Earworms: Holly & the Italians - Tell That Girl to Shut Up

Another classic 45 from the days of Import 45 Discoveries

Certain songs take hold in my head, sometimes old, sometimes new, for reasons which may or may not be obvious. So, I’ll write stuff about them.

This record is all hooks, the catchiest of choruses, slashing guitar riff, and bubbling bass line making for an indelible impression that has stuck with me since I first picked up the import 45 about 43 years back. Holly Beth Vincent was the leader of Holly & the Italians, a three-piece band from Los Angeles that moved to London in 1979 to make it big. She would have succeeded, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.

The song is sort of a punk-ish take on Lesley Gore material, with the singer pissed off that her boyfriend has let a new girl move in with him. When Holly calls, the girl answers and says the guy isn’t home. Our singer has one thing to say – “You better tell that girl to shut up / You better tell that girl I’m gonna beat her up.” Not exactly an enlightened attitude, but, hey, these are adolescent hormones we’re talking about. Vincent may have been 23 when this record came out, but the song is very much in the spirit of teenage angst.

My favorite lyrics are in the bridge: “Well, she likes to seem intellectual / And to be a musician she goes to school / And the way she acts is so uncool / I just can’t stand her.” Studying in school to be a musician must have seemed the height of pretension to the self-taught Vincent.

The original single came out in England, and sparked enough buzz for the band to do a full-length album. Label honchos – those meddling kids I referred to earlier – refused to let the band sound like they did on the 45. They cleaned up the sound a little, made it thinner, added reverb, took all the snarl out, and the album crashed and burned. Vincent has kept on making music all these years, but this record remains her greatest legacy. Once you hear it, it will never leave you.