She Don't Use Jelly
| "She Don't Use Jelly" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Flaming Lips | ||||
| from the album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart | ||||
| Released | October 1993 | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, neo-psychedelia, noise rock | |||
| Length | 3:40 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Writer(s) | Wayne Coyne | |||
| Producer(s) | The Flaming Lips, Keith Cleversley | |||
| The Flaming Lips singles chronology | ||||
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"She Don't Use Jelly" is a 1993 song by The Flaming Lips, and is their biggest radio hit to date. It is from their album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. The song became popular after being featured on the MTV show Beavis and Butt-head, nearly a year after the album's release. It is still their highest charting single to date (and the only to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100), even entering the top 10 of the Modern Rock Tracks chart, at number 9. "She Don't Use Jelly" is one of the few pre-The Soft Bulletin songs still played at the band's shows. It usually is preceded by a video of Jon Stewart introducing the song on The Jon Stewart Show. After the song, lead singer Wayne Coyne usually inflates an enormous balloon, filled with confetti or smaller balloons, until it bursts onto the crowd.
In the song, Coyne describes a girl who "thinks of ghosts" and puts vaseline on toast, a guy who "goes to shows" and uses magazines to blow his nose, and another girl who uses tangerines to make her hair orange.
From the band's website: "With its chiming pedal steel chorus breaks and seemingly nonsensical lyrics, the song entered into the realms of novelty hit. It's a happy little ditty about strange people and their individual idiosyncrasies, with pretty melodies laced throughout and punctuated by trademark moments of crunching but still harmonious noise."[1]
According to Coyne, "The song came to me very quickly, and I thought it was sort of funny."[2]
The success of the song garnered the band a guest spot on the TV show Beverly Hills, 90210, in which they played live at the show's hangout, The Peach Pit, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) remarked, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!"[3]
This song has been covered by Drugstore, The Hyannis Sound, KT Tunstall and Ben Folds Five, among others. It was also covered by characters in Friday Night Lights, Season 3.
Chart positions
| Chart (1993) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 25 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 55 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 9 |
Track listing
- "She Don't Use Jelly" – 3:41
- "Translucent Egg" – 3:46
- "Turn It On (Bluegrass Version)" – 6:12
- "******* (Plastic Jesus) (Porch Version)" – 1:42