Some Girls

Composers: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Recording date: October-December 1977 & March-April 1978         Recording location: Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France & Atlantic Studios, New York, USA 
Producers: The Glimmer Twins        Chief engineer: Chris Kimsey
Performed onstage: 1999, 2006-07, 2015

Line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Keith Richards
Acoustic guitars: Keith Richards & Ron Wood
Electric guitars: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & Ron Wood
Vocals: Mick Jagger
Synthesizer: Bill Wyman
Harmonica: Sugar Blue
 

Some girls give me money
Some girls buy me clothes
Some girls give me jewelry
That I never thought I'd own

Some girls give me diamonds
Some girls, heart attacks
Some girls I give all my bread to
I don't ever want it back

Some girls give me jewelry

Others buy me clothes
Some girls give me children
I never asked them for

So give me all your money

Give me all your gold
I'll buy you a house back in Zuma Beach
And give you half of what I own

Some girls take my money

Some girls take my clothes
Some girls get the shirt off my back
And leave me with a lethal dose

Yeah, French girls they want Cartier
Italian girls want cars
American girls want everything in the world
You could possibly imagine

English girls they're so prissy
I can't stand them on the telephone
Sometimes I take the receiver off the hook
I don't want them to ever call at all

White girls they're pretty funny
Sometimes they drive me mad
Black girls just want to get fucked all night
I just don't have that much jam

Chinese girls are so gentle
They're really such a tease
You never know quite what they're cooking
Inside those silky sleeves

Give me all your money

Give me all your gold
I'll buy you a house back in Zuma Beach
And give you half of what I own

Yeah, baby, why don't you please come home?


Some girls they're so pure

Some girls so corrupt
Some girls give me children
I only made love to her once

Give me half your money
Give me half your car
Give me half of everything
I'll make you the world's biggest star - by half

So give me all your money
Give me all your gold
Let's go back to Zuma Beach
I'll give you half of everything I own


 
TrackTalk

Some Girls was Mick('s song).
- Keith Richards, Life (2010)


Some Girls
, the title track, was 23 minutes long originally. It was so long it took up a whole reel of tape! It just went on and on and on, and if you watch the master go by after I'd edited it down you can't see any black tape. You just see all my editing tape (laughs).
- Chris Kimsey, 1978


If you really want to know about the girls on the new album: Some Girls is all combinations (of real girls and fantasies)...
- Mick Jagger, 1978


Some Girls isn't really about me... I made most of it up just off the bat. I made it up as I went along. I had another version of the song, but when it came to the take, I sang a completely different version - it was 11 minutes long - and then edited it down. I remember that when I wrote it, it was very funny. 'Cause we were laughing, and the phone was ringing, and I was just sitting in the kitchen and it was just coming out... and I thought I could go on forever!
- Mick Jagger, 1978


When I first heard the song, I told Mick it was not going to go down well. Mick assured me that it was a parody of the type of people who hold these attitudes. Mick has great respect for blacks. He owes his whole being, his whole musical career, to black people.
- Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records CEO, 1978


Atlantic (Records) tried to get us to drop it, but I refused. I've always been opposed to censorship of any kind, especially by conglomerates. I've always said, you can't take a joke, it's too fucking bad.
- Mick Jagger, 1978


I think (the races) are all well covered - everyone's represented (laughs). Most of the girls I've played the song to LIKE Some Girls. They think it's funny; black girlfriends of mine just laughed. And I think it's very complimentary about Chinese girls, I think they come off better than English girls. I really like girls an awful lot, and I don't think I'd say anything really nasty about any of them... (Laughs) The song's supposed to be funny.
- Mick Jagger, 1978


We write our songs from personal experiences... (laughs). OK, so over the last 15 years we've happened to meet extra-horny black chicks - well, I'm sorry but I don't think I'm wrong and neither does Mick - I'm quite sure of that.
- Keith Richards, 1978


The thing is like... ignorance. If I'd said black MEN instead of black girls, I don't think anyone would have complained. You know what I'm saying? I was just trying to point out the stupidity and waste of time of all that. American humor should be so open that people shouldn't worry. If you say Jews got big cocks, does that make you racist? Well, life isn't really like that.
- Mick Jagger, 1980


I haven't seen (Jesse Jackson) since (laughs). That's an example of an ad lib getting you into a lot of trouble. No ITALIANS complained. There's a line about FRENCH girls. I don't know if anyone was really upset apart from him.
- Mick Jagger, 1985



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