Another Girl, Another Planet

Infobox Single
Name = Another Girl, Another Planet


Caption =
Artist = The Only Ones
from Album = The Only Ones
A-side =
B-side =
Released = 1978
Format = Vinyl
Recorded = ?
Genre = New Wave
Length = 3:02
Label =
Writer = Peter Perrett
Producer =
Certification =
Last single = "Lovers of Today"
(1977)
This single = "Another Girl, Another Planet" (1978)
Next single = "The Whole of the Law"
(1978)
Misc = Audiosample
Upper caption = Audio sample
Audio file =The Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet.ogg "Another Girl, Another Planet" is a song by English power pop/new wave group The Only Ones, the second track on their 1978 eponymous debut.

Background

It is by far their best remembered song and has become something of a standard, covered by several notable artists. Though the band is often considered a one-hit wonder for the song, but even that label eludes them since "Another Girl, Another Planet" failed to chart anywhere in the world and has only gained its current recognition in the intervening decades. It is distinguished by soaring guitars, wounded vocals, and Peter Perrett's elliptical lyrics framing a blasé, weary take on love and romance. The "Allmusic" calls it "Arguably, the greatest rock single ever recorded". [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:ybxuakokamjc allmusic ] ]

A common interpretation is that that the lyrics are about Perrett's problems with drugs ("space travel's in my blood", "long journeys wear me out but I know I can't live without it", "I always flirt with death; I look ill but I don't care about it"). Perrett's diction is not completely clear and "I look ill..." is usually cited as "I could kill". Similarly ambiguous, "space travel's" has been rendered as "space shuttles". In any event, there appears to be some connection with drugs.

Possibly the first cover of the song was recorded in 1986 by Greg Kihn. Another early cover was recorded by The Replacements live in concert; it first appeared on the B-side to one of their final singles, 1989's "Achin' to Be". The song also appeared as a b-side on The Lightning Seeds' single for "Ready or Not". Another cover was recorded by The Mighty Lemon Drops. The Mushuganas did a cover of it on their self-titled album in 1998. More recent covers include those by Blink-182, Belle & Sebastian, and Babyshambles, though the last has not been commercially released. The Perrett family was invited on stage at a Libertines gig at The Rhythm Factory in 2004 to play the song which explains that link. A group called the London Punkharmonic Orchestra released "Symphony Of Destruction: Punk Goes Classical", an album of late '70s punk/new wave songs redone in classical arrangements, including "Another Girl, Another Planet". [http://www.nutleybrass.com/ The Nutley Brass] have also done an easy-listening, brass-band synthesiser version; even the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have covered it in their pseudo-twenties, seven-ukulele-and-voice style, as featured on their compilation album "Top Notch".

The song also lends its name to a 1992 American independent movie. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103706/ Another Girl Another Planet (1992) ] ] Though the song apparently does not appear in that film, it does appear in both the movies and commercially released soundtracks of 1979's "That Summer" and 2001's "Me Without You", both British films. It also appears in the 1996 film "Different for Girls", [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116102/ Different for Girls (1996) ] ] and the song was also on the soundtrack of "D.E.B.S." in 2004.

In March 2005, "Q Magazine" placed the song at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The song is at place 18 in John Peel's all-time Festive Fifty - millennium edition and when playing it in 1980's Festive Fifty, he introduced it as an “artful little caprice”. [ [http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/festive50lists.htm#All%20time%20festive%2050%20-%20%20Year%202000 John Peel's Festive 50's - 1977 - 2003 ] ]

The Only Ones original was in use for a Vodafone commercial in the UK in 2006, but was later replaced with a cover version by Bell X1. It is also the "on hold" music when Vodafone customers call in to discuss their account.

Blink-182 cover

Infobox Song
Name = Another Girl, Another Planet


Artist = Blink-182
from Album = Greatest Hits
Released = 2005
Format = Airplay
Recorded = December, 2004
Genre = Pop punk
Length = 2:41
Label = Universal
Writer = Peter Perrett
Producer = Blink-182

In December 2004 Blink-182 recorded a cover of this song for the opening track of Travis Barker's MTV reality show "Meet the Barkers". It was later released in 2005 on their greatest hits album. The Blink-182 version features an alteration to Perrett's original lyric by way of "I could kill...." rather than "I look ill...", which is speculated to be because Blink 182 has only heard the Replacements' cover, never the original. This was also the last song Blink-182 recorded before breaking up.

Although it is not an official single, it peaked #99 on the U.S. "Billboard" Pop 100.

References

External links

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:ybxuakokamjc "All Music Guide" Track Review for The Only Ones original]