soul'' (2008) the album consists of soul classics, and it was produced by David Foster, Jochem van der Saa ...

'' album released in 2011. * The track was featured in the

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

films ''

Crooklyn ''Crooklyn'' is a 1994 American semi-autobiographical film produced and directed by Spike Lee and co-written with his sister Joie and brother Cinqué. Occurring in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the summer ...

'' (1994) and ''

Chi-Raq ''Chi-Raq'' () is a 2015 American musical crime comedy drama film, directed and produced by Spike Lee and co-written by Lee and Kevin Willmott. Set in Chicago, the film focuses on the gang violence prevalent in neighborhoods on the city's sou ...

'' (2015). * British boyband

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

covered "Oh Girl" as an international bonus track for their fifth studio album,

Colours Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

(2015). *The Spanish band ''

Los Fugitivos Los Fugitivos (The Fugitives) are an American grupero band formed in 1985 as Grupo Kariño with brothers Jaime and Edi Espinoza. But in 1991, with the addition singer/guitarist Roberto Nieto, the band became Los Fugitivos. The band's first hits we ...

'', covered this song on their 2005 album ''Fue en un Cafe''. The song is sung in Spanish except the title of the song being sung in English.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1972 singles 1973 singles 1990 singles The Chi-Lites songs Renée Geyer songs Paul Young songs Leo Sayer songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Con Hunley songs Glenn Jones songs Songs written by Eugene Record Song recordings produced by Pete Wingfield 1972 songs Brunswick Records singles Columbia Records singles