"Stupid Girl" is a song by Garbage, released as a single in 1996, taken from their 1995 self-titled debut album. It became Garbage's highest charting single in many territories, including in the US Billboard Hot 100 and in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #4. Its success was driven by an innovative music video and cutting-edge remixes which gained massive airplay across the world. The success of "Stupid Girl" propelled sales of its parent album Garbage into the top twenty of the Billboard 200 and into the UK Albums Chart top ten. In 1997 the song was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group. Written by Garbage members Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, the song is based upon a drum sample from The Clash's 1980 hit "Train in Vain", whose writers Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were given a co-writing credit for the song. In 2007, "Stupid Girl" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage.The remaining members of The Clash, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon, were given a co-writing credit on the remastered version of the song. "Stupid Girl" began as a rough demo in January 1994, during sessions among Vig, Erikson and Marker in Marker's basement recording studio in Madison, Wisconsin.The band had been jamming with numerous instruments, an eight-track and samplers. Marker created the bassline, while Erikson wrote a jangly guitar riff, reminiscent of the guitar signature from Pink Floyd's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'. The whole song came together when Vig brought both parts together over a drum sample from The Clash's "Train In Vain". The song also contains an uncredited sample from Orange Crush by R.E.M., which can especially be heard in the Todd Terry remix. After Marker saw Manson's group Angelfish on 120 Minutes, the band invited her to Vig and Marker's Smart Studios to sing on a couple of tracks. After a dreadful first audition, she returned to Angelfish.Manson eventually returned to Smart for a successful second time, where she began to work on the then-skeletal "Queer", "Vow" and "Stupid Girl".Working on the lyrics, "Stupid Girl" became an "anthem for a girl who won't settle for less than what she wants". Additional percussion is performed by Pauli Ryan, and bass guitar by Mike Kashou. Reflecting on the success of the song in 2002, Butch Vig admitted: "People still ask us who the "Stupid Girl" is, and that's impossible to answer. The song is sort of meant to be a wake up call. It could be about an ex-girlfriend. It could be about a rock diva that we all know, it could be about your sister. It could also be called "Stupid Boy". "Stupid Girl" was first released in Australia and New Zealand as a two-part CD single set. Spread across both formats were "Queer" remixes and studio tracks "Trip My Wire" and "Butterfly Collector", b-sides previously included on the U.K. release of "Queer".The single charts at #47 in Australia and #32 in New Zealand. A commercial release across Europe followed on February 28,on a single CD maxi format, with both "Queer" b-sides. The release of "Stupid Girl" in the UK was scheduled for March 11 to support Garbage's first headline U.K. tour. "Stupid Girl" received massive pre-release video and radio airplay (A-listed at Radio One, Virgin and Capital), reaching #5 in the UK Airplay chart.Garbage also performed "Stupid Girl" live on Top of The Pops and TFI Friday (along with a performance of "Only Happy When It Rains"). Continuing their theme of special edition 7" vinyl releases, Mushroom chose to release the "Stupid Girl" vinyl in a fabric sleeve. Two colours, red and blue, were released, each with a plastic "G" logo stitched on the front. This vinyl was limited to 10,000 copies. The CD single release was a two disc set, featuring b-sides "Driving Lesson", "Alien Sex Fiend", a Garbage remix of "Dog New Tricks" and remixes of "Stupid Girl" by Red Snapper and Dreadzone.[15] "Stupid Girl" debuted at #4, the band's first UK top 10 hit, spending two weeks in the top ten and seven weeks in the top 75, selling 135,000 copies.On the back of the success of the single and tour, Garbage reached the top 10, peaking at #6. Trade advertisement for "Stupid Girl" published by Almo Sounds in Billboard magazine. On May 25, "Stupid Girl" was released to U.S. Modern Rock radio as Garbage began supporting Smashing Pumpkins on their Mellon Collie arena tour.[13] "Stupid Girl" eventually peaked at #2 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.The band performed "Stupid Girl" on Late Show with David Letterman on July 11, the night before the tour was postponed due to an overdose by Pumpkins' keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. "Stupid Girl" began to ascend the Hot 100 and Airplay charts quickly, as the single was released commercially on CD, cassette and 12" vinyl. A remix of "Stupid Girl" by Todd Terry was serviced to Top 40 radio, as the video for "Stupid Girl" was given Buzz Clip status by MTV, guaranteeing heavy airplay. The album, Garbage, ascended the Billboard 200 as the success of the single saw its sales increase, and on July 30 it was certified platinum for 1,000,000 sales.Garbage peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200, and "Stupid Girl" reached a peak of #24 in September.Its remixes made it a substantial hit at #5 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.Garbage performed "Stupid Girl" at the VH1 Fashion Awards, which made headlines when Manson suffered a "wardrobe malfunction". "Stupid Girl" was released in France in August, as Garbage returned to Europe to perform at rock festivals, reaching #36, becoming their first hit there. The single was also re-released in Germany featuring an exclusive radio edit by Oliver Sitl. An Remix E.P. was released in Australia and New Zealand, featuring the Dreadzone and Red Snapper mixes, and "Alien Sex Fiend" In 2005, "Stupid Girl" was featured as the theme song to Curtis Hanson's In Her Shoes while later that year, Alexz Johnson recorded a cover version of the track for her album Songs from Instant Star. The promotional video for "Stupid Girl" was filmed on January 16, 1996 in Los Angeles by director Samuel Bayer. The video for single "Only Happy When It Rains" was shot at the same time.[27] The video for "Only Happy When It Rains" was given a higher budget than the video for "Stupid Girl", because Almo Sounds believed that the former would be a bigger hit than the latter.[28] The video debuted internationally on February 1, 1996. MTV certified "Stupid Girl" a Buzz-clip, the band's third video in a row to be guaranteed heavy airplay on the network,[18] while VH1 included the video in a Pop Up Video episode. The video for "Stupid Girl" is a performance piece, inspired by the title sequence from David Fincher's 1995 movie Se7en. The clip was shot in just four hours[29] entirely within a warehouse.Bayer cut the film into pieces, and soaked it in his bath, applying deliberate fingerprints and abrasions to the footage before putting it back together by hand.[30] Bayer later re-edited a second version of the video, with alternative footage from the original shoot for a remix version of "Stupid Girl" by Todd Terry. The "Stupid Girl" video was first commercially released on VHS and Video-CD on 1996's Garbage Video, along with "making of" out-take footage.A remastered version was later included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD Absolute Garbage. Garbage recorded a number of tracks in January 1996 during rehearsals for their first full-length concert tour. During the rehearsals, Garbage remixed their own "Dog New Tricks", from Garbage,and record "Driving Lesson", "Alien Sex Fiend" and "Kick My Ass", a Vic Chesnutt cover for inclusion on Sweet Relief II: The Gravity of the Situation.Daniel Shulman plays bass on all four tracks. On October 14, 1998, Garbage, Electronic Arts and Broadcast.com would promote a live webcast from Garbage's headline show at Dallas Bronco Bowl by offering a free digital download of "Driving Lesson". The song registered over 6,000 downloads. For the initial single release of "Stupid Girl", remixes were commissioned from Dreadzone, who completed two mixes and Red Snapper. All three versions appeared on the CD singles for "Stupid Girl"(the Red Snapper remix also appeared on European release of "Only Happy When It Rains").[An instrumental version of the Red Snapper remix was later released on the compilation Big Beat Elite. For the U.S. release of "Stupid Girl", the song was remixed for clubs by Danny Saber, Rabbit in the Moon ("Future Retro mix") and Jason Bentley, Bruno Guez and Blue ("Shoegazer mix").Todd Terry completed two remixes for club play ("Freeze Club" and "In-House Dub") while his "Tee's Radio mix" was released to Top 40 radio. Both this remix and Danny Saber's were later released internationally on "Milk". Red Snapper and Danny Saber's remixes were then used on Garbage Video, while two additional remixes from Todd Terry ("Bonus Beats" and "Capella") were released in 1997 on the Stupid Girl Remixes 12" in the U.K. In 2007, Todd Terry's radio mix was remastered and included on the Absolute Garbage bonus disc Garbage Mixes. "Stupid Girl" has been performed live on every major worldwide tour spanning the band's career to date.
