"Cool Jerk" is a 1966 song written by Donald Storball and originally performed by

the Capitols The Capitols were an American, Detroit, Michigan-based soul trio, widely known in 1966 for their '' Billboard'' hit single " Cool Jerk". Formation and disbandment The R&B trio formed in 1962 as "The Three Caps," with Samuel George as the lead v ...

. It became a hit song in the United States and Canada. It was also used in the 1992 American Christmas comedy film '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York''.

Original version

Released in 1966, it reached No. 2 on the American Rhythm & Blues Singles chart, No. 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 9 on the Canadian Singles Chart. The session was arranged by Funk Brother Mike Terry, as

the Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

's house band, played behind the Capitols on the track. Per one of the Funk Brothers, the song was originally to be called "Pimp Jerk". This was taken from watching neighborhood pimps, who would dance in the clubs but were too "cool" to do

the jerk ''The Jerk'' is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias (from a story by Steve Martin and Carl Gottlieb). This was Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The fil ...

like regular folks. The producer was afraid that a song with the word ''pimp'' in the title would be banned or fail to receive much positive attention, and had the title changed to its current form.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

The Go-Go's version

The Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belind ...

covered the song for their 1982 album ''

Vacation A vacation (American English) or holiday (British English) is either a leave of absence from a regular job or an instance of leisure travel away from home. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances or for specific festi ...

'' and later re-recorded it for their

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

album '' Greatest''. A demo that pre-dates their ''Vacation'' recording was released on their 1994 compilation ''

Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's ''Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's'' is the Go-Go's second compilation album, released in 1994. There were two versions of this compilation released: a single disc, and a double disc version. All recordings found on the single disc are identic ...

''.

References