"She Blinded Me with Science" is a song by the English musician

Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...

, released in 1982. It was first released as a single in the United Kingdom in October 1982. It was subsequently included on the EP '' Blinded by Science'' and the 1983 re-release of Dolby's debut album '' The Golden Age of Wireless''. Although viewed as a success in both the United States and Canada, peaking at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and 2 weeks at No. 1 in Canada's ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'' magazine, the song barely managed to score among the Top 50 in Dolby's native United Kingdom, peaking at No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart in 1982. Dolby is often considered a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

in the United States on the basis of the song's chart success there. In 2002, US cable television network

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

named "She Blinded Me with Science" No. 20 on its list of the "100 Greatest One-hit Wonders". While the song is Dolby's only Top 40 single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, he has had other songs that scored on the music charts. In 2006, VH1 placed it at No. 76 on their list of "Greatest Songs of the '80s". Then, in 2009, it ranked No. 13 on VH1's "100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s" list. The song was used as the theme song in the pilot episode of ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady for CBS. It aired from September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019, running for 12 seasons and 279 episodes. The show originally centered on five charact ...

'' before it was replaced with the "Big Bang Theory Theme" by rock band

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is a Canadian Rock music, rock band which was formed in 1988 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their Barenaked Ladies (EP), self-titled 1991 cassette becoming th ...

Song structure

The song features exclamations from the British scientist and TV presenter

Magnus Pyke Magnus Alfred Pyke (29 December 1908 – 19 October 1992) was an English nutritional scientist, governmental scientific adviser, writer and presenter. He worked for the UK Ministry of Food, the post-war Allied Commission for Austria, and di ...

, who repeatedly interjects "Science!" and delivers other lines in a deliberately caricatured

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabas ...

manner, such as, "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!"

Music video

The video for "She Blinded Me with Science" was conceived and storyboarded before the song was written. Dolby added the song title, wrote the song to fit the planned video, and then directed the music video. The video features Magnus Pyke as The Doctor, at "The Home for Deranged Scientists". Much of it was filmed at The Holme near Regent's Park in London, at the time owned and managed by the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priva ...

. Dolby later said that he wrote the line "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto" because he wanted a Japanese woman to appear in the video. He was quoted as saying: "I was boldly ahead of the times in fetishizing Asian women." The name is a reference to

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

's wife

Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer born in Tokyo and raised in Aomori and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. She has been called "one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world", and her vocals an ...

, who was in the studio at the time; she had previously sung backing on Dolby's 1982 single " Radio Silence", and he would collaborate with Sakamoto on the single "Field Work" a couple of years later.

Personnel

Credits sourced from Mix *

– lead and backing vocals,

Roland Jupiter-4 The Roland Jupiter-4 (JP-4) was an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1978 and 1981. It was notable as the company's first self-contained polyphony (instrument), polyphonic synthesizer, and for employing digita ...

Moog Source The Moog Source is a monophonic Z80 microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 1981 to 1985. The Source was Moog's first synthesizer to offer patch memory storage. The design was also the first (and only) Moog ...

PPG Wave The PPG Wave is a series of synthesizers built by the German company Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987. Background Until the early 1980s, the tonal palette of commercial synthesizers was limited to that which could be obtained by combining ...

, Simmons programming, Eventide Harmonizer *

Matthew Seligman Matthew Seligman (14 July 1955 – 17 April 2020) was an English bassist, best known for his association with the new wave music scene of the 1980s. Seligman was a member of the Soft Boys and the Thompson Twins, and was a sideman for Thomas ...

– Moog Source (bass) *

Tim Friese-Greene Timothy Alan Friese-Greene is an English musician and record producer, producer. He worked with the band Talk Talk from 1983 to their breakup in 1991. He currently releases solo albums under the name Heligoland. He is the grandson of filmmaker Cl ...

– PPG Wave, Eventide Harmonizer * Kevin Armstrong – electric guitar * Simon House – violin *

– spoken word * Mutt Lange – backing vocals *

Miriam Stockley Miriam Arlene Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a South African singer. She was born in Johannesburg, and her work is influenced by the Music of Africa, African music of her home country. Her distinctive ''vocal warm up#Vocalise, vocalise'' style ...

– backing vocals

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Thomas Dolby - "She Blinded Me With Science: the story behind the song"
at Top 2000-a-gogo, on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Authority control 1982 songs 1982 singles Thomas Dolby songs RPM Top Singles number-one singles Capitol Records singles Songs about science