10 Best Songs With The Word 'Girl' In The Title

Feature Photo by Ernest Brillo

The word “girl” has appeared in song titles throughout the history of rock, pop, and soul. Some of the best-known examples came out during the 1960s and 1970s, when songwriters often built entire records around a name, a relationship, or one memorable phrase. The ten songs on this list range from soft rock and Motown to British rock and American heartland rock. What they share is a title that has stayed familiar long after the records first appeared.

# 10 – Diamond Girl – Seals & Crofts

Seals & Crofts released “Diamond Girl” in 1973 as the title track of their fifth studio album. Jim Seals and Dash Crofts wrote the song, and Louie Shelton produced the recording. The duo’s close harmonies and easygoing arrangement give it the warm sound that made their early-1970s records so recognizable. “Diamond Girl” reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album itself became the highest-charting studio album of their career. Coming after “Summer Breeze,” the song confirmed that Seals & Crofts were much more than a one-hit act.

Read More: Top 10 Seals & Crofts Songs

# 9 – Stupid Girl – The Rolling Stones

Aftermath (UK) - Remastered- Made In USA

The Rolling Stones recorded “Stupid Girl” for their 1966 album Aftermath. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the song, and Andrew Loog Oldham produced it during the band’s RCA Studios sessions in Hollywood. Aftermath was an important step for the Stones because it was their first album made entirely from Jagger-Richards originals. “Stupid Girl” is one of the record’s nastier songs, with Jagger delivering the lyric as a blunt put-down rather than a love song. The track mixes the band’s blues roots with the sharper pop writing they were developing at the time. It remains a strong example of the confrontational side of the mid-1960s Rolling Stones.

# 8 – Surfer Girl – The Beach Boys

Brian Wilson wrote “Surfer Girl” and sang the lead vocal on the Beach Boys’ 1963 single. He also produced the recording, giving the group one of its earliest examples of the softer harmony sound that would become just as important as the surfing songs. The record pairs a simple love lyric with layered Beach Boys vocals and an arrangement that moves at an easy, almost floating pace. “Surfer Girl” reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became the title track of the band’s third studio album later that year. Long before Pet Sounds, the song showed how naturally Wilson could turn a straightforward melody into something beautiful.

Read More: Top 10 Beach Boys Songs

# 7 – Girl – The Beatles

“Girl” appeared on the Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul. John Lennon developed the song’s original idea, with the finished composition carrying the Lennon-McCartney credit. The Beatles recorded it at EMI Studios on November 11, 1965, and it was the last complete song recorded for the album. George Martin produced the track, which features Lennon’s lead vocal with Paul McCartney and George Harrison supplying backing vocals. The song is quieter than many Beatles singles from the same period, but the lyric is full of frustration, attraction, and doubt. It fits perfectly with the more mature writing that made Rubber Soul such an important album.

Read More: Top 10 Beatles Love Songs

# 6 – Oh Girl – The Chi-Lites

The Chi-Lites released “Oh Girl” in 1972 on the album A Lonely Man. Lead singer Eugene Record wrote and produced the song, and his restrained vocal makes the breakup at the center of the lyric sound painfully close. The arrangement is unusually spare for a major soul hit, opening with harmonica and leaving plenty of space around the group’s voices. “Oh Girl” became the Chi-Lites’ first and only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart. The record proves that heartbreak does not need a huge arrangement when the singer already sounds defeated.

Read More: Top 10 Songs By The Chi-Lites

# 5 – American Girl – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty wrote “American Girl” for the first Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album, released in 1976. Denny Cordell produced the recording at Shelter Studios in Hollywood. The song did not chart in the United States when it was issued as a single, but it reached number forty in the United Kingdom in 1977. Its ringing guitars, fast rhythm, and restless lyric eventually turned it into one of Petty’s signature songs anyway. The woman in the song wants something larger than the life in front of her, which gives the record a sense of motion even before the band starts racing toward the finish. “American Girl” later became the final song Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed together in concert.

# 4 – Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon – Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond wrote “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” and released it as a single in 1967. Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich produced the recording, which later appeared on Diamond’s album Just for You. The song reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Diamond’s early breakthrough records for Bang Records. Its arrangement mixes acoustic guitar, strings, drums, and Diamond’s dramatic vocal in the style that was becoming his trademark. A new generation discovered the song when Urge Overkill’s cover appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994. Diamond’s original remains the version that established the song in the first place.

# 3 – Young Girl – Gary Puckett & The Union Gap

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap released “Young Girl” in 1968, with Jerry Fuller writing and producing the record. The lyric is sung by a man telling a younger woman that she is too young for him and that she needs to leave before the relationship goes any further. Puckett’s huge voice and the polished orchestral arrangement made the song sound far more dramatic than a typical pop single. “Young Girl” reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in the United Kingdom. It was one of a remarkable run of hits that made the Union Gap one of the biggest American pop groups of 1968. Whatever listeners make of the lyric today, the record remains inseparable from Puckett’s unmistakable vocal.

# 2 – Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

Van Morrison recorded “Brown Eyed Girl” in New York in 1967 with producer Bert Berns. The Sweet Inspirations supplied backing vocals, adding another layer to the record’s bright, easy rhythm. Released as Morrison’s first major solo single after Them, the song reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyric looks back on young love and ordinary summer memories without trying to make them grander than they were. That simplicity helped the record become one of the most familiar songs of Morrison’s entire career. Decades of constant radio play have turned “Brown Eyed Girl” into one of the defining oldies of the 1960s.

Read More: Our 10 Favorite Van Morrison Songs

# 1 – My Girl – The Temptations

The Temptations released “My Girl” in late 1964, with David Ruffin singing lead. Smokey Robinson and Ronald White wrote the song, and Robinson has said he specifically wrote it for Ruffin’s voice rather than about one particular woman. The opening bass line and guitar figure lead into one of the simplest and most effective love songs Motown ever released. “My Girl” became the Temptations’ first number-one pop single in 1965 and changed the direction of the group’s career. The recording was later added to the National Recording Registry, recognition of how deeply it had become part of American popular music. More than sixty years after its release, the first few notes are still enough to identify the song immediately.