SLS: Boys And Girls Can All Be Queens

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The cover artwork for "Pink Pony Club". The cover features Roan under a pink light, wearing a pink dress and hat under a black background.

 

Today’s prompt for Song Lyric Sunday, as Jim tells us in his post Engaging With Music, is to play a song from an album you had never listened to before, which had been suggested by, er, me. This might be taken to mean the first listen to a new record after you had rushed home from the shop with it – a very common occurrence in my youth – but in these days of streaming music it is probably a little different for most of us, and that is the approach I am taking with it.

Several months back I ran a couple of posts featuring music from the UK Charts, both for albums and singles. Regular readers will know that my tastes are for music from bygone days or from niche genres which rarely make the charts, so this was an interesting experience for me. Much to my surprise I found a song which was riding high in the singles chart at the time, with the album it was on doing equally well, and I really enjoyed it, so much so that I added the album to my Apple Music library and very much liked what I heard. I hadn’t heard of the artist before (my bad!) but I’m glad I found her.

This is that song:

 

Chappell Roan, with Pink Pony Club. I bet you didn’t see that coming from me, but I think that is superb, both the song and the video. And before I forget, here are the lyrics:

I know you wanted me to stayBut I can’t ignore the crazy visions of me in LAAnd I heard that there’s a special placeWhere boys and girls can all be queens every single day
I’m having wicked dreams of leaving TennesseeHear Santa Monica, I swear it’s calling meWon’t make my mama proud, it’s gonna cause a sceneShe sees her baby girl, I know she’s gonna scream
God, what have you done?You’re a pink pony girlAnd you dance at the clubOh mama, I’m just having funOn the stage in my heelsIt’s where I belong down at the
Pink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing down inWest HollywoodI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club
I’m up and jaws are on the floorLovers in the bathroom and a line outside the doorBlacklights and a mirrored disco ballEvery night’s another reason why I left it all
I thank my wicked dreams a year from TennesseeOh, Santa Monica, you’ve been too good to meWon’t make my mama proud, it’s gonna cause a sceneShe sees her baby girl, I know she’s gonna scream
God, what have you done?You’re a pink pony girlAnd you dance at the clubOh mama, I’m just having funOn the stage in my heelsIt’s where I belong down at the
Pink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing down inWest HollywoodI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club
Don’t think I’ve left you all behindStill love you and TennesseeYou’re always on my mindAnd mama, every SaturdayI can hear your southern drawl a thousand miles away, saying
God, what have you done?You’re a pink pony girlAnd you dance at the clubOh mama, I’m just having funOn the stage in my heelsIt’s where I belong down at the
Pink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony ClubI’m gonna keep on dancing down inWest HollywoodI’m gonna keep on dancing at thePink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancingI’m gonna keep on dancing
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Daniel Nigro / Kayleigh Rose Amstutz
Pink Pony Club lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

 

Pink Pony Club has had two UK chart runs, the first of seven weeks in autumn 2024 and the current one of fifty consecutive weeks, during which it has spent two weeks at #1. It isn’t my usual thing, but there’s nothing wrong with stepping outside our musical comfort zone occasionally, is there? The album on which it is included, The Diary Of A Midwest Princess, is currently at #34, in an unbroken 88 week run which has also included two weeks at #1. The confusing thing for me, though, is that the video I have just played was published in April 2020, and has over 112m views. Apparently this is a classic case of a sleeper hit, as the song was released as a single back then but didn’t make the US chart until June 2024, more than four years later. It has since gone on to sell more than 2m copies in the US and 600k in the UK – proving that good things can be worth the wait! The album was released in September 2023, and also had a slow start, but not quite as much as the single, taking just six months to make it here and a little over three months in the US. The single made #4 in the US, and has sold more than 5m copies there, alongside the 1.2m it has shifted here in the UK. The album made #2 in the US, where it has sold 2m copies (2x Platinum), and has gone Platinum in the UK for 300,000 sales.

 

Kayleigh Rose Amstutz – her real name – comes from Willard, Missouri, from what she describes as a conservative and Christian background. In a 2023 Variety interview, she said that she struggled with her upbringing and sneaked out often: “I just wanted to feel like a good person, but I had this part of me that wanted to escape so bad.” Wikipedia says that she was inspired to write Pink Pony Club after visiting the Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, California, in 2018. She has said that visiting the bar was “the first time I could truly be myself and not be judged”. At the bar, she became enthralled with the performing go-go dancers, stating that seeing them “sparked [something] in me… I want[ed] to be a go-go dancer. So I just wrote a song about it.” I suspect that the song was written with her family in mind, and the likely reaction they would have to her change of scene and lifestyle after leaving the family home. She was just 21 when she wrote it.

 

I said earlier that I also ventured into her album, The Diary Of A Midwest Princess, after finding this song, and liked it a lot. So I thought I’d play you one of its other tracks. I couldn’t find an official video for After Midnight, so here is a taste of Chappell’s live style:

Maybe not as immediate as Pink Pony Club, but a good song nonetheless, and she knows how to play to an audience, doesn’t she.
Having given you a taste of her performing style, I thought that perhaps a bonus video of her doing Pink Pony Club live might be in order to close today. There are several of these on YouTube, and all are great. From a difficult choice I’m going with this one, from the Grammy Awards show earlier this year:
She had several nominations at those awards, and won the one for Best Newcomer. Her producer, Dan Nigro, who co-wrote Pink Pony Club with her, won the Best Producer award for The Diary Of A Midwest Princess and several others that he was involved with. They didn’t have a bad year, did they!
So that’s my Song Lyric Sunday for today. Thanks as always to Jim for running the show, and for going with what turned out to be not such a crazy suggested theme after all. See you again for Tuesday Tunes? Take care 😊

40 thoughts on “SLS: Boys And Girls Can All Be Queens”

  4. I had heard the name, but had never heard her sing before. She has an impressive voice. Of all the ‘new’ singers that have been popular lately, the one who impresses me most is Raye. She sounds as if she is possessed by the spirits of Amy Winehouse and some long-forgotten Jazz and Blues singers.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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    • She is impressive, isn’t she, and I love the confidence she displays in her presentation. I don’t know Raye, but as I’m not much into old jazz and blues and never took to Amy I fear she may not be for me!

      Hope all’s well with you and Julie 😊

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      • If you didn’t like Amy, you definitely won’t enjoy Raye. 😊I thought Amy was the best thing to happen to British music in the second half of my life. But we cannot all like the same things, it’s the diverse tastes that make it interesting. Julie and I are making the best of our unexpected situation, Clive.

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