All You Pretty Girls - Misplaced Pages

"All You Pretty Girls" is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC, released on their 1984 album The Big Express. It peaked at number 55 on the UK Singles Chart, and its music video cost £33,000 to make. Partridge remembers that song came about while he was "dicking around, playing some Hendrix. ... I was just playing this little two-note, quasi-Hendrix thing, and I liked the inherent melody in it."

With the exception of the opening, all the drum sounds in the recording were made with a LinnDrum. The choir sounds were a Mellotron sample played out of a speaker inside a fire bucket.

Song style and content

The song's lyrics tell the story of a sailor asking a shipmate to — if the sailor should die — write a note and throw it overboard, with a message thanking all the women who wait at the docks for the sailor's return. The song's chorus, listing the types of women waiting, is deliberately performed in the style of a sea shanty, which turns into a hornpipe-styled coda utilising a complex harmonic counterpoint of non-lexical vocables which also suggest a nautical work song.

Music video

The song was accompanied by a video which depicted the band in period costume as singers in a traditional music hall or theatrical production, dressed as sailors. By the end of the video, they are shown being press-ganged into service in the navy.

Personnel

XTC

Dave Gregory – keyboards, backing vocals
Colin Moulding — bass, backing vocals
Andy Partridge — guitar, lead and backing vocals

Additional personnel

Pete Phipps – drums

Charts

Chart (1984)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)	76
UK Singles (OCC)	55

References

Ingham, Chris (March 1999). "XTC - 'Til Death Do Us Part". Mojo.
^ Bernhardt, Todd (4 March 2007). "Andy discusses 'All You Pretty Girls'". Chalkhills.
Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 344. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
"Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 January 2018.

External links

"All You Pretty Girls" on Chalkhills

v t e XTC
Andy Partridge Colin Moulding Terry Chambers Barry Andrews Dave Gregory
Studio albums	White Music Go 2 Drums and Wires Black Sea English Settlement Mummer The Big Express 25 O'Clock Skylarking Psonic Psunspot Oranges & Lemons Nonsuch Apple Venus Volume 1 Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
Compilations	Waxworks: Some Singles 1977–1982 Beeswax: Some B-Sides 1977–1982 The Compact XTC Chips from the Chocolate Fireball Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80 Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers Drums and Wireless: BBC Radio Sessions 77–89 Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92 Upsy Daisy Assortment Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions Coat of Many Cupboards Apple Box Psurroundabout Ride
EP	3D EP
Singles	"Statue of Liberty" "This Is Pop?" "Life Begins at the Hop" "Making Plans for Nigel" "Generals and Majors" "Towers of London" "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" "Respectable Street" "Senses Working Overtime" "Ball and Chain" "Wonderland" "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" "Thanks for Christmas" "All You Pretty Girls" "This World Over" "Wake Up" "Grass" "The Meeting Place" "Dear God" "Mayor of Simpleton" "King for a Day" "The Disappointed" "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" "Easter Theatre"
Other songs	"Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her" "Garden of Earthly Delights" "Wrapped in Grey"
Related media	A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC Fuzzy Warbles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Great Aspirations Homespun Homegrown Take Away / The Lure of Salvage Waspstrumental XTC: This Is Pop Planet England
Other topics	Discography The Dukes of Stratosphear Ian Reid Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her (band)

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