"Girls & Boys" is a song by the English rock band Blur, released in March 1994 by Food Records as the lead single from the group's third studio album, Parklife (1994). Charting at number five on the UK Singles Chart, "Girls & Boys" was Blur's first top-five hit and their most successful single until "Country House" reached number one the following year. The single surpassed their previous commercial peak "There's No Other Way" by three spots on the UK Singles Chart and saw the group achieve greater worldwide success. In the US, the track reached number 59 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's second single to enter the chart after "There's No Other Way". It also reached number four on the Billboard Modern Rock songs chart. Frontman of Blur, Damon Albarn wrote the song's lyrics with bandmembers Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, while Stephen Street produced it.
"Girls & Boys" was named single of the year by NME and Melody Maker. It was also nominated for best song at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Composition
Damon Albarn was inspired to write the song while on holiday in Magaluf, Spain, with then-girlfriend Justine Frischmann, lead singer of Elastica. According to Albarn, the city had "really tacky Essex nightclubs" and a rampant sexual scene among visitors, with "All these blokes and all these girls meeting at the watering hole and then just copulating. There's no morality involved, I'm not saying it should or shouldn't happen." The music has a convergence of various pop and dance styles, summed up by bassist Alex James as "Disco drums, nasty guitars and Duran Duran bass." Drummer Dave Rowntree admitted that he is not playing on the track, being replaced by a drum machine he programmed. He said it was his favourite song on Blur: The Best Of (2000) because he "isn't really in it. It's cool not being in your own song." The vocals were recorded with a demo featuring only the keyboards. This song is written in the key of G minor.
Release
Producer Stephen Street felt that while "Girls & Boys" was not like Blur's previous songs, "I thought it would be Top 5 – it was so downright basic. I felt the way I had when I produced the Smiths: that as long as Morrissey was singing on it, it would be the Smiths. It was the same with Blur: they could put their hands to anything, and it would still sound like Blur." The song indeed reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, Blur's first foray into the top 5. Despite the band having big expectations for the single, guitarist Graham Coxon said "going top five was a bit of a shocker", and Albarn confessed to having his first panic attack shortly after the single entered the charts.
Critical reception
AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "Girls & Boys" as "undeniably catchy" and "one of the best (songs) Blur ever recorded", praising the band for making the song "feel exactly like Eurotrash", and stating that the chorus was "an absolutely devastating put-down of '90s gender-bending, where even ambi-sexuals didn't know whose fantasy they were fulfilling." Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Alternative band takes a detour into clubland with an amusing, word-twisting ditty fleshed out with a trance-like synth energy and a hard, syncopated beat, courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys. Way-hip single's primary selling point is the brain-numbing refrain "girls who want boys who like boys to be girls who do boys like they're girls who do girls like they're boys." Try saying that three times fast. A good bet for dancefloor action, track should also get a crack at pop/crossover radio." Troy J. Augusto from Cash Box felt that "this track will light up dance floors first, with top-40 and even some experimental urban radio stations close behind. Not what we've come to expect from this quirky guitar-pop combo, which is part of the appeal here. And don't be surprised if RuPaul records a cover of this tasty gem." Chuck Campbell from Knoxville News Sentinel wrote in his review of Parklife, "That great song, "Girls & Boys", is a twisting, slapping, lusty and instantly satisfying neo-disco track featuring Graham Coxon's teasing guitar and Damon Albarn's endearing vocals." He added, "Those who allow Parklife to continue playing after the conclusion of "Girls & Boys" will be disappointed initially, because nothing else on the album is so acutely infectious." Steve Hochman from Los Angeles Times praised it as a "delightfully sly single".