Baby Talks Dirty

" Baby Talks Dirty" is a 1980 Top 40 single written by  Doug Fieger and  Berton Averre from  The Knack's second album,  ...But the Little Girls Understand. Like the album it was taken from, "Baby Talks Dirty" fell short of the success of its predecessors. Whereas The Knack's first single, " My Sharona" reached #1 in the U.S., and its follow-up from their debut album  Get the Knack, " Good Girls Don't" reached #11, "Baby Talks Dirty" only reached #38, spending just 2 weeks in the Top 40. [1] [2] [3]  The song did better in Canada, where it reached #13. [4]  It also reached #40 in New Zealand.

==Music and lyrics<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> == <p style="line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">Part of the song's lack of success has been attributed to its similarity to "My Sharona".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-trouser_7-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]  The 1983 edition of The New Rolling Stone Record Guide referred to the song as a "'Sharona carbon copy."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guide_8-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  Allmusic's Chris Woodstra noted that the entire ...But the Little Girls Understand album is a "rewrite" of the band's first album, stating that this is "especially evident on the lead-off single 'Baby Talks Dirty.'"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  Author Tim English called "Baby Talks Dirty" "a transparent 'My Sharona' rewrite."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10] Anne Sharp of The Michigan Daily pointed out similarities between "My Sharona" and "Baby Talks Dirty" with respect to "vocal arrangements," "guitar licks" and "subject matter, i.e., a sexually ardent young female."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  The Sydney Morning Herald also pointed out that "Baby Talks Dirty" "sounds for all the world like 'My Sharona.'"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sullivan_12-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  Jim Sullivan of the Bangor Daily News noted the songs' "structural similarity" and referred to "Baby Talks Dirty" as "My Sharona Mach II."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]  Sullivan also criticizes Fieger's performance on the song as "whooping it up like a Sea World porpoise indulging in S&M games."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sullivan_12-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">Another factor in the song's, and its album's, relative lack of chart success was its timing, being released a mere eight months after "My Sharona" and Get The Knack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  This made the similarity between "My Sharona" and "Baby Talks Dirty" more jarring.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  Theodore Cateforis notes that "In this context, 'Baby Talks Dirty,' with its syncopated, bouncing octave eighth-note hook cut from the same mold as 'My Sharona,' sounded most of all as if the band had plagiarized itself."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  Fieger has stated that "We got a lot of criticism for 'Baby Talks Dirty.' Had that song come out on our fifth album, I think people would have said 'oh, they've gone back to their roots. They take the 'My Sharona' riff to another place.' But as it was, people were gunning for us."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-4" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  But Fieger has also stated that he doesn't think the song sounds like "My Sharona," other than the fact that "it's got a rhythmic G note that goes from G major to the seventh of the G."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">"Baby Talks Dirty" was also given by critics as a prime example of the group's misogyny, where the girl in the song wants the singer to hurt her and "loves a real neat beating."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wave_6-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  In his review of ...But the Little Girls Understand, Rolling Stone Magazine critic Dave Marsh referred to the protagonist as "a foul-mouthed windup doll."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-marsh_15-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">Fieger has acknowledged that, like many songs on The Knack's first two albums, "Baby Talks Dirty" was written about the same Sharona Alperin who inspired "My Sharona".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16] ==Other appearances<span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> == <p style="line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">The Knack's follow up single to "Baby Talks Dirty" was "Can't Put a Price on Love," also from ...But the Little Girls Understand. That song peaked lower on the Billboard charts than "Baby Talks Dirty," peaking at #62.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-singles_3-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]  Subsequent to its appearance on ...But the Little Girls Understand, "Baby Talks Dirty" was released on a number of Knack compilation albums, including The Retrospective: The Best of the Knack (1992),Very Best of The Knack (1998) and Best of The Knack (1999).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-baby_17-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17]  It also appeared on the 2002 live album and DVD Live From the Rock 'N' Roll Funhouse and the 2007 live DVD On Stage at World Cafe Live.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-baby_17-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17] It also appeared on the multiartist compilation album Rock of the 80's Vol. 5.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-baby_17-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17] =="End of the Game"<span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> == <p style="line-height:19.190340042114258px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">The B-side of the "Baby Talks Dirty" single was "End of the Game," which was also a song from ...But the Little Girls Understand, and was written by Fieger. "End of the Game" was written well before ...But the Little Girls Understand and was included in the band's live set even before their first album Get the Knack. Live performances of "End of the Game" were included on the live LaserDisc of the Knack's 1979 concert at Carnegie Hall, The Knack Live at Carnegie Hall, and on a live CD of the band's 1978 concert in Los Angeles, Havin' a Rave Up.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[18] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-rave_19-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[19]  Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone Magazine claimed that the song was based on cliches from early Fleetwood Mac.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-marsh_15-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]  The Sydney Morning Herald claimed that the song is "has shades of the Everly Brothers."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sullivan_12-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  Allmusic critic Mark Deming stated that the live version of "End of the Game" has "a joyous force nearly any act would envy."