A-side Pogo Pogo Format Vinyl record (7") Producer(s) Alan Ward | Released October 1977 (1977-10) Writer(s) Alan Ward | |
Label EMI-Bovema/NEGRAM, Lightnin, Vogue; Edge | ||
"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" is a song by Elton Motello about a 15-year-old boy's sexual relationship with an older man, who then rejects him for a girl.
Contents
Composition
"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has the same backing track as Plastic Bertrand/Lou Deprijck's "Ça plane pour moi". A few months before the vocals for "Ça plane pour moi" were recorded, the record firm used the same backing track with the same musicians to release "Jet Boy, Jet Girl". Alan Ward recorded his song in English.
Lyrics and controversy
Alan Ward, the singer behind Elton Motello, was circumspect about the lyrics. "We have all been ripped off at some point in our lives," he said in a magazine interview:
but judging by the emails I receive, my lyric has touched many more people and seems to ring a chord in many more hearts than the French one will ever do. That's why I wrote it. If I was meant to be rich it would have happened. But I am rich in the knowledge that my thoughts will never disappear.
In 1989, the American Federal Communications Commission (FCC), acting on a complaint from activist Jack Thompson fined radio station WIOD $10,000 for allowing talk host Neil Rogers to play the song. Thompson considered the song obscene and the FCC agreed with him.
Personnel
Cover versions
The song has been covered by numerous bands, including Captain Sensible & the Softies, The Damned, Chron Gen, the Bamboo Kids, and Crocodiles. The original version received renewed attention when it was included on John Waters' 2007 compilation CD A Date with John Waters.