Centerfold (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Centerfold


Artist = The J. Geils Band
from Album = Freeze Frame
Genre = Rock
Released = November 5,1981
Recorded = 1980
Length = 3:36
Label = EMI
Writer = Seth Justman
Producer = Seth Justman
Last single = "Night Time" (1980)
This single = "Centerfold" (1981)
Next single = "Freeze-Frame" (1982)

"Centerfold" was a hit for The J. Geils Band. The song is about a man who is shocked to discover that his highschool crush did a centerfold spread for a male-oriented magazine. The song could be a reference to actress Angel Tompkins relationship with Peter Wolf.

It was released in the Fall of 1981, and eventually went to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in February 1982, and stayed there for six weeks and also reached number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for three weeks, and on the ARIA Chart in Australia. It was the first single released from the band's album "Freeze Frame" and was an early staple on MTV. The "school" where the video was shot had a girls' dance school on the floor above; the girls from the school were the ones appearing in the video. For a long time it was believed that MTV veejay Martha Quinn appeared in the video, but it was just one of the dancers that bore a striking resemblance to her.

The band's lead singer Peter Wolf revealed on "In the Studio with Redbeard" that "Angel in Blue" was going to be the album's first single. Then during the "Angel in Blue" video shoot, Peter got a call from the president of EMI America Records suggesting that the band changed the single's title to "Centerfold".Fact|date=March 2007

In February 1983, a year after the song hit #1 in the US Billboard Hot 100, "Centerfold" peaked at #3 in the UK Top 40, earning The J. Geils Band their only major hit single in the UK, although follow-up "Freeze-Frame" was also a minor UK hit.

The song lists at #52 on "Billboard's All Time Top Songs." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-60.shtml]

Cover versions

The song was also covered by German speed metal band Tankard on 1993's "Stone Cold Sober".

The ska-punk band Against All Authority covered the song which featured on a split 7" record with Less Than Jake as did Hayseed Dixie on their 2004 album "Let There Be Rockgrass".

An English Ska-punk band called [Spunge| [spunge] also covered this song on their album, "That Should Cover It!", also released in 2004.

German Europop group Captain Jack has also covered this song; "Centerfold (130BPM move it remix)" can be found on the game Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.

A cover version by Adam Austin was a minor UK hit single in February 1999.

The English rock group Status Quo covered this song on their 2003 cover album "Riffs".

On Shwayze's 2008 self-titled album "Shwayze", they did a cover title "Angel is a Centerfold".

References