"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" is a 1977 song by Elton Motello about a 15-year-old boy's sexual relationship with an older man, who then rejects him for a girl.[1]
Background
Alan Ward had toured Belgium with Bastard. Through his connections there, he had his new moniker, Elton Motello, debut on the Belgian label Pinball with the single "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" in 1977. The song was backed by session musicians[2] Mike Butcher (guitar), John Valcke (bass), and Bob Dartsch (drums), instead of Elton Motello's regular musicians. That exact same backing track was simultaneously used by Belgian artist Plastic Bertrand on his internationally successful hit single "Ça plane pour moi". Since then, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has sometimes been wrongly thought to be a cover of "Ça plane pour moi", with new lyrics over the same backing track, but the truth is that the two songs were simultaneous adaptations of the same backing track.[3]
While Bertrand's single was an international hit, Motello's single in English made little impact, except in Australia, where it was released on the RCA label and hit #33 on the National Top Forty (and regionally in Melbourne at #11 and in Sydney, at #10). Also in Australia, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has appeared in a television commercial[citation needed] featuring the chorus and not the sexual lyrics.
Composition
"Jet Boy, Jet Girl" has the same backing track as Plastic Bertrand/Lou Deprijck's "Ça plane pour moi". A few months before the vocals for "Ça plane pour moi" were recorded, the record firm used the same backing track with the same musicians to release "Jet Boy, Jet Girl".[4] Alan Ward recorded his song in English.[5]
United States censorship
In 1989, the American Federal Communications Commission (FCC), acting on a complaint from activist Jack Thompson fined radio station WIOD $10,000 for allowing talk host Neil Rogers to play the song. Thompson considered the song obscene, and the FCC agreed with him.[6]
The song has been covered by numerous bands and artists, including The Damned, FIDLAR,
Captain Sensible & the Softies, Chron Gen, the Bamboo Kids, the pUKEs, Manic Hispanic, Spencer P. Jones and Crocodiles. The New York City punk rock band The Breaking Sounds cover the song as well with the lyrics being sung in both Finnish and English. The original version received renewed attention when it was included on John Waters' 2007 compilation CD A Date with John Waters. Canadian recording artist and drag queen Mina Mercury also recorded the song in 2019. In 2024, the song was included in the sound track for the Cary Grant documentary “Archie” (backgrounding the 14 year old Grant’s arrival in New York City with a vaudeville troupe).
