My Girl

Complete Madness, 1982

Mike says…
Well this song is about a phone call I had while I was trying to write a song. It’s my favourite song off One Step Beyond. I’ve just listened to it again and it sounds really good. Quite often when I write a song, I sort of get an idea from another song, “Watching The Detectives” by Elvis Costello doesn’t sound like this at all, I’m sure you’d agree with me on that point. Anyway I’m having trouble with this although it’s good I don’t have a lot to say about it so that’s my lot then, and I wish you all well, well all the ones who deserve it and the rest I’ll just pray for your souls.

The Lot, 1999

Mike: My Girl was written in the style of an Ian Dury song. We used to go and see Dury’s original band, Kilburn & The High Roads, and there was something about the way he put a song together. My Girl was an everyday sort of song. I got the title from a bloke who I once worked with delivering bananas. He used the phrase “my girl” when talking about his girlfriend.

One Step Beyond, 2023 CD reissue

Bedders: ‘My Girl’ was one of the first fully-formed songs of Mike’s that we rehearsed. Mike brought it into the rehearsal room pretty much complete. Everyone recognised straightaway when he brought the song into the rehearsal room, that it was good.
Mike: I remember sitting at home, getting the piano out, tinkling away and writing the song, and then going to the rehearsal room and playing it to everyone. There was always a lot of enthusiasm back then – it was early days, so we weren’t jaded or judgmental. I was a bit worried it sounded like Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry’. But nobody noticed.
Bedders: Lyrically, it’s so incredibly relatable. That’s where the skill is, that’s why it resonates with so many people. It’s so straightforward and honest.
Mike: It was very much inspired by Ian Dury’s songwriting. I was a big fan of Kilburn and the High Roads, we used to go and see them a lot. Ian’s writing, his honesty about reality and what was going on, the way that he captured what he was doing… It showed what you could do with songwriting. It was like a template. A lot of people were singing with fake American accents back then, because America’s where all the money is. And I really didn’t like that. But Ian was just really focused on his own backyard, singing about the UK, about Billericay and other places that nobody’s ever heard of or that were totally unfashionable. Ian was waving the flag for something a bit different, something more direct and more honest. We all thought he was great, and we kind of did the same thing really – we took that vibe that he was generating and carried on with it.
Bedders: In retrospect, you can see how good the environment of the band was, that people felt okay to bring their songs in. Because we felt quite quickly that we should write our own songs. From One Step Beyond… onwards, everyone in the band has contributed songs. It was very, very open and everyone could contribute.
Chris: We’d demoed it before we got a record deal. I thought it was such a genius song, and I still do. I thought it was going to be massive in America, and it could have been, really. And at that point I just thought, “Oh, Mike can write all the songs. I don’t want to write songs. Him and Lee, they can write songs. They’re good at it.”
Woody: Dave was insistent that Suggs was the lead singer, and that we should stick with Suggs for all the tracks. Chris had sung ‘Bed & Breakfast Man’ on John Peel, and Mike had sung ‘My Girl’ on the demos at Pathway, but on the album Suggs sang those songs. There was a little bit of awkwardness, because ‘My Girl’ was Mike’s song, and he sang it from the heart.
Bedders: The much-lauded ‘funny rhythm’ on the verses, that’s Clive Langer. If you listen to the chorus, it’s more like what the whole song sounded like originally. But that jumping rhythm on the verses is me and Woody sitting with Clive, making this staccato rhythm, which creates this tension and relief. So you get that jagged rhythm, and then suddenly switch to the flowing chorus. Like on ‘The Sun And The Rain’, that marching rhythm suddenly just lifts and starts flowing. It’s something that has become a trait in the band’s work.
Chris: David Bowie told Clive when they worked together that he’d used ‘My Girl’ as a reference point for the rhythm of ‘Ashes To Ashes’. I mean, you can’t get better than that, can you?

The song first appeared on the ‘One Step Beyond…’ LP (Stiff)

‘My Girl’ was Madness’ third single

Rehearsal tape version from ‘Fab Toones!’ cassette, 1979

Included on ‘One Step Beyond…’ 35th Anniversary CD+DVD (2014)

A demo of ‘My Girl’ was recorded at Pathway Studios at the same time as ‘The Prince’ and ‘Madness’, which ended up on the first single on 2 Tone.

The ‘My Girl’ demo, sung by Mike, first appeared on ‘The Nutty Boys’ 12″ EP

A ‘ballad’ version was specially recorded for Flexipop magazine, also sung by Mike

‘MISTAKES’ 2LP – The Paradise Ballroom, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 24 Feb 1980

‘IN CONCERT – 247’ – Hammersmith Odeon, London 23 Dec 1980

Also on ‘ABSOLUTELY’ Salvo 2CD (2010)

‘IN CONCERT – 301’ – Dominion Theatre, London 2 Mar 1983

Also on ‘CLASSIC IN CONCERT’ CD (1993)

‘KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR’ – Pier 84, New York 22 Aug 1983

‘The Sun And The Rain’ 12″ – The Brighton Centre 5 Mar 1983

‘NBC RADIO’S YOUNG ADULT NETWORK – MADNESS CONCERT’ – Pier 84, New York 22 Aug 1983

‘IN CONCERT – 376’ – Hammersmith Odeon, London 24 Nov 1985

‘MAD NOT MAD PARTY’ – Hammersmith Odeon, London 31 Dec 1985

‘MIS LIVE – A COLLECTION OF LIVE SONGS RECORDED AROUND THE PLONET 1980 TO 1985’

‘MADSTOCK!’ – Finsbury Park, London 8 Aug 1992

‘MADSTOCK 2’ – Finsbury Park, London 6 Aug 1994

‘IN THE ZONE’ – Hollywood Palladium, California 12 Sep 1983

‘UNIVERSAL MADNESS’ – Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, USA 26 Apr 1998

‘AT MADSTOCK’ – Finsbury Park, London 7 Jun 1998

‘LIVE: TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND PART 1’ (2006)

‘ON STAGE 1’ – Brixton Academy, London 7 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 2’ – SECC Hall 4, Glasgow 12 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 3’ – MEN Arena, Manchester 13 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 4’ – Telewest Arena, Newcastle 14 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 5’ – NEC, Birmingham 16 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 6’ – BIC, Bournemouth 17 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 7’ – Brighton Centre, Brighton 19 Dec 2006

‘ON STAGE 8’ – Wembley Arena, London 20 Dec 2006

‘LIVE AT THE ASTORIA 3.12.07’ – Astoria, London 3 Dec 2007

‘LIVE AT THE O2 ARENA 14.12.07’ – O2 Arena, London 14 Dec 2007

‘NW5’ – Bestival, Isle Of Wight Sep 2007

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 24’ – Hackney Empire, London 24 Jun 2008

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 25’ – Hackney Empire, London 25 Jun 2008

‘HACKNEY EMPIRE 26’ – Hackney Empire, London 26 Jun 2008

‘MADSTOCK V’ – Victoria Park, London 17 Jul 2009

‘UK TOUR 2009’ – The Liberty Of Norton Folgate UK Tour, Dec 2009

‘ITUNES FESTIVAL: LONDON 2012’

‘IN CONCERT’ – BBC Radio Theatre, London 11 Oct 2012

‘GLASTONBURY’ – Glastonbury Festival, Somerset 25 Jun 2016

‘HYDE PARK’ – Hyde Park, London 11 Sep 2016

‘THE GET UP!’ – London Palladium

‘FACES FOR RADIO: THE BBC SESSIONS 1979-1982’ – The Mike Read Show: Broadcast 21st January 1980