You’re Gorgeous
You’re Gorgeous is the song that prevented Babybird from being cool. It’s the song played at wedding receptions, jukeboxes, karaoke bars and valentine cards around the world, and it remains Babybird’s biggest selling single, reaching number three in the UK charts in October 1996.
It’s the song that made Stephen desperate to escape the fame which came with it, but also the song that today makes him able to produce the music he wants to.
So, for good or worse, here’s a tribute – including interviews, clips and eight other versions - to You’re Gorgeous: The song about a man on a car in a bikini – getting beauty sucked out of him.
More: You’re Gorgeous in the singles section
Stephen on THAT song:
“I honestly didn’t mean ‘You’re Gorgeous’ the way people think I meant it.”
- Stephen Jones, The Face, December 1996 [Read it]
“It’s about role-reversal. The words describe how the man might feel if it was him in a bikini with his legs apart on the bonnet of a car being snapped for 20 quid.”
- Stephen Jones, Independent, February 1997 [Read it]
“People will always think that big hits with catchy choruses are written to be hits and nothing else, but as you know Gorgeous was written as a demo, years before, as a joke for friends…its sarcastic, so for it to be a hit and misunderstood is a nasty pleasure.
- Stephen Jones, Myspace, September 2006 [Read it]
“Once people start listening to a track it’s totally up to them as to how they interpret it. You can’t go round saying, ‘This is what the song’s about’, but a lot of people think it’s a love song – the fact it goes into Valentine cards and birthday cards is a good example of that. But it’s actually a pro-female song against male photographers who want to use women to sell things using sex”
- Stephen Jones, Yorkshire Post, November 2009 [Read it]
“The song kind of gave me enough money to be able to do the music I want to do. Not be too commercial, or at least fight what some people want to turn you into … So far anyway.”
Stephen Jones, bad-pages.dk, January, 2010.
“You’re Gorgeous’ is a powerful millstone, and sometimes, though I don’t mind the song, it’s 20 years old, and I’m being ground up under it. One day I’ll wear that millstone like a fucking king.”
Stephen Jones, bad-pages.dk, January, 2010.
Sounds: other versions
Lyrics
Y. O. U. R. E. G. O. R. G. E. O. U. S.
Remember that tank top you bought me.
You wrote ‘You’re Gorgeous’ on it.
You took me to your rented motor car and filmed me on the bonnet.
You got me to hitch my knees up and pulled my legs apart.
You took an instamatic camera and and pulled my sleeves around my heart.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous our love will see us through.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous I know you’ll get me through.
You said my clothes were sexy, you tore away my shirt.
You rubbed an ice-cube on my chest snapped me ’til it hurt.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous our love will see us through.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous I know you’ll get me through.
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
You said I wasn’t cheap. You paid me twenty pounds.
You promised to put me in a magazine on every table in every lounge.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous our love will see us through.
Because you’re gorgeous I’d do anything for you.
Because you’re gorgeous our love will see us through.
Because you’re gorgeous I know you’ll get me through. I know you’ll get me through.
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