"A Girl Like You" is a 1994 single by Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins

Edwyn Collins

Edwyn Stephen Collins is an Ivor Novello Award winning Scottish musician, playing mostly electric guitar-driven pop. Collins formed the musical group Nu-Sonics in 1976, which later became Orange Juice...

 from his album Gorgeous George

Gorgeous George (album)

Gorgeous George is a solo album by Scottish musician Edwyn Collins.It was released in 1994 and features guest musician Paul Cook of Sex Pistols.-Track listing:# "The Campaign for Real Rock"# "A Girl Like You"# "Low Expectations"...

. It tells the tale of the singer's experience meeting an extraordinary girl.

The song samples the drums track of Len Barry

Len Barry

Len Barry is a retired American vocalist, songwriter and record producer.-Career:...

's 1965 hit "1-2-3".
It was featured in the Empire Records

Empire Records

Empire Records is a 1995 coming of age film that follows a group of record store employees over the course of one exceptional day. The employees of this independent music store try to fight off a large chain, all while learning about each other...

soundtrack and second in the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 American action comedy film. It is the sequel to 2000's Charlie's Angels. It opened in the United States on June 27, 2003, and was number one at the box office for that weekend and made a worldwide total of $259.2 million.The cast again includes Cameron...

soundtrack.
Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...

 covered the song as a bonus track on their 2007 video game Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks (video game)

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a video game based on the film of the same name. The game was released on December 4, 2007 and was the first release by short-lived video game company Brash Entertainment. It follows The Chipmunks as they play their way from small venues to massive crowds at Burning Munk...

.

Music video

The U.S. video was in turn an avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 tribute to its lyrics (e.g. when Collins sings the lyrics "you made me acknowledge the devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

 in me", a child's painting of the devil is overlaid over his face). Another video shows Collins singing over videos and silhouettes of dancers.

Chart performance

• The song went to #4 on the UK singles chart
  UK Singles Chart
  The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
  
   and stayed on the chart for 14 weeks.
• "A Girl Like You" was featured in VH1
  VH1
  VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
  
  's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders at #68.

Copyright controversy

On 30 September 2009, Collins' manager posted to Collins' MySpace page to discuss how Collins owned the copyright to the song and wanted to make it available to anyone as a free download but MySpace only allowed major labels to assert the rights to tracks hosted on their site. A later posting notes that after the story was picked up by major news outlets the song was once again available on the MySpace music player.

Track listings

CD single

1. "A Girl Like You" — 3:59
2. "A Girl Like You" (Macramé remix by Youth) — 5:42

French CD single

1. "A Girl Like You" — 3:59
2. "Out Of This World" (Remixé par St-Etienne
   Saint Etienne (band)
   Saint Etienne are an English Pop group comprising Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. They are named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.-History:Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists...
   
   ) — 4:58

CD maxi

1. "A Girl Like You"
2. "Don't Shilly Shally"
3. "Something's Brewing"
4. "Bring It on Back"

CD maxi

1. "A Girl Like You"
2. "If You Could Love Me" (acoustic version)
3. "Don't Shilly Shally" (spotter's 86 demo version)
4. "You're on Your Own"

Peak positions

Chart (1994–1995)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	6
Austrian Singles Chart	7
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart	8
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	5
Dutch Mega Top 100	18
Finnish Singles Chart	11
French SNEP Singles Chart	4
German Singles Chart	3
Irish IRMA Singles Chart	8
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	36
Norwegian Singles Chart	7
Swedish Singles Chart	4
Swiss Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	32
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	7
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	32

Year-end charts

Chart (1995)	Position
Austrian Singles Chart	38
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart	21
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	10
French Singles Chart	19
Swiss Singles Chart	31

Certifications