(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Elton John - "Island Girl"
Hit Number 1: November 1, 1975
Stay at Number 1: 3 Weeks
If you ask me, the rulers of the '70s would be between either the Bee Gees or Elton John. We'll get to the Bee Gees' mind-blowing levels of popularity a little later on in this series, but Elton John seemed to always be around, making the top ten on the charts several times. In fact he was so popular, he almost single-handedly revived Neil Sedaka's career, who we've seen hit #1 twice in 1975. But, he was also so popular that he was able to bring a song like "Island Girl" to #1. For most artists, making a hit out of "Island Girl" would be nearly impossible, but John had the charisma and the popularity levels to pull it off. I say that because "Island Girl" is a seriously flawed song, and if you're paying any attention to the lyrics, they'll make you raise your eyebrows and wonder how the music-buying public could let them slip, or how a songwriting team like Elton John and Bernie Taupin could ever write something like this.
"Island Girl" is a song about a Jamaican prostitute in New York City, and who seems to be an ex-lover of the prostitute wanting to take her back to Jamaica. Elton John plays the role of the Jamaican man, which is already a bit odd since Elton John is obviously a white English dude, but then he says the most cringe things that frankly make "Island Girl" difficult to deal with. For instance: "Well she's black as coal but she burns like a fire," or "Island girl, what you wanting with the white man's world/Island girl, black boy want you in his island world." Let's just disregard the fact for a second here that the man singing this is nowhere near Jamaican descent. But even if he was a black guy from Jamaica, these lyrics wouldn't be any better. Frankly, and this is going to sound very harsh, but the lyrics to "Island Girl" just suck. Not one of Bernie Taupin's finest efforts.
However, not all hope is lost for "Island Girl," and that's mostly because of Elton John himself. The way his and Taupin's songwriting style worked was that John would come up with rhythms and music, and Taupin would write the lyrics to go with the songs. The music that John put along with "Island Girl" is admittedly pretty good, with the slide guitars throughout it being my favorite touch. But there's also a synth solo in the song which gives the song that Hawaiian island feel. Even though the lyrics aren't great, John is still able to give them some life, and if you can ignore what he's saying, I can see somebody getting carried away with the song. That makes the story of "Island Girl" that much more unfortunate though. This had so much potential to be a fun, irresistible Hawaiian jam that turns into cringe material instead because of the lyrics. At least John was still able to spice it up, which keeps "Island Girl" from being a total piece of garbage. It also helps that John simply couldn't miss at this time, so it was bound to be a hit anyway.
In case you might be wondering what John himself thought of "Island Girl," I would venture to guess that he grew to hate it. As we all know, John has performed a zillion live shows over the past several years, but "Island Girl" has not been performed by him since 1990. That tells me that he's disowned the song, and considering the fact that "Island Girl" was the only hit song from his Rock of the Westies album, that album has likely been all but forgotten about. Personally, I don't despise "Island Girl," as I think it's a quality song musically, but those lyrics are just damn unfortunate. Maybe at some point John and Taupin can revisit the song and keep everything else but replace the lyrics with different ones. Maybe make a song about puppies doing puppy things instead of Jamaican prostitutes doing prostitution things. I think "Island Dog" could be a hit, don't you?
GRADE: 5/10
JUST MISSED:
Eagles' soft rock, storytelling staple "Lyin' Eyes" peaked at #2 behind "Island Girl." It's an 8.
IN POP CULTURE:
Since "Island Girl" seems to have no kind of circulation in the world today, I once again am having a hard time finding anything to put in my IPC section. The only thing I can find are amateur covers on YouTube, which probably isn't a great thing to put here. So instead, I'm just going to put Elton John performing the song live, especially since he doesn't do that anymore. (This will also be my last resort for any future times I can't find anything to put here. At the very least, I ought to be able to find clips of the artists performing their songs live) Anyway, here's the clip of "Island Girl" live:
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