Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne song)

"Girlfriend"
Single by Avril Lavigne from the album The Best Damn Thing
B-side	"Alone"
Released	February 7, 2007 (see release dates below)
Format	CD single
Recorded	2006
Genre	Pop punk, power pop
Length	3:37
Writer	Avril Lavigne, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald
Producer	Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald
Certification	2x Platinum (ARIA)
Avril Lavigne singles chronology
"Keep Holding On" (2006) "Girlfriend" (2007) "When You're Gone" (2007) Audio sample Image:AvrilLavigne-Girlfriend.oggInfo (help·info)

"Girlfriend" is a song by Avril Lavigne, and was the lead single from her third album, The Best Damn Thing (2007). It was produced by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald. "Girlfriend" became Lavigne's biggest hit in the United States, where it reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100; in Australia, where it topped the chart for 6 weeks, and in the United Kingdom, where it reached number two. A remix featuring rapper Lil' Mama was released in June 2007. "Girlfriend" was the subject of a lawsuit filed by songwriters for The Rubinoos, who alleged that the writers of the song plagiarised The Rubinoos' single "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". The music video is the second most viewed video on YouTube, with over 67,000,000 views as of December 2007.

Description

The song involves Lavigne proclaiming a crush on a boy currently with his girlfriend and features the typical 80' pop-punk influence and power pop of her earlier songs. Lavigne said on the DVD side of the deluxe edition of The Best Damn Thing that in the bridge when the listener hears hand clapping, the accompanying giggling was created by Lavigne and Gottwald, despite it sounding like a girl. "Girlfriend" is in the video game Burnout Dominator in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese.^[1] It will also appear in Burnout Paradise but its unknown which languages it will be in.^[2] It is the theme song of Japanese talk show Cartoon KAT-TUN, as well as being the insert song for popular Japanese manga based drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e and Lavigne appeared on the episode that aired on May 2, 2007. It is featured in the theatrical trailer for the 2007 live-action Bratz film, and in a trailer for the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Lavigne performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 15 2007.^[3]

Release and chart performance

"Girlfriend" was premiered on Edmonton radio station The Bounce 91.7 before the official date it was supposed to be aired; the two DJs who played it were taken off the air shortly after. The single appeared and was available for download on the U.S. iTunes Store on February 23, but was subsequently removed the following day. It was made available again on February 27. Because of digital download sales in excess of 122,000, the song debuted at number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, the highest debut of her career.^[4] Afterwards it became Lavigne's first song to reach number one on the Hot 100, in the issue dated May 5, 2007; her previous highest peak on the chart was with 2002's "Complicated", which reached number two.^[5] It remained in the top ten for eighteen weeks.^[6] It also ranks as the single most annoying song of 2007. "Girlfriend" debuted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number three. The following week it reached number-one, and it remained at the top for six non-consecutive weeks, equaling Lavigne's previous number-one single on the ARIA Charts, "Complicated". After three weeks on the charts, it was certified gold by ARIA, then platinum after seven weeks for sales in excess of 70,000 copies.^[7] It was then certified double platinum, sales in excess of 140,000. On the UK Singles Chart, "Girlfriend" peaked at number two, surpassing "Complicated" as Lavigne's highest peaking single on the chart. The song ended 2007 as the years 20th biggest-selling single in the UK^[8] In Latin America, the single peaked at number three.^[9] In Mexico, the song became the second top ten single in English of 2007 when it climbed to number eight; it later peaked at number two.^[10] It won the Award for "Canción del Año" (Song Of The Year) in "Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2007" (The Latin American MTV Awards) and was nominated for "Monster Single" in the MTV Video Music Awards 2007.^[11][12] It won Addictive Track for the MTV Europe Music Awards

Critical reception and lawsuit

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Reviewers have noted that the chorus bears a resemblance to The Rubinoos' 1979 single "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", in which they sing "Hey hey, you you, I wanna be your boyfriend" similar to "Hey hey, you you, I want to be your girlfriend" in "Girlfriend".^[13] The song can be heard on the Rubinoos' MySpace page.^[14] On May 25, 2007, Lavigne, her songwriter Lukasz Gottwald, her record label, and Apple Inc. were sued by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar, songwriters for The Rubinoos, over claims that "Girlfriend" infringes their copyright on their 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend".^[15] Lavigne's manager, Terry McBride, denied that "Girlfriend" was copied from "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", and pointed out that "Boyfriend" itself is similar to The Rolling Stones' "Get off of My Cloud". McBride said he hired a musicologist to compare the songs; according to McBride the musicologist reported that the songs were totally dissimilar, even a different meter. Prominent music critics such as Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide have publicly noted that the song is a "total lift from the Rubinoos' song".^[16] McBride said that Lavigne has no current plans to settle the case, but will consider the costs of defending the case against those of settling.^[17] Critics have compared the middle section of the song with the bridge from Toni Basil's "Mickey".^[18]

"Girlfriend [Dr. Luke Remix]"
Single by Avril Lavigne featuring Lil Mama from the album The Best Damn Thing
Released	July 25, 2007
Format	CD single
Recorded	2007
Genre	Pop, Rock, Rap-Rock
Length	3:25
Writer	Avril Lavigne, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Niatia Kirkland
Producer	Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald
Lil Mama singles chronology
"Lip Gloss" (2007)	"Girlfriend" [Dr. Luke Remix] (2007)	"G-Slide (Tour Bus)" (2007)

This song was #35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.^[19] This song was also #77 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007.^[20] Also was listed as the number 1 hit of 2007 according to MTV Latin America. ^[21]. Note, Grilfriend peaked as number one in the North/Central Latin American Version of "Los 100 Más Pedidos 2007" (The 100 Top Hits of 2007), whilist in the South Latin American Version of "Los 100 Más Pedidos 2007" it peaked at number 2, losing the first place to "With Love" by Hillary Duff. ^[22]

Official versions/Remixes

Seven additional versions of the song are available to enhance its worldwide marketability with the chorus sung in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish language. The other parts of the song are in English. There is also an edited version for radio, because of explicit lyrics. There are two official censored versions: one blanking the word "motherfucking" in the line "I'm the motherfucking princess" and the other replacing it with "I'm the one and only princess". It is played on Canadian and Malaysian radio stations, and on Z100 in New York City. However, on other radio stations the entire word is cut out or just the word "mother", as in the version on the clean edition of the album, is said. The official remix was leaked onto the Internet in May 2007 and features rap verses from American hip-hop musician Lil' Mama. Lavigne sings the chorus and bridge and Lil' Mama's rap verses are substituted for the original verses.

Versions

• "Girlfriend" (explicit version)
• "Girlfriend" (clean version)
• "Girlfriend" (instrumental)
• "Girlfriend" (radio edit)
• "Girlfriend" (French version)
• "Girlfriend" (German version)
• "Girlfriend" (Italian version)
• "Girlfriend" (Japanese version)
• "Girlfriend" (Mandarin version)
• "Girlfriend" (Portuguese version)
• "Girlfriend" (Spanish version)
• "Girlfriend" (Junkie XL mix)

Remixes

• "Girlfriend" (Dr. Luke remix featuring Lil Mama)
• "Girlfriend" (Junkie XL remix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' time warp '66 mix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' French time warp '66 mix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' German time warp '66 mix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' Japanese time warp '66 mix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' Mandarin time warp '66 mix)
• "Girlfriend" (The Submarines' Spanish time warp '66 mix)

Music videos

One of Lavigne's personae interferes during a date.

The world premiere of the music video was announced to be on MTV's Total Request Live and MuchMusic's MuchOnDemand on February 26. However, it premiered in New Zealand on Music Station C4 on February 20. It was in heavy rotation on European music TV channel VIVA Polska on February 23 as well. The music video was filmed at Golf 'n' Stuff in Norwalk, California. It features two girls: one with an innocent persona, glasses and red hair (Lavigne), and one with an evil persona and black hair (also Lavigne) The black haired rocker fights over the man with the red haired girl and tries to outdo her repeatedly. She finally hits the girl in the head with a golfball, causing her to fall into water at the golf course, and then wins the youth's affections. Lavigne's boyfriend in the video is played by American model Bryan McMullin^[23] and dresses similarly to the "rocker" Lavigne in the video. The video features Lavigne's previous guitarist Evan Taubenfeld, and Lavigne's brother Matt on bass. It was directed by The Malloys. The video is the most-viewed music video and the second all-time most-viewed video on the website YouTube (after Evolution of Dance), receiving more than sixty-six million views. "Girlfriend" was retired from the TRL countdown on June 4, 2007. The video won the award for "Best International Video by a Canadian" at the 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards. It was also the most demanded music video of 2007. Lil' Mama and Lavigne shot a video for the remix of "Girlfriend" on June 1, 2007. It premiered on Yahoo! Music on June 18 and on TRL on June 26. As of January 5th 2008, the video has recieved 8 honours on the video viewing website, Youtube, they are;

1. 3rd Most Discussed (All Time) - Global,
2. Most Discussed (All Time) - Music - Global,
3. 11th Most Linked (All Time) - Global,
4. 5th Most Linked (All Time) - Music - Global,
5. 2nd Most Viewed (All Time) - Global,
6. Most Viewed (All Time) - Music - Global,
7. 18th Top Favourites (All Time) - Global,
8. 9th Top Favourites (All Time) - Music - Global.

As of January 5th 2008, the video has recieved 67,150,540 views on Youtube.

Track listings

¹A code included on the CD to download the ringtone online.

Charts

Release dates

"Girlfriend" was released in a number of countries over a three month period. The remix featuring Lil' Mama was released on June 15 in Taiwan, and was scheduled to be released on July 25 in the United States.

References

• Sony BMG Music Entertainment. "Avril Lavigne Announces New Album + Single In Blog" [8].
• MTV UK. "And she says her new album will be the Best Damn Thing you've seen..." [9].
• Billboard. "New Avril Lavigne Album Due In April" [10].
• Blender Magazine Online. "Shamelessly Anticipating Avril's New Album". January 18 2007, 1:39:24 PM [11].
• Billboard.com. "Avril Sets Date for Clap Crappy New Album" [12].
• Chile Top 40: [13]
• [14]
• Commentary on the video clip