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I'm Too Sexy for the Freds


luisam

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"I'm Too Sexy" is the debut song by British group Right Said Fred, a British band based in London and formed by brothers Fred and Richard Fairbrass, accompanied by drummer Ray Weston; Guitarist Rob Manzoli joined in 1990 and remained with the group until 1997

Certainly, lots of people HATE this song! In April 2008, the song was rated No. 49 on "The 50 Worst Songs Ever!" by Blender Magazine (2007). This list might be subjective and outdated by now, but it is funny to read:

50 worst songs ever according Bender (2007)

Quoting Blender:

Right Said Fred were horrible, bald novelty Brits whose one claim to fame was a song that announced that they were “too sexy” for most things, from “New York” to “my cat.” Alas, singer Richard Fairbrass resembled Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett, and was therefore “too sexy” for precisely nothing. The song spawned a welter of grating catchphrases starting with “I’m too sexy” repeated endlessly by annoying people: “I’m too sexy for my tractor,” etc. Disturbingly, the Freds, as nobody calls them, are still going.

 

Worst Moment: The so-called chorus, in which, instead of mumbling, Fairbrass tries to sing. Stop it. Stop it now!

 

But what’s wrong with being sexy?  My personal opinion that there were and there are worst songs which reached top popularity. Guess most horrible song ever is The Trashmen's Surfing Bird (1963)

Hated or loved, it sold over 20 million records worldwide, in 1991 the single peaked the UK Singles Chart at number two for six weeks in a row without ever topping the chart, while held back by Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You"; remained three months in the Top 10. Outside the United Kingdom, "I'm Too Sexy" topped the charts in six countries, including United States, Australia and Ireland.

 

On the positive evaluation side, the song was voted No. 80 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s. In 2011, it was voted No. 2 on VH1's 40 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 90s.

 

The group was named after the novelty song "Right Said Fred", which was a hit single for singer and actor Bernard Cribbins in 1962.

 

When they decided to record the song I'm Too Sexy, everyone thought they were two sad put together gym queens who'd got lucky but actually both had experience as session musicians for first line bands. They were proper musicians who’d been on the circuit since 1977 under different names. As the Actors, they toured with Suicide, supported Joy Division at the Factory and played a punk club in Leeds. Fred played guitar for Bob Dylan in the Hearts of Fire film in the 80s and supporting Joy Division at the Factory; Richard was employed as a session bassist for artists such as Boy George, Mick Jagger and David Bowie, and appears as the bass guitarist in three of Bowie's videos, including short film Jazzin' for Blue Jean.

 

The Fairbrass brothers ran a gym at the back of a theatrical rehearsal studio in London, where they could see lots of narcissism and posing. One day, it was really hot, and there was a mirror on a wardrobe, so Richard took his shirt off and just started singing “I’m too sexy for my shirt …” in front of the mirror to the rhythm of a bassline they had. Everyone fell about laughing, but they realized they were on to something…

 

They came up with the rest of the lyrics over the next month, focusing on things that people would know all over the world. So it became “I’m too sexy for my car”, “your party”, “my hat”, and so on.

 

Simon Bates played I’m Too Sexy on Radio 1. Gary Crowley at Capital Radio said, “I don’t know if this is good or crap,” but suddenly, we were besieged with requests for interviews. A tastemaker DJ from Miami heard the song on holiday in Europe and took it back and played it. Right Said Fred only had a $25,000 promotion budget for the whole US, but the song just sold itself.

 

According to Richard Fairbrass when they had the US No 1, Madonna announced that she wanted to go to bed with him! Looks that finally they never met so it’s just the word of this fellow. By the way, I doubt about Madonna having great taste about sexual partners!

 

Richard bumped into Bowie again when they did Top of the Pops in 1991 and he said: “What are you doing here?” Richard commented about this encounter “I think he thought I was serving the tea so I told him, I’ve got a hit record, you cheeky bugger!”

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the lyrics is by songwriter Fred Fairbrass. He says he came up with the “I’m a model, you know what I mean” stuff because he was dating a model. It was the start of the supermodel era, things were very hedonistic and he was thinking of big hair and dressing to impress.

 

I’m Too Sexy was initially an indie-rock track. The studio where Right Said Fred recorded it had gone into liquidation, but they were told that if they bunged the engineer some money at night he still had the keys. So they weren’t allowed to put the lights on in case the landlord saw.

 

Every label turned them down. Their booking agent sacked them when he heard it. Island Records went to the trouble of sending a fax telling them they hated it and no one would play it. One of the DJ responses was: “Don’t waste money on this shit.” Then they played it to a radio plugger, Guy Holmes. He quickly turned it off, but he had some girls in the car at the time and after he switched it off they started singing, ‘I’m a model …” He thought, “Wait a minute, if they can remember that …”

 

Guy wanted a club track, but finally compromised at pop. Fred knew a DJ, Tommy D, who programmed some sounds around the original vocal. They weren’t aware that guitarist Rob Manzoli had played the riff from Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone from the Sun on I’m Too Sexy until much later (just listen at 1:15 of "I'm too Sexy"), they thought the guitar parts sounded like the theme from Coronation Street, but the Hendrix estate were very cool about it and just asked for a writing credit and a charitable donation. The Youtube video of Third Stone from the Sun to compare is  the one by Stevie Ray Vaughan because there is no good video with Jimi Hendrix.

 

 

 

They couldn’t get signed, so used the plugging company as the label. The plan had been to do a deal with a real record company, but suddenly they were No 1 in 32 countries and No 2 in the UK.

 

In America, “I’m too sexy for school” became the most commonly used excuse for truancy. A politician in the House of Representatives actually said, “I can’t comment on this, I’m too sexy.” In Texas, there was a fight in a bar because some girls played the video for eight hours, and when a guy tried to turn it off, they attacked him.

 

Anyway, for fun, enjoy reading the lyrics!

 

I'm too sexy for my love

 

Too sexy for my love

Love's going to leave me

 

 

I'm too sexy for my shirt

Too sexy for my shirt

So sexy it hurts

And I'm too sexy for Milan

Too sexy for Milan

New York, and Japan

I'm too sexy for your party

Too sexy for your party

No way I'm disco dancing

 

 

'Cause I'm a model, you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Yeah, on the catwalk

On the catwalk, yeah

I shake my little tush on the catwalk

 

 

I'm too sexy for my car

Too sexy for my car

Too sexy by far

And I'm too sexy for my hat

Too sexy for my hat

What do you think about that?

 

 

'Cause I'm a model, you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Yeah, on the catwalk

On the catwalk, yeah

I shake my little tush on the catwalk

 

 

Too sexy for my

Too sexy for my

Too sexy for my

'Cause I'm a model, you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Yeah, on the catwalk

On the catwalk

Yeah, I shake my little tush on the catwalk

 

 

Too sexy for my cat

Too sexy for my cat

Poor pussy

Poor pussy cat

I'm too sexy for my love

Too sexy for my love

Love's going to leave me

 

 

And I'm too sexy for this song

 

 

Source of interview with Fred and Richard Fairbrass

 

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Yep, it's a rotten song...but there's no counting for taste!! They had their 15 minutes of fame...or was it 3mins 25secs? Anyway I'm too sexy for my computer!!!:D:D:D

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1 hour ago, funkyy said:

They had their 15 minutes of fame...or was it 3mins 25secs?

 

They sold 20 millions of copies and they are still enjoying the fame "I'm Too Sexy" provided them. As should say Alfred E. Neuman "What - Me Worry?"

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"I'm Too Sexy" is the debut song by British group Right Said Fred


hey anyone out there can point me to the video of these guys on MTV spring break (i think) were "Fred" actually performed this song on "the catwalk". lol I couldnt believe anyone would have the balls to dress and dance like that in front of a crowd! Hate the song, would like to see the video again for good laugh.

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1 hour ago, 46&2 said:


hey anyone out there can point me to the video of these guys on MTV spring break (i think) were "Fred" actually performed this song on "the catwalk". lol I couldnt believe anyone would have the balls to dress and dance like that in front of a crowd! Hate the song, would like to see the video again for good laugh.

 

If you were looking for it but can't get it, I gues it was removed - It was too sexy for youtube,,,

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