My Boyfriend's Back

My Boyfriend's Back
Studio album by The Angels
Released	1963 (1963)
Recorded	1963
Genre	Pop, Romantic Balad
Label	Smash Records

"My Boyfriend's Back" was a hit song in 1963 for The Angels, an American girl group. It was written by the songwriting team of Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer. The recording was originally intended as a demo for The Shirelles, but ended up being released as recorded.^[1] The result was a single that spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number two on the R&B Billboard.

The song is a word of warning to a would-be suitor who, after the narrator of the song rebuffed his advances, went on to spread nasty rumours accusing the narrator of romantic indiscretions. Now, the narrator declares, her boyfriend is back in town and ready to settle the score, and she tells the rebuffed would-be suitor to watch his back.

The inspiration for the song was when co-writer Bob Feldman overheard a conversation between a high school girl and the boy she was rebuffing.^[2]

Covers, parodies and references

"My Boyfriend's Back" has been the subject of several notable cover versions.

Rival girl groups The Chiffons and Martha and the Vandellas recorded covers shortly after The Angels' original release. Nearly twenty years later, Melissa Manchester released a faithful cover version as a single in 1983 which became a minor Adult Contemporary hit.^{[citation needed]} More than twenty years after that, the song was also covered by former American Idol contestant Paris Bennett on her 2007 album "Princess P."

The song has also been covered in punk rock-influenced recordings by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Raveonettes, Bracket, and Australian female punk trio The Spazzys.

UK Powerpop originators The Pleasers featured the song as a highspot of their live stage shows as 'My Girlfriends Back' and recorded it for their Thamesbeat Album in 1978.

Bette Bright and the Illuminations released a cover version in 1978 as their single debut.

The rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's track "Guess Who's Back" borrows heavily from the structure and lyrics of "My Boyfriend's Back".

The song is featured in the 2006 Tony award winning musical, Jersey Boys. It was also featured on the U.S. television show "American Dreams," where it was sung by Christian Pop singer Stacie Orrico playing the lead singer of the Angels.

A version of the tune has been used in a commercial jingle for the Hess toy truck, sung as "The Hess Truck's Back".

A cover by Australian band The Chantoozies featured in the film "The Crossing" (1990).

The song was parodied by Bob Ricci on his debut album Get a Life as "My Girlfriend's Back".

Sarah Brightman released a cover version of the song on a single in 1981.

In 1981, the band Dire Straits made a reference to the song in their hit Romeo and Juliet, from the album Making Movies.

The song figured prominently in the 1989 made for television film My Boyfriend's Back, which featured Jill Eikenberry, Sandy Duncan and Judith Light as former members of a fictitious girl group named The Bouffants. In the story, "My Boyfriend's Back" was their only hit song.

The song title was referenced for the 1993 film My Boyfriend's Back, directed by Bob Balaban.

The Disney Channel did a DTV music video of the song set to clips from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Comedian Frank Caliendo often sings a cover of the song, with the lyrics changed to be about Brett Favre, when doing his John Madden impersonation. (My Brett Favre's back and your defense is in trouble/Hey now, hey now, my Brett Favre's Back!) A viral video was later posted on YouTube, with Caliendo's lyrics put over the original song.

References

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