Puneet Varma (Editor)

Oh Girl

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B-side
  
"Being in Love"

Format
  
7"

Genre
  
R&B, soul

Released
  
March 2, 1972

Recorded
  
1971

Length
  
3:43 (album version) 3:16 (single edit)

"Oh Girl" is a single recorded by the soul vocal group, The Chi-Lites and released on Brunswick Records in 1972. Included on the group's 1972 album A Lonely Man, "Oh Girl" centers on a relationship on the verge of break-up. The narrator, portrayed by the song's author Eugene Record, expresses concern that the break-up may prove unbearable for him ("Oh girl/I'd be in trouble if you left me now/'Cause I don't know where to look for love/I just don't know how"), while knowing that staying will be no better ("I could save myself a lot of useless tears/Girl I've got to get away from here"; "Better be on my way, I can't stay here").

"Oh Girl" was the Chi-Lites' first and only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at that position in May 1972 for one week. The single also reached the top position of the Billboard R&B Singles chart the following month, remaining in that position for two weeks. Billboard ranked it as the No. 13 song for 1972. In addition, it reached number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart in July 1972.

The song prominently features a harmonica.

Covers and uses in the media

  • "Oh Boy" was a gender-reversed cover of the song by RenĂ©e Geyer released in 1973.
  • "Oh Girl" was also covered by British hip hop artist Hard Livin', Leo Sayer on his 1979 album, Here, and country music singer Con Hunley, who took his version of the song to number 12 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1982.
  • The track was performed in 1990 by Paul Young. Young's version from his album Other Voices was also a hit, reaching number one on the Adult Contemporary chart and number eight on the Hot 100 in 1990.
  • It was featured as a plot device in the Season Four episode of The Sopranos entitled Watching Too Much Television in 2002.
  • It was covered in a punk style by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their 2003 album, Take a Break.
  • Also covered by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on their album Flying High Together (1972)
  • Over thirty years after the original release of "Oh Girl", the recording was sampled by the Southern rapper, Paul Wall, for his 2006 single "Girl".
  • It was also covered by Seal as the last track on his Soul 2 album released in 2011.
  • The track was featured in the Spike Lee films Crooklyn (1994) and Chi-Raq (2015).
  • British boyband Blue covered "Oh Girl" as an international bonus track for their fifth studio album, Colours (2015).

    • References

    Oh Girl Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA