NOTE - Going by Peel's pronunciation, their name would be said as "Cheer Pet".
It sounds a terribly bohemian, and almost parodical, thing to write down but Chia Pet were the house band for an American teen magazine called Sassy. Everybody you hear on Hey Baby either wrote for, worked for or was married to someone connected to Sassy, which ran for eight years between 1988 and 1996.
Journalists making music was not a new concept. Indeed, at this time, the UK could boast one of the most popular journalism to pop music success stories courtesy of former Smash Hits assistant editor Neil Tennant and his role as one half of the Pet Shop Boys. Chia Pet never approached the sales figures or longevity of the Pet Shop Boys - this 7" single was their only release - but Tennant may have found some common ground in the style of writing on Hey Baby which takes a narrative verite approach - with the bulk of the verses and chorus made up of sexist remarks and sexualised taunts. It's entirely possible that the predominantly female members of Chia Pet may have collaborated on pooling together remarks and actions made toward them or at other female friends, supposedly under the pretext of "banter". From a "nice tits" here to an ass grabbing there and while the track tries to elicit a sense of wry sarcasm towards the Neanderthal attitudes, things get progressively more uncomfortable, especially when the lyric incorporates the inevitable moment that the sexist "compliments" give way to the sense of male resentment that the woman hasn't shown any reciprocation to some of the degrading offers made to her. Why don’t you smile, baby? Don’t you like me? Why don’t you smile, baby? Don’t you like it? The increasingly nauseous sounding violin which chugs away throughout the track does a good job of evoking the sinking feeling in these women's stomachs when they find themselves attracting this kind of unwanted attention, which is further evidenced by the sing-song chorus line.
In the final verse, the band try to turn the tables by posing the question as to whether the act of a woman wearing a skirt deserves the volley of casually disgusting abuse that's been chronicled earlier in the song. There's no final resolution to the track either beyond a rhetorical question about why they have to put up with this shit, when they're just trying to mind their own business. Perhaps, because they feared attitudes were too ingrained for there ever to be hope for change.
Peel really liked Hey Baby, describing it as angry but funny too. An excellent record. I initially found it a bit odd that he dedicated a play of it to all who worked at The Waterfont venue in Norwich, which had achieved a number of Top 10 placings for Best Venue in year end polls in the music papers. Given the theme of the track, it didn’t seem like a very friendly gesture. But, given the timelessness of that theme which is gaining far greater awareness than it was 30 years ago, but with much work still to be done, it may well have been far more pointed than anybody realised or was prepared to admit.
Video courtesy of IndieAnnieJones
Lyrics copyright of their authors.
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