It's no exaggeration to say that Big Star was one of the most influential rock bands ever, which is especially impressive considering the fact that somehow, despite glowing reviews, the group never had a big hit. Of course, what makes a song a classic doesn't have anything to do with whether or not it ever topped the charts...and "September Gurls" is proof.
Released as a single from Big Star's 1974 album Radio City, "September Gurls" was inspired by frontman Alex Chilton's romantic struggles with three different women who all had September birthdays, as biographer Holly George-Warren revealed in her book A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Times of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man.
According to bassist Andy Hummel, while writing the music on Radio City, Chilton “was going through a lot of different girls that he was having relationships with kind of simultaneously, and a lot of what’s in those songs is him really just telling about his experiences with them, and how he felt about them.”
In the case of "September Gurls," Chilton's heartbreak resulted in what George-Warren called a "pop masterpiece," describing it as "a three minute burst of euphoric, chiming guitars, kicked off with the mando-guitar, accompanied by yearning vocals singing lyrics both heartfelt and snide: 'I love you, well, nevermind / I've been crying all the time.'"
"September Gurls," which was ranked at #178 by Rolling Stone on a list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," was praised as a "peerless, aching distillation of love and longing" by music journalist John M. Borack in his book Shake Some Action — The Ultimate Guide to Power Pop.
"'September Gurls' may not actually be the greatest song ever recorded, but for the duration of its 2:47 running time, you can be forgiven for believing it is," Borack wrote.
It really is just that good.
One of the lines in 'September Gurls' was inspired by a cartoon
While, as noted above, the "September" part of "September Gurls" referred to a common birthday month among Chilton's girlfriends, a different word in the song that's puzzled many fans over the years was in another line of the first verse:
September girls do so muchI was your Butch, and you were touchedI love you, well, never mindI’ve been crying all the time
If you've always wondered about what it means to be somebody's "Butch," drummer Jody Stephens explained in a video on Ardent Music’s YouTube channel that “Butch” refers to a comic book dog, per American Songwriter (in other words, a person who follows someone around like a little puppy).
Related: 1977 No. 1 Soft Rock Ballad Became a Timeless Ode to the 'Fleeting Nature of Love'
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