Peaches (The Stranglers song)

"Peaches" was controversial because of its anarchist, non-conformist, "sexual" content, primarily aimed at shaking up the establishment and poking the eye of the new politically correct punk movement. The song's narrator is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as "there goes a girl and a half") are an interior monologue, comments to his mates, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. The critic Tom Maginnis wrote that Hugh Cornwell sings with "a lecherous sneer, the sexual tension is so unrelenting as to spill into macho parody or even censor-baiting territory".[2]

The lyrics include a word that sounds like clitoris, albeit pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable: "Is she trying to get out of that clitORis?" The song is driven by a prominent and distinctive bass line.

The single was a double A-side with pub rock song "Go Buddy Go" which was played on UK radio at the time and also on the band's BBC TV Top of the Pops appearance because the sexual nature of the lyrics of "Peaches" caused the BBC to ban it.[3] Still, "Peaches" was ranked at No. 18 among the top "Tracks of the Year" for 1977 by NME,[4] and it reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart.[1] The radio cut, however, had to be re-recorded with less explicit lyrics: "clitoris" was replaced with "bikini", "oh shit" with "oh no" and "what a bummer" with "what a summer". The catalogue number of the radio version was FREE 4.

An edited version of "Peaches", minus the lyrics, was used as the closing theme tune to many of the TV chef Keith Floyd's Floyd on... television shows. It was also used as the title music in the opening sequence of 2000 British film Sexy Beast and during a party scene in the 1997 film Metroland. The song is also on the sound track of the game Driver: Parallel Lines. It was used by Adidas in advertising in the Netherlands in 2002. It was used in the opening sequence of an episode of the soap opera Hollyoaks in early October 2006.

The song is used in episode 16 of the BBC series Being Human, when the hungry "teenage" vampire Adam stalks three teenage girls into a game arcade.

The song is heard in episode nine of series two of the TV series Gotham.

Dub Pistols covered the song on their 2007 album, Speakers and Tweeters, with Rodney P on guest MC vocals and Terry Hall of The Specials singing the chorus. Audio Bullys and Liam Howlett included it in their installment of the Back to Mine series of "after hours grooving" DJ mix albums, with Simon Franks of the duo referring to it as "raw UK old school".[5]

The 2011 film Killer Elite used the song.

The single was re-issued, with "Go Buddy Go", on green vinyl and with a new sleeve for the 2014 Record Store Day.[6]