B-side "Close Enough" Genre Rock | Format 7" 45 RPM Length 3:39 | |
Released April 1982 (April 1982) Recorded 1982 at Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles, California | ||
"Hurts So Good" is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing under the stage name "John Cougar." The song was a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the singer/songwriter. It was the first of three major hit singles from his 1982 album American Fool. The others were "Jack & Diane" and "Hand to Hold On To," which were all released in 1982.
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Background and recording
"Hurts So Good" was written by Mellencamp and George Green, Mellencamp's childhood friend and occasional writing partner. The song was first conceived, Mellencamp claims, in his shower and the first lines created were those of the chorus, written by Mellencamp. He then repeated the lines to Green and they finished the song very quickly. In 2004, Mellencamp expounded on the writing of "Hurts So Good" in an interview with American Songwriter magazine: "George Green and I wrote that together. We exchanged lines back and forth between each other and laughed about it at the time. Then I went and picked up the guitar, and within seconds, I had those chords."
The song was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, California and was engineered by Don Gehman and George Tutko. Backing Mellencamp were Larry Crane & Mike Wanchic (guitars, backing vocals), Kenny Aronoff (drums), George "Chocolate" Perry (bass) and Dave Parman (backing vocals).
Music video
Much of the video was filmed in Medora, Indiana, a small town located approximately 20 miles southwest of Seymour, Indiana, where Mellencamp was born and raised.
Personnel
Charts
The song hit number one on Billboard's Hot Tracks mainstream rock chart. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 7, 1982 and, although it failed to make number one, it spent 16 weeks in the top 10, the longest time for any song in the 1980s. It was kept off the top spot by "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. The song was listed at #83 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time. The song also reached #39 on the New Zealand Top 50. The song was also a hit in Canada reaching #3 on RPM magazine's Top 50 Singles chart. In South Africa, the song reached number 5.