#12: Is She Really Going Out With Him by Joe Jackson

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: September 1979
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #5
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #21
YouTube:”Is She Really Going Out With Him”
Lyrics: “Is She Really Going Out With Him”

Joe Jackson was born David Ian Jackson in 1954 in Burton upon Trent, England. In his teens he learned to play violin and piano. In 1970 when he was 16-years-old, Jackson was playing piano in bars and pubs. Out of high school he attended London’s Royal Academy of Music. In the early 70s he formed a British band called Edward Bear (different from the Canadian band from Ontario), which soon changed its name to Arms and Legs. David Ian Jackson started getting the nickname “Joe” because some people thought he looked like the Charlie Brown character Snoopy in his “Joe Cool” persona.

Over the next few years Jackson did gigs on the cabaret circuit and made some demos. In 1979 he released his debut album Look Sharp! His debut single release was “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”.

It was written as a humorous commentary on women dating unattractive men. Initially, the song got little attention, and two more tracks from the album were released as singles. However, as New Wave music became fashionable, Jackson’s album got more attention. Like some punk and new wave recording acts, Jackson used reggae rhythms on occasion. “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” was re-released, charting into the Top Ten in Canada and Ireland, the Top 20 in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and the Top 30 in the USA.

‘Is She Really Going Out With Him” is a song about people wondering about a young woman choosing to date a particular guy. Joe Jackson was not the first to ask this musical question. The 1964 Shangri-Las hit “Leader of the Pack” opens with some dialog:

Is she really going out with him?
Well, there she is, let’s ask her.
Betty, is that Jimmy’s ring you’re wearing?

“Is She Really Going Out With Him” is Joe Jackson’s whimsical commentary on sexy females hooking up with  dudes. Jackson makes this clear in the marvelous opening line, “Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street.” He figures if looks don’t count, there’s a lot of proof that is the case, since all these women are dating, and getting married to guys who are hard on the eyes.

“Is She Really Going Out With Him” peaked at #2 in Hamilton (ON), Philadelphia, Winnipeg (MB), and Manchester (NH), #3 in Tempe (AZ), Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Milwaukee, #4 in Toronto, Nashville, Sault Ste. Marie (ON), and Smithers (BC), #5 in Vancouver (BC), Bangor (ME), Boston, and St. Louis, #6 in New York City, Allentown (PA), Worcester (MA), Seattle, and Lethbridge (AB), #7 in San Francisco, and Atlanta, #8 in Chicago, #10 in Phoenix, Easton (PA), Kansas City, Windsor (ON), Ottawa, and San Diego.

In 1979, Jackson received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Rock Vocal Performance – Male for “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”

In October 1979, Joe Jackson released his second studio album, I’m The Man. The title track was released as a single.

A second track from the album, “It’s Different for Girls”, was Joe Jackson’s biggest single in the UK, peaking at #5.

In October 1980 Jackson released his third solo album, Beat Crazy. The album underperformed, as did the title track released as a single. Jackson reflected later “we tried to change the formula a bit without quite knowing how. It’s darker than the first two, and the reggae influence is more pronounced.” His fourth album released in May 1981, Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, was an attempt to connect to an anticipated retro-swing revival which never really materialized until 1996. The title track peaked at #8 in Edmonton (AB) in October 1981.

Jackson’s 1982 album Night and Day was Jackson’s only studio album to reach either the United States or UK Top 10, peaking at No. 4 (US) and at No. 3 (UK). The tracks “Real Men” (a #6 hit in Australia) and “A Slow Song” pointed obliquely to New York City’s early 1980s gay culture. Jackson’s biggest hit single came from the album titled “Steppin’ Out”. The song won him two nominations for Grammy Awards in the categories Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male. It peaked in the Top Ten in Canada, Ireland, the UK and USA. Another single “Breaking Us In Two” describes a couple in a state of dissonance.

In 1983 Jackson was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the song “Breakdown”.

In 1984 Jackson wrote the music for the neo-noir film Mike’s Murder. From the soundtrack, “Memphis”, was a #4 hit in Yellowknife (NWT), though it stalled at #85 on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, Jackson released his seventh studio album, Body And Soul. It featured the Top 20 hit single “You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)”.

In 1985 Joe Jackson played piano on all the tracks for Joan Armatrading’s album Secret Secrets.

In 1986, Jackson collaborated with Suzanne Vega on the single “Left of Center” from the soundtrack for Pretty in Pink, with Vega singing and Jackson on piano. Jackson went back to the studio releasing Big World and Will Power in 1986 and 1987.

In 1988 Jackson released the album, Tucker, which was the soundtrack for the film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, starring Jeff Bridges. Jackson was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV. Also in 1988, Jackson released a live album titled Live 1980/86.

Blaze of Glory and Laughter & Lust were his next album releases in 1989 and 1991. Both were more successful in Europe than North America.

In 1999 Jackson’s instrumental classical album, Symphony No. 1, earned him a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Night and Day II, followed by Volume 4, became Jacksons’ fourth and fifth non-charting albums in a row in either North American or European national album charts. However, in 2008 his album Rain climbed to #12 in the Netherlands.

In 2007 Joe Jackson’s 1997 album, Heaven & Hell, was adapted in Boston as a jukebox musical Heaven & Hell: The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins. It ran at the Boston Conservatory.

In 2012 Joe Jackson’s The Duke topped the Billboard Top Jazz Album Chart. It was a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Although Joe Jackson has been off the radar on Top 40 AM radio since the early 80s, he has continued to record at a pace. In 2019 he released his 21st studio album Fool which climbed into the Top 20 on the album charts in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Jackson has also released eight live albums. He has also released 42 singles, the last to chart being “Obvious Song” in 1991.

Joe Jackson had published an autobiography titled A Cure For Gravity. In his book he identifies as bi-sexual. In 2001 he told the Irish Independent he was in a relationship with a male partner.

July 29, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Jim Allen, “35 Years Ago: Joe Jackson Reinvents Himself on ‘Night And Day’,” Diffuser.fm, June 26, 2017.
James McNair, “Joe Jackson: Catching Up With the Maverick Singer-songwriter“, The Independent, UK, February 11, 2008.
Joe Jackson, A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, (De Capo Press, 2000).
Charles Schultz, “Joe Cool,” Peanuts cartoon.
Joe Jackson, “Private Eye Theme“, Private Eye, NBC, 1987.