"You're Gorgeous" | ||||
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Single by Babybird | ||||
from the album Ugly Beautiful | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 30 September 1996 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 3:44 | |||
Label | Echo | |||
Songwriter(s) | Stephen Jones | |||
Producer(s) |
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Babybird singles chronology | ||||
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"You're Gorgeous" is a song by British musical project Babybird, released as a commercial single by Echo on 30 September 1996. Babybird member Stephen Jones wrote the song and co-produced it with Steve Power. It was their only top-10 hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number three, and reached the top 40 in Australia, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden. It is the track for which the band is best known.
The song's lyrics are interpreted to describe the way a photographer exploits his models. The track is often mistaken as a love song due to the way it is initially presented, with one person complimenting the other until it is revealed that the narrator is a female model speaking to the photographer. [1] [2]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic (who gave the Ugly Beautiful album 4.5 stars out of 5) praised the song as a "effortlessly catchy" pop single, which "positively radiates with twisted sexuality". [3] The Independent wrote, "Take the hit single "You're Gorgeous" – ostensibly a love ballad of warm togetherness, but, like REM's "The One I Love", actually carrying more sinister undercurrents. In this case, its the song's pitiable account of pornographic devotion – having ice-cubes rubbed on chests, being photographed with legs pulled apart on car bonnets, and being paid £20 with vague promises of being seen in a magazine – all endured for infatuation's sake, because the snapper is so gorgeous." [4] Kevin Courtney from Irish Times declared it as a "catchy, slightly risque surprise hit". [5] A reviewer from Music Week gave it four out of five, adding, "Filling the void between Vic Reeves and Bono, Stephen Jones's rich baritone is a svelte joy on this rather flimsy tale of tank tops and snapshots." [6]
All songs were written by Stephen Jones.
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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [27] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 30 September 1996 |
| Echo | [28] |
United States | 31 October 1997 |
| Atlantic | [29] |
13 January 1998 | Contemporary hit radio | [30] |
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: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)Atlantic will begin working 'You're Gorgeous' at modern rock and triple-A radio on Halloween...