Throwback Thursdays: Football Mom Sophia George’s 1985 Reggae Classic, “Girlie Girlie”

Words by Jesse Serwer—

We kind of spilled the beans on this one on Tuesday, but if yuh dun no: Patrick Chung, starting safety for the New England Patriots in this Sunday’s Super Bowl, is the son of Sophia George-Chung (formerly Sophia George), singer of the 1985 reggae classic “Girlie Girlie,” and her producer husband, Ronald “Piggy” Chung. One of the biggest reggae hits of the mid ’80s, every Jamaican between the age of 30 and 55 knows this one, and a lot of British folks, too—it made the Top 10 there. In the US, the song (which, we should explain for the benefit of non-patois speakers, is about a womanizer with “A big fat one who’s a go-go dancer/A little slim one who’s a radio announcer/One itie tightie, one fightie fightie,” and not in any way perpetuating homophobia) is not so well known but it was used for the opening sequence of a 1989 Adam Sandler movie no one has ever heard of.

What we didn’t mention in our Super Bowl-inspired Toppa Top 10 list of the Best Caribbean NFL Players on Tuesday is that there is a music video for “Girlie Girlie”—quite the rarity for a Jamaican song of this era—not to mention a clip of Ms. George performing lip syncing the tune on Top of the Pops. Watch ’em both below, and, if you happen to be a DJ, don’t let Sunday slip by without dropping some airhorns on this one.