A minimalist New Wave song recorded with his band, "Is She Really Going Out With Him" was Joe Jackson's amusing commentary on hot girls hooking up with butt-ugly dudes. Jackson makes this clear in the marvelous opening line, "Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street." In a Songfacts interview with Joe Jackson, he explained that the song was written with a humor that was lost on some listeners. Said Jackson: "That is just one of those songs that started with the title. I heard that phrase somewhere and I thought that could be a kind of funny song about gorgeous girls going out with monsters. It just started from there. It was just a funny song, or supposed to be funny. It was a great surprise to me when some people interpreted it as being angry."
Jackson was not the first to ask this musical question. The 1964 Shangri-Las hit "Leader of the Pack" opens with some dialog: Is she really going out with him? Well, there she is, let's ask her. Betty, is that Jimmy's ring you're wearing? In 1976, the UK punk band The Damned lifted this line to open their first single, "New Rose."
Other artists to record this song include Sugar Ray, Goldfinger and Kid Courageous.
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