‘Is She Really Going Out with Him?’ is a song written and performed by British musician Joe Jackson. It was released in October 1978 as his debut single and was later included on Jackson's debut album, Look Sharp! The track was one of the first Jackson recorded with his new backing band, a band he would perform with for his first three albums. Written as a humorous commentary on women dating unattractive men, the song contains a prominent bass line and a chorus praised by critics as memorable. Jackson has since stated that the song's reputation for being angry was untrue.
On its initial release, the single was commercially unsuccessful and failed to chart. Two follow-up singles, ‘Sunday Papers’ and ‘One More Time’, were also chart failures. However, when ‘Is She Really Going Out with Him?’ was rereleased in 1979 after Jackson's reputation and new wave music grew in popularity, the single saw more attention and became a chart success. This second release reached the top 20 in the UK and top 30 in the US, becoming one of Jackson's highest charting singles worldwide.
Since then, the song has been praised as one of Jackson's greatest and most famous and has been covered by multiple artists. The song has appeared on several of Jackson's compilation albums and remains a staple of Jackson's live setlist. A live a cappella version released in 1988 was a top five single in the Netherlands. It has been described as one of the classics of the new wave genre, though Jackson does not consider it his best song.
According to Jackson, the song originated from when he heard the title. Jackson claimed that he had first heard it on a song by the Damned, who had gotten it from the Shangri-Las' song, "Leader of the Pack". From there, he came up with the basis for lyrics for "a funny little song about watching couples and wondering what the girls could possibly see in the guys". Jackson recalled, "It wasn't based on a specific incident or anything like that ... I tried to write a funny song around that title, and that’s about all there was to it, really". Though the song was written to be comical, it has been interpreted by some critics as angry, earning Jackson the tag of "angry young man". He said of the song's origins in an interview: “I heard that phrase somewhere and I thought that could be a kind of funny song about gorgeous girls going out with monsters. It just started from there. It was just a funny song, or supposed to be funny. It was a great surprise to me when some people interpreted it as being angry.”
Label – A&M
Songwriter – Joe Jackson
Producer – David Kershenbaum
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
From my window, I'm staring while my coffee goes cold
Look over there (Where?)
There, there's a lady that I used to know
She's married now or engaged or something, so I'm told
[Chorus]
Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
'Cause if my eyes don't deceive me
There's something going wrong around here
[Verse 2]
Tonight's the night when I go to all the parties down my street
I wash my hair and I kid myself I look real smooth
Look over there (Where?)
There, here comes Jeanie with her new boyfriend
They say that looks don't count for much
If so, there goes your proof
[Chorus]
Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
'Cause if my eyes don't deceive me
There's something going wrong around here
Around here
[Bridge]
But if looks could kill
There's a man there who's marked down as dead
'Cause I've had my fill
Listen, you, take your hands from her head
I get so mean around this scene
Hey, hey, hey
[Chorus]
Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
'Cause if my eyes don't deceive me
There's something going wrong around here
[Outro]
Around here
Something going wrong around here
Something going wrong around here
Something going wrong around here
Something going wrong around