"Rhythm and Blue Jean Baby" is a song that was written and produced by

Lynsey de Paul Lynsey de Paul (born Lyndsey Monckton Rubin; 11 June 1948 – 1 October 2014) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting ...

, and released in July 1975 as her third single on the newly designed yellow Jet Record label in the UK, as a follow-up to the hit single "

My Man and Me "My Man and Me" is a song written, recorded and produced by the British female singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul for her second album, '' Taste Me... Don't Waste Me'', and released as a single backed with de Paul's smoochy version of "Dancing on a ...

". It was released on

Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(with different picture sleeves in each country); backed with another de Paul composition "Into My Music". The release of the single was also announced in the American music industry magazine '' Cashbox''. The song as well as the lyrics and credits are listed on the Italian music resource "Rockol".

Live performances

De Paul performed the song live on BBC TV's ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' on 17 July 1975, with the show being presented by

Dave Lee Travis David Patrick Griffin (born 25 May 1945), known professionally as Dave Lee Travis, is an English disc jockey and television presenter. He currently presents a Sunday programme between 10 am and 12 noon on ''Heritage Chart Radio''. Travis began ...

. It was the tenth song on episode 596 of the show. This episode was thought to have been lost from the BBC archives, but was tracked down in 2013 and found to be in the private collection of record producer and songwriter

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, DJ, and prominent Doctor Who fan. A populariser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has co-written and co-produced records with sa ...

, along with performances by

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

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and T. Rex,

Barry White Barry Eugene White (né Carter; September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003) was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and ...

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

and various

Pan's People Pan's People were a British all-female dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show ''Top of the Pops'', from 1968 to 1976. The group, founded and led by choreographer Felicity "Flick" Colby in December 1966, accompanie ...

appearances. It was the 10th song of this episode, being preceded by

David Essex David Essex (born David Albert Cook; 23 July 1947) is an English singer-songwriter and actor. From 1973 to 1994, he attained 19 Top 40 singles in the UK (including two number ones) and 16 Top 40 albums. Internationally, Essex had the most suc ...

and being followed by

Typically Tropical Typically Tropical were a British band comprising two Trojan Records audio engineers, Jeff Calvert and Max West. They are best known for their 1975 number one hit record "Barbados" and for writing the 1978 disco hit " I Lost My Heart to a Stars ...

. This version of the song suffered from part of the backing music being omitted. De Paul also performed the song, sat on a motorcycle, rather than at her more usual piano on the

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show ''Shang a Lang'' on 7 July 1975. Another TV performance of the song was on "Rock on with 45". De Paul also performed the song as a special international guest on German TV's ''Die aktuelle Schaubude'', where she played it on a gold painted upright piano.

Release on CD

Although originally a non-album single, it was released for the first time on CD on the de Paul album, ''Greatest Hits'', and has since appeared on a number of CD albums such as ''Best of the Seventies''. More recently, it appeared in a remastered form with an additional backing track, giving it a fuller sound, on ''Into My Music Anthology 1975-1979'', where also the B-side "Into My Music" was included as an album track for the first time. Both songs also recently appeared on the

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

album, ''Singles Collection 1974-1979''.

Reception

The single received favourable reviews, including from DJ and music journalist James Hamilton who, in his first column for ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'', wrote "With a bass line not unlike ‘Bend Me Shape Me’ and some sexy stop/starts, Lynsey makes straight happy pop noises that sound fine to me". It was reported to be a dance floor hit according to a reaction report. Deborah Thomas, music critic at the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

wrote "de Paul will captivate her adoring fans with this light, pacey rocker. It was also a

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

"Hot Shot" single as well as a

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the BBC Local Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London. It broadcasts on FM broadcasting, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Broadcasting House in Langham Plac ...

"Favoured Play" and play listed by

BRMB BRMB is a British radio station based in Aston, Birmingham, which is owned and operated by Murfin Music International. It broadcasts on 89.1FM in Aston and surrounding areas, on DAB throughout Birmingham, and online via the station's website a ...

(now

Hits Radio Birmingham Hits Radio Birmingham, formerly Free Radio Birmingham, is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Birmingham and the West Mid ...

).page 25, Music Week, 28 June 1975

Chart performance

The song reached no. 16 on the Poporama Swedish chart, and it reached no. 30 and spent two weeks on

Capital London Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commerci ...

Radio's "Capital Countdown chart" (where it was wrongly listed as "Rhythm And Blue Jeans Baby") on 12 July 1975 (now Capital FM). It was also included on the "Disco Top Ten" as a breaker published in the British music industry paper ''

''. The song was playlisted on Radio London, BRMB and it was a

Hot Shot in June 1975, while still being played on radio stations such as Radio Mi Amigo a year later in 1976.

Other uses

"Rhythm and Blue Jean Baby" was used as backing music for

Karlie Kloss Karlie Elizabeth Kloss (born August 3, 1992) is an American model. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 2013 until 2015, when she resigned to study at New York University. By 2019, Kloss had appeared on 40 international ''Vogue (magazine), V ...

at the

Sonia Rykiel Sonia Rykiel (; ; 25 May 1930 – 25 August 2016) was a French fashion designer and writer. She created the Poor Boy Sweater, which was featured on the cover of French ''Elle'' magazine. Her knitwear designs and new fashion techniques led her t ...

Spring/Summer 2008 Fashion Show in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. It still receives radio play, for example in 2018 on the German programme, "Musik á la Carte" and on "radio x - Frankfurter Stadtradio".

References

External links

* * * {{Cite web , title=Release group "Rhythm and Blue Jean Baby" by Lynsey de Paul - MusicBrainz , url=https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/4b5c256f-2f6b-448b-8549-9e1800f6f87c , access-date=17 August 2018 , website=Musicbrainz.org Lynsey de Paul songs Songs written by Lynsey de Paul Jet Records singles 1975 singles