Released 27 May 1996 Recorded 1995–1996 | Format CD, 12" Length 3:19 | |
B-side "Looney Tune""Give Me Something" | ||
"Female of the Species" is a song by the English rock band Space, released as their fourth single, and second single proper from their debut album Spiders on 27 May 1996, reaching #14 in the UK charts. It was the band's only entry on any music chart in the U.S. when it peaked at #15 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in early 1997. In Australia, "Female of the Species" entered the ARIA top 100 singles chart on 11 May 1997, peaking at #80 in June.
About the song
Written and sung by frontman Tommy Scott in tribute to his late father, who was reported to dislike his son's taste of music, "Female of the Species" is a funky, upbeat Latin-flavoured number with feel-good sounding vibes and vocals reminiscent of lounge singers such as Perry Como and Frank Sinatra combined with keyboardist Franny Griffiths' trademark sound effects and Scott's dark humoured lyrics. When the song was performed at later concerts, Scott usually walked into the audience to shake the front concert-goers by the hand.
The song's distinctive style and lyrics led to it being used in TV and films, including the theme song to the UK drama Cold Feet, the 1997 film The Matchmaker starring Janeane Garofalo, during the end credits of the popular movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (in the so-called 'Fembot Mix', available on the Original Soundtrack), and in the Daria episode "College Bored". It gained further popularity in the UK when used in a 1998 advert (with a cameo appearance by Quentin Crisp) for the bodyspray "Impulse".
The song's name is a reference to the 1911 Rudyard Kipling poem "The Female of the Species", which has as its refrain: "The female of the species is more deadly than the male". The song mispronounces the word "deadly" as "deadlier".