"Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" | ||||
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Single by Book of Love | ||||
from the album Lullaby | ||||
B-side | "Tubular Bells" | |||
Released | 24 May 1988 | |||
Format | 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, CD single | |||
Recorded | 1987–1988 | |||
Genre | Synthpop, new wave | |||
Length |
4:26 (album version) 4:48 (single version) |
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Label | Sire Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Theodore Ottaviano | |||
Producer(s) | Flood and Ted Ottaviano | |||
Book of Love singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls on YouTube |
"Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" is the fifth single released by the American synthpop band Book of Love. The song was the first single released prior to the band's second album Lullaby in 1988.
"Pretty Girls And Pretty Girls" became the band's highest charting single at no. 90 in the Billboard Hot 100, and its only moment crossing over into mainstream pop. In the dance clubs, the song was a smash, and made it to no. 5 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, spending 11 weeks on the chart.
"Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" became one of the first songs ever to address the issue of the AIDS epidemic, featuring the lyrics of "strangers in the night exchanging glances, but sex is dangerous, I don't take my chances...safe sex, safe sex."
"We talked about AIDS at a time when people were not talking about it." -Susan Ottaviano
The B-side to the single is a cover of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", originally made famous as the theme from the horror movie The Exorcist. For the track, the band sampled band member Lauren Roselli crying "Mother, make it stop!", channeling Linda Blair's role as Regan from the movie. For the 12" release of the single, "Tubular Bells" and "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" were mixed together as a fourteen-minute medley by Scott Blackwell and Bob Brockmann. The album Lullaby also opens with a shorter version of "Tubular Bells", which flows seamlessly into "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls", the second track on the album.
A promotional video was shot and released for "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls”; an alternate version of the video was also released using the medley edit of "Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls”. (See External links below for video)
Side A: "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" (7" Edit) - 4:30
Side B: "Tubular Bells" (7" Mix) - 4:23
Side A: "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" (7" Edit) - 4:30
Side B: "Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" (7" Edit) - 4:30
Side A: "Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" (Medley Edit) - 4:25
Side B: "Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls" (Medley Edit) - 4:25