Hey Boy Hey Girl
Encyclopedia
"Hey Boy Hey Girl" is a song by English big beat
duo The Chemical Brothers
. It was released as a single from their 1999 album Surrender
. The vocal sample "Hey girls, B-boys, superstar DJs, here we go!" was taken from "The Roof is on Fire
" by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three
. It peaked at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart
and remained in the chart for ten weeks.
. The camera focuses on a young girl who opens a medical book of pictures of the human skeleton. A blonde boy spits on the page, then smiles at her as he walks away. The children go to the Natural History Museum
, where the same boy tries to scare the girl with a skull in his hood. She chases the boy in the museum, but falls near the bottom of a flight of stairs and breaks her hand. At the hospital, she gets an X-ray of her hand. It then shows her brushing her teeth whilst picturing herself as only bones. The background behind her morphs into a toilet area at the Ministry of Sound
nightclub, South London. When she reverts back into a person, she is older. She passes a couple having sexual intercourse
in a stall, but she only sees them as skeletons. She exits the bathroom and heads to the nightclub's bar, where a man flirts with her. You can barely hear his lines under the music. She then pictures him as a skeleton and feels his jawbone before leaving. She then goes to the dance floor, and sees more people as skeletons, almost as if she has X-ray
vision. She exits the nightclub and climbs into a taxi, where she sees the driver as a skeleton. The Chemical Brothers make a cameo in the video at the end, coming out of the taxi with DJ equipment.
placed it at number 50 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years", writing that the song "[starts] with a menacing, trance
laden groove" and "[builds] to an absolute dance stomper".
Big beat
Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...
duo The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
. It was released as a single from their 1999 album Surrender
Surrender (The Chemical Brothers album)
Surrender is the third studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 21 June 1999. It features Noel Gallagher , Hope Sandoval , and Bernard Sumner as guest vocalists...
. The vocal sample "Hey girls, B-boys, superstar DJs, here we go!" was taken from "The Roof is on Fire
The Roof Is on Fire
"The Roof Is on Fire" is a single from Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three released in 1984 that reached number five on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart...
" by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three
Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three
Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three was an old school rap group best known for the singles "The Roof Is on Fire" and "Request Line", both of which have been sampled by many other groups, from rap to R&B to rock...
. It peaked at number 3 in 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 remained in the chart for ten weeks.
Music video
The music video opens with a group of schoolchildren on board a coachCoach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
. The camera focuses on a young girl who opens a medical book of pictures of the human skeleton. A blonde boy spits on the page, then smiles at her as he walks away. The children go to the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, where the same boy tries to scare the girl with a skull in his hood. She chases the boy in the museum, but falls near the bottom of a flight of stairs and breaks her hand. At the hospital, she gets an X-ray of her hand. It then shows her brushing her teeth whilst picturing herself as only bones. The background behind her morphs into a toilet area at the Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
nightclub, South London. When she reverts back into a person, she is older. She passes a couple having sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
in a stall, but she only sees them as skeletons. She exits the bathroom and heads to the nightclub's bar, where a man flirts with her. You can barely hear his lines under the music. She then pictures him as a skeleton and feels his jawbone before leaving. She then goes to the dance floor, and sees more people as skeletons, almost as if she has X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
vision. She exits the nightclub and climbs into a taxi, where she sees the driver as a skeleton. The Chemical Brothers make a cameo in the video at the end, coming out of the taxi with DJ equipment.
Track listing
Reception
In October 2011, NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
placed it at number 50 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years", writing that the song "[starts] with a menacing, trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
laden groove" and "[builds] to an absolute dance stomper".
Release history
| Region | Release date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | Virgin Japan Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny... |
CD | VJCP-12125 | |
| UK | Freestyle Dust | CD | CHEMSD8 | |
| 12" vinyl | CHEMST8 | |||
| Cassette | CHEMSC8 |