Format 7-inch single Length 2:21 | ||
Released 10 October 1966 (US) January 1967 (Australia) 17 February 1967 (UK) | ||
"Georgy Girl", written by Tom Springfield (music) and Jim Dale (lyrics), is the title song performed by The Seekers for the British film of the same name starring Lynn Redgrave and James Mason. Across late 1966 and early 1967, the song became a #1 Australian hit and a #3 British hit. In the United States, it proved to be the Seekers' highest charting single, reaching #1 on the "Cash Box Top 100"; #2 on the Billboard Hot 100; and, prompting the Seekers' British album Come the Day to be retitled Georgy Girl for its American release. It was listed at #36 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Pop Songs of all time" issued in 2002.
The song is heard at both the beginning and end of the film, with markedly different lyrics (and with different lyrics again from those in the commercially released version). It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost the "Oscar" to the theme song from the film Born Free.
An instrumental cover by the Baja Marimba Band reached the U.S. #98 - pop, and #14 - easy listening in 1967.
The New Seekers, a later reorganized group from 1969 with guitarist Keith Potger, released a version on the album We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (1972) - also famous as the theme song for a memorable iconic TV commercial for Coca-Cola soft drink.
In 1970, the film was adapted for a short-lived Broadway musical, Georgy.
The song appears in the 2005 Hindi film Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi set in 1970s India
Cover versions and quotations
The tune was adapted as a commercial jingle for New York City metropolitan area's White Rock Beverages in 1966, and for Barbie dolls in the early 1980s.
In the TV cartoon series The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Homer twice sings the song with the lyrics "Hey there, blimpy boy! Flying through the sky so fancy free!". "Georgy Girl" is also parodied in the 13th-season episode "Half-Decent Proposal", when Artie Ziff creates a device to convert modem noises into easy-listening music.
The song was used during an episode of Get a Life called "Chris Moves Out".
"Georgy Girl" is referenced in the Ron Sexsmith song "In This Love" from his 1991 album Grand Opera Lane when he sings " It's just like that old movie song, the one about the Georgy girl."