"Slap And Tickle" was the fourth and final

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

released from Squeeze's second album, '' Cool for Cats''. Co-written by

Chris Difford Christopher Henry Difford (born 4 November 1954) is an English singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is a founding member and songwriter of the rock group Squeeze. Musical career Born in Greenwich, London, Difford has written ly ...

and

Glenn Tilbrook Glenn Martin Tilbrook (born 31 August 1957) is the lead singer and guitarist of the English band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid-1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally wrote the music for Squeeze's son ...

, the song took influence lyrically from the crowd that the band had been associating with at the time. Its synth-heavy arrangement was inspired by

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

and

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

. "Slap and Tickle" was released as the fourth single from ''Cool for Cats'', reaching number 24 in the UK.

Background

"Slap and Tickle" was co-written by

and

. On "Slap and Tickle", Difford took lyrical inspiration from the "seedy crew" that the band had become friendly with when they became successful. Difford explained, "I loved being with them because they were the kind of people I'd shied away from at school. Now I had the authority of being in a successful band, I was hanging out with them." Difford also cited the lyrical style of Ian Dury and future Squeeze producer

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

as influences in developing the song's rhymthic

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

. "Slap and tickle" is a British euphemism for sexual activity. Musically, Tilbrook cited

and

as inspirations on "Slap and Tickle", though his inexperience with sequencers made it difficult to replicate the sound. He noted, "I played it all by hand. There's a clip of me on the '' Old Grey Whistle Test'' prodding away manfully at the keyboard." Tilbrook played keyboard on the song, which he later noted was him "encroaching on Jools ollands territory."

Release

"Slap and Tickle" appeared as the opening track on 1979's '' Cool for Cats''. The track was released as the fourth single from the album in the UK. The single peaked at number 24 in 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 ...

. The song has since appeared on compilation albums, such as 1982's ''

Singles – 45's and Under ''Singles – 45's and Under'' is a compilation album by Squeeze, released on the A&M Records label on 22 October 1982. The album consisted of all their singles from 1978 to 1982 in chronological order, with the exception of "Bang Bang", "Christ ...

''. A rerecorded version of "Slap and Tickle" also appeared on the 2010 album ''

Spot the Difference Globe and high court (Spot the difference)

References

Squeeze (band) songs 1979 singles Songs written by Glenn Tilbrook Songs written by Chris Difford {{1970s-pop-song-stub