Rich Girlis a song by Daryl Hall and John Oates. On
March 26, 1977, it became their first (of six) number one
singles on
Billboard
's Hot 100 chart. The
single originally appeared on the 1976 album
Bigger Than Both of Us.
The song's lyrics are about a spoiled girl who can rely on
her parents' money to do whatever she wants. The song was
rumored to be about the then-scandalous newspaper heiress Patty
Hearst. In fact, the title character in the song is based on a
spoiled heir to a fast-food chain who was an ex-boyfriend of
Daryl Hall's girlfriend, Sara Allen. "But you can't write,
'You're a rich boy' in a song, so I changed it to a girl," Hall
told Rolling Stone.
Hall elaborated on the song in an interview with American
Songwriter: "Rich Girl” was written about an old boyfriend of
Sara’s [Allen] from college that she was still friends with at
the time. His name is Victor Walker. He came to our apartment,
and he was acting sort of strange. His father was quite rich. I
think he was involved with some kind of a fast-food chain. I
said, “This guy is out of his mind, but he doesn’t have to
worry about it because his father’s gonna bail him out of any
problems he gets in.” So I sat down and wrote that chorus.
[Sings] “He can rely on the old man’s money/he can rely on the
old man’s money/he’s a rich guy.” I thought that didn’t sound
right, so I changed it to “Rich Girl.” He knows the song was
written about him."
Several years later, Hall read an interview with David
Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, in which Berkowitz claimed
that "Rich Girl" had motivated him to murder (though
interestingly, the song was not released until after the Son of
Sam murders had already begun, casting doubts on that
suggestion). Hall & Oates later reflected this disturbing
fact in the lyrics of the song "Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear Voices)"
on the album
Voices.