Razzmatazz (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Razzmatazz


Artist = Pulp
from Album =
B-side = Stacks, Inside Susan, 59 Lyndhurst Grove
Released = February 1993 (U.K.)
Format = CD, 7", 12"
Recorded = Razzmatazz: October 1992, Maison Rouge Studios, London.
Inside Susan, a story in three songs: December 1992, Protocol Studios, London.
Genre = Britpop
Length =
Label = Gift Records
Writer = Jarvis Cocker/Pulp
Producer = Pulp
Certification =
Chart position = 80 (UK)
Last single = "Babies"
(1992)
This single = "Razzmatazz"
(1993)
Next single = "Lipgloss"
(1994)

"Razzmatazz" is a song and single by British rock group Pulp. It was their final single for Gift Records and peaked at #80 in the UK singles chart, despite critical acclaim.

All the tracks on the single were re-released within eight months by Island Records on their Intro compilation.

The Songs

"Razzmatazz" details the decline of a cock-sure, though not particularly bright or high-class, girl who believes that all that's needed is a 'little bit of razzmatazz' in the months after the song's narrator leaves her. Within three weeks she has put on weight and started to date a man who looks like 'some bad comedian' and has stopped going out all the time, instead preferring to sit in and watch television eating Cadbury's Milk Tray, clear signs of depression which gets so bad that her mother wants to have her committed. By the time the narrator bumps into her at the doctors waiting for 'a test' (likely a pregnancy test) she is going to parties and leaving alone. The song's chorus points out that everything has changed for the girl, she is no longer desirable to men and all of her old tricks don't work anymore.

The single's three B-sides are a three-part story telling the life of a woman named Susan. "Stacks" deals with her early adolescence in Rotherham, its chorus warning that there are much better ways to spend her time that hanging around and going with boys. In "Inside Susan" she is in her later teens and the song is a spoken word account of her thoughts as she travels on a bus including recollections of a party where she got drunk on cider. Finally "59 Lyndhurst Grove" finds Susan the second wife of an architect 'somewhere in South London' cheating on him with a lover and living a monotonous conventional life. It also recalls a party, though one much more reserved with friends and children.

Track listing

# "Razzmatazz" - 3:39
# "Stacks" - 2:42
# "Inside Susan" - 5:35
# "59 Lyndhurst Grove" - 3:33

* "Stacks" did not appear on the 7" release.

leeve Notes

* "I played these songs to Susan the other day - she just laughed and said I was being spiteful because she wouldn't sleep with me when we first met. She also said to tell you that she's perfectly happy where she is at the moment, thank you very much."

ources

* [http://www.mlp.cz/space/opatrilp/Pulp/Razzmatazz.disc.html "Razzamatazz's" page on Space]
* [http://www.pulpwiki.net/Pulp/RazzmatazzSingle "Razzamatazz" single page on PulpWiki]
* [http://www.acrylicafternoons.com/pulp.html acrylicafternoons.com]