Another Girl, Another Planet Explained

Another Girl, Another Planet
Cover:Onlyonesgirl.jpg
Type:single
Artist:the Only Ones
Album:The Only Ones
B-Side:"Special View"
Released:1978
Recorded:April 1978
Studio:
Genre:
Length:3:02
Label:Columbia
Producer:
  • The Only Ones
  • Robert Ash
Prev Title:Lovers of Today
Prev Year:1977
Next Title:The Whole of the Law
Next Year:1978

"Another Girl, Another Planet" is a song by the English rock band The Only Ones. It is the second track on their debut studio album, The Only Ones, released in 1978. The song is the band's most successful and has since been covered by several other performers.

Recording

It was recorded on a 16-track analogue Studer tape machine and an ex-Steve Marriott Helios mixing console at Escape Studios, a residential facility in Egerton, Kent, England, by engineer and producer John Burns, assisted by Ian Maidman, and later worked on and mixed at Basing Street Studios by Robert Ash.[3]

Chart performance

The track was not a chart hit upon its initial release in 1978. Its first chart appearance was 7 June 1981, at No. 44, for one week, on the New Zealand chart.[4] It was re-released in the UK in January 1992, backed with "Pretty in Pink" by the Psychedelic Furs to promote the compilation album, Sound of the Suburbs, and appeared in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks, peaking at No. 57.[5] [6]

Recognition

AllMusic describes it as "Arguably, the greatest rock single ever recorded".[7]

The song was placed at number 18 in John Peel's all-time Festive Fifty millennium edition. Playing it in 1980's Festive Fifty, he introduced it as an "artful little caprice".[8] In March 2005, Q magazine placed the song at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.[9]

The song is widely believed to be about heroin[10] "A fantastic song with an amazing guitar line," enthused Tim Wheeler of Northern Irish rock band Ash. "It took me a long time to figure out that it's about drugs – not a girl from another planet – and that space travel is a metaphor for being high. It was Peter Perrett's heroin-heavy drawl that eventually gave it away."[11] In an interview in 2015 Perrett declared that the song has been actually inspired by a girl and that it is not about heroin, nevertheless admitting that he always enjoyed "writing ambiguous lyrics that could be taken on two or three different levels".[12]

In popular culture

The song's title was used as the name of a 1992 American independent film directed by Michael Almereyda,[13] though the song does not appear in the film. It does appear, though, in six films and their soundtracks: That Summer! (1979), Different for Girls (1996),[14] Me Without You (2001), D.E.B.S. (2004), Paul (2011), and Her Smell (2018).

Cover versions

Blink-182

Another Girl Another Planet
Border:yes
Type:promo
Artist:Blink-182
Album:Greatest Hits
Released:2005
Recorded:Late 2004
Studio:Larrabee Sound Studios (Los Angeles, California)
Genre:Pop punk
Length:2:42
Label:Universal
Producer:

Blink-182 recorded a cover version of this song for the opening track of Travis Barker's MTV reality show Meet the Barkers. It was later released in 2005 as the closing track on their Greatest Hits album.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Billboard. 1979. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.. 91. 147. 0006-2510. 41.
  2. Web site: Playlist: 10 best new wave singles of 1978. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/best-songs-1978-new-wave-post-punk-singles-spotify-playlist-a8385766.html . 2022-05-07 . subscription . live. Ross. Graeme. 7 June 2018. The Independent.
  3. Web site: Buskin . Richard . CLASSIC TRACKS: The Only Ones: 'Another Girl, Another Planet' . Sound On Sound . 27 April 2007 . 13 October 2016.
  4. Web site: The Official New Zealand Music Chart. Nztop40.co.nz. 2 October 2021.
  5. Web site: CollectorsFrenzy - The Only Ones / Psychedelic Furs RARE vinyl 7" single. 18 January 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150118060919/http://collectorsfrenzy.com/details/290606394928/The_Only_Ones__Psychedelic_Furs_RARE_vinyl_7_single. 2 October 2021. 2015-01-18.
  6. Book: Roberts , David . 2006. British Hit Singles & Albums. 19th. Guinness World Records Limited . London. 1-904994-10-5. 407.
  7. Web site: Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones - Listen, Appearances, Song Review - AllMusic. Andy Claps. AllMusic. 18 January 2015.
  8. Web site: Rocklist.net...John Peel's Festive 50's - 1977 - 2003 ...... Rocklistmusic.co.uk. 18 January 2015.
  9. Web site: Rocklist.net...Q Magazine Lists . Rocklistmusic.co.uk . 13 October 2016.
  10. Andrew Stafford, Something to Believe In, University of Queensland Press, 2019
  11. Tim . Wheeler . Tim Wheeler . Sci-fi rocks . . August 2007 . 117.
  12. Web site: Peter Perrett: "It wasn't about drugs... at that time, I was more addicted to sex". Pinnock, Tom . 13 April 2017. Uncut.
  13. Web site: Another Girl Another Planet (1992). 1 October 1992. IMDb.com. 18 January 2015.
  14. Web site: Different for Girls (1996). 12 September 1997. IMDb.com. 18 January 2015.
  15. Pop – Pop 100. 117. 47. 54. Billboard. 19 November 2005. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.. 21 March 2016.