The Icemen + John Legend: Foxy


The Icemen: My Girl, She’s a Fox
From 7″ (Samar, 1966). Also on Lost Soul Oldies Vol. 13

John Legend: Slow Dance
From Once Again (Sony, 2006)

A reader brought to my attention that two recent songs – Legend’s “Slow Dance” and Amy Winehouse’s “He Can Only Hold Her” – are based around the same sample/interpolation and he was wondering: what is the original?

I was curious to and rooted around a bit and pulled up the Icemen’s relatively obscure 1966 single, “My Girl, She’s a Fox” (not to be confused with the Icemen’s “How Can I Get Over a Fox Like You”…presumably, the post-break-up song). I say “relatively obscure” since the Icemen’s tune is actually fairly well known for the simple fact of who’s playing guitar on there: a young Jimi Hendrix. Legend’s song uses the Hendrix lick obviously – Winehouse’s song interpolates it but to be honest, I prefer Amy’s track. It’s more inventive but both songs make great use of the Icemen original.