Joe Nichols – “Gimmie That Girl”

Songwriters: Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip.

When an artist capable of transcendent moments like “An Old Friend of Mine” and the note-perfect rendering of Dement-via-Haggard heartbreaker “No Time to Cry” that graces Revelation sets out to have a radio hit, it’s usually pretty obvious. That’s the curse of being an adept interpreter of weighty material: when you opt for lighter fare, it’s clearly a matter of choice rather than a symptom of all-around incompetence.

Enter “Gimmie That Girl,” an inoffensive little ditty all about how beautiful a woman can be in those unguarded moments when she’s not even trying. It’s a nice enough sentiment, and one that certainly resonated with women and their adoring men alike when delivered by Sammy Kershaw as “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful.”

But there’s an important (if subtle) difference between Kershaw’s 1993 hit and Nichols’ latest: where the former focuses on the woman and what she don’t know, the latter filters the same idea through a language of “gimmies.” In fact, the song is virtually swimming in gimmies: Nichols himself repeats the phrase 15 times, while back-up singers add repetitions of “gimmie gimmie gimmie that girl” behind the choruses.

The most straightforward reading is that he must really want her. Upon further examination, though, the repetitions of the request reveal a deeper truth: the song is ultimately more about the gimmie than it is about the girl.

So that when Nichols sings “Give me that girl with her hair in a mess/Sleepy little smile with her head on my chest/That’s the you that I like best/Give me that girl,” it seems less like a tribute to the woman herself and more like wishful thinking–a far-flung fantasy of compartmentalizing a person. He wants all the good, none of the bad. In truth, however, the girl who’s sweet in the morning is the same one that sometimes comes home like a raving lunatic after a difficult day at work. Nichols registers his request (15 of them, actually) for “the you that I like best,” but he can’t pick and choose. He has signed on for the whole woman.

At least, that’s the way relationships work in the real world. When you pretend otherwise, you’re ultimately just being selfish.

Gimmie a little more verisimilitude next time around, Joe.

Listen: Joe Nichols – “Gimmie That Girl”