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June 4, 2021
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today we feature the incomparable Wilson sisters — also known as Heart — performing “There’s the Girl,” a song about a “diamond” of a guy who keeps returning to a toxic relationship.
The first lines of “There’s the Girl” go like this: “You’re a polished diamond / Now you’re feeling kinda rough / Yes I know how long you been searching / for the perfect touch.”
Co-writers Nancy Wilson and Holly Knight use diamond metaphors to describe a guy who can’t get over an old flame even though she’s a “complete disaster.” He’s a polished diamond (a great guy), and the prospect of reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend has his heart beating faster. But Wilson knows this situation is not going to end well.
At the Albany, NY, Palace Theater in 2015, Wilson explained why she wrote the song for her best friend back in the 1980s.
“My guy friend fell in love with a terribly wrong girl,” she told the audience. “And when you’re best friends you can’t really make the mistake for them. You just have to stand by and watch it happen.”
“There’s the Girl” is special to Heart fans because the lead vocals are performed by guitarist Nancy Wilson, not Ann, whose towering voice has been a hallmark of the band since it was established in Seattle, WA, in 1967. In fact, many fans never realized Nancy sang the lead vocals for this song until they saw the music video or were lucky enough to attend a Heart performance.
“There’s the Girl” is the third track from Heart’s ninth studio album, Bad Animals. In 1987, it climbed as high as #12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart — one of 20 Top-40 singles credited to the band. Over their illustrious careers, the Wilson sisters have sold more than 35 million records worldwide. They scored seven Top-10 albums and earned four Grammy nominations. Heart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
The sisters revealed in an interview that they were both inspired to form a rock band when they saw the Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
“The lightning bolt came out of the heavens and struck Ann and me the first time we saw the Beatles,” Nancy Wilson told Maura Kelly of Believer Magazine in 2007. “There’d been so much anticipation and hype about the Beatles that it was a huge event, like the lunar landing. That was the moment Ann and I heard the call to become rock musicians.”
We know you will enjoy the official video of “There’s the Girl.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“There’s the Girl”Written by Holly Knight and Nancy Wilson. Performed by Heart.
You’re a polished diamondNow you’re feeling kinda roughYes I know how long you been searchingfor the perfect touchYou better hear what I sayI can tell your eyes are just about togive you away
Cause there’s the girlthat you were afterFeel your heart beating faster nowThere’s the girl that you were afterCan you say that you don’twant her anymore
Just take my word nowCause you know it’s trueshe ain’t good enoughfor the likes of youYou better hear what I sayI can tell your eyes are just aboutto give you away
Cause there’s the girlthat you were afterFeel your heart beating faster nowThere’s the girl that you were afterAnd all the time you can’t get past herThere’s the girl that you were afterBroken glass, complete disasterThere’s the girl that you were afterCan you say that you don’twant her anymore
I believed you onceWhen you explainedThat it wasn’t so toughTo forget her name
There’s the girlThere’s the girlThere’s the girlThere’s the girl
Credit: Image by Strange euphoria93, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
