Stupid Girl
by Garbage
- 123
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 59
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
The song began as a rough demo in about January 1994, in the basement studio of Steve Marker's home in Madison, Wisconsin, before Shirley Manson had joined Garbage. Marker, Duke Erikson and Butch Vig jammed with an ADAT eight-track, Akai samplers and a small drum kit. Vig took a loop from the drum introduction of the Clash's "Train in Vain" and layered on more percussion, including a sample of R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush." Marker was asked for a bassline with a Motown feel, and Erikson finished the core with a jangly guitar riff.
Manson came to Smart Studios for a "dreadful" first audition, went back to her own group, then returned for a second try and began working on "Stupid Girl." When she recorded her first vocals the band found the song sat too low for her. Vig re-printed the guitars through a pitch-change patch instead of recutting them. A glitchy noise in the pre-chorus came from Marker's dubbing between tracks. Pauli Ryan added percussion and Mike Kashou played bass.
The single came out in 1996. It became the band's highest-charting single in both the United States and the United Kingdom and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
Stupid Girl runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.