"I'm Too Sexy" is a song by English trio Right Said Fred
from their album
Up. The single topped the American charts for three
weeks in early 1992, after having peaked at number two in
Britain less than six months earlier.
In the UK, the song set a new record for the most weeks at
number two without ever topping the chart, staying at number
two for six weeks in a row while being famously held off the
summit by Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)",
beating the previous record set by Ultravox's 1981 release
"Vienna", which stayed at number two for four weeks.
"I'm Too Sexy" is sung from the point of view of a
self-satisfied fashion model. The song's lyrics express
(over)confidence that his personal level of sexiness makes him
too sexy for numerous things, most notably his shirt. The
song's instrumental break is based on the guitar riff in the
Jimi Hendrix song "Third Stone from the Sun".
A new version of the song called "I'm Too Sexy 2007",
produced by the Tastemakers, was released in April 2007.
Besides being an updated production it differs from the
original version by no longer using "Third Stone from the Sun"
in its instrumental break. A new video was released as well
although there is also a version where the original song from
1992 is used with the updated video.
The re-release of the song was prompted by a "Cleaner Close"
advertising campaign for Daz detergent. This featured both
Fairbrass brothers and included a self-parody of the song
called "I'm too sexy for my whites". For this occasion they
renamed the band "White Said Fred".
The original song itself was rated #49 on
"It's the 50 Worst Songs Ever! Watch, Listen and
Cringe!"by
Blender.
The band is considered a one-hit wonder in the United
States, its only other charting U.S. single peaking at #76.
However, "I'm Too Sexy" was just the act's first of several
hits on the British charts, including the No. 1 single "Deeply
Dippy."
The following is a list, in lyrical order, of the things for
which the model considers himself to be too sexy:
U.S. single
Notes:
Saint Etienne, MC Hammer, Crazy Frog, and Alvin and the
Chipmunks have all covered the song. José Feliciano has also
parodied it in his concerts.
Rupert Everett covered this song for an end scene in the
film
Shrek 2.
Also the chew sweet Fruitella used a variation on the songs
lyrics for a series of adverts in 1992 where a young child
claims he is "too fruity" or "too juicy" for things as opposed
to being too attractive,; this spin continued until 1995
although from 1994 onwards the advert theme was changed to
revolve around the Salt n Pepa single "Let's Talk about
Sex".
The 2009 Sugababes single "Get Sexy" samples "I'm Too Sexy",
it also uses the phrase
so sexy it hurtsin its chorus.
2.
http://www.australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Right+Said+Fred&titel=I%27m+Too+Sexy&cat=s
Retrieved April 13, 2009