Released April 28, 1979 Length 3:31 Writer(s) Rickie Lee Jones | Genre Soft rock Label Warner Bros. | |
B-side "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" | ||
"Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list.
Contents
"Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1 of the Rickie Lee Jones LP, on which it runs 3:28 minutes long. It is Side A on the single; the B-side is “On Saturday Afternoon in 1963”.
Inspiration
Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. Eventually Weiss, affectionately referred to as "Chuck E.", disappeared. Later Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived. When Waits took the call, Weiss explained that he was in Denver, and that he had moved there because he had fallen in love with a cousin in Colorado. When Waits hung up he announced to Jones, "Chuck E.’s in love." Jones liked the sound of the sentence and wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of "Chuck E.’s In Love" the lyrics state, "Chuck E.’s in love with the little girl singing this song," the twist ending is fictional; Jones was never the girl with whom Chuck E. was in love.
P.L.P.
The first line of the song says, "How come he don't come and PLP with me down at the meter no more?" PLP stands for Public Leaning Post, old American slang for one person (usually female) leaning against another (usually male) in a friendly fashion.