Give The Dog A Bone

Squeeze : Cool For Cats

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On March 9, 1979 Squeeze released the single "Cool For Cats" b/w a reworked version of "Model", from their debut album. It would enter the U.K. charts at #33 on March 18 and peak at U.K. #2. Only the following single, "Up the Junction", would score so high. Guitarist and lyricist Chris Difford sings lead on this track, sounding a bit like a Cockney man telling stories in a pub.

The title is a reference to the UK TV series Cool for Cats, which ran from 1956 to 1961. In the September 1979 New Music magazine, Chris Difford explained: "I don't know if you're familiar with the phrase 'Cool For Cats,' but it was the first Rock 'n' Roll television show in England during 1959. That's where the album and single title originated - I just worked it into some personal experiences within the lyrical content."

On most Squeeze songs, Difford first wrote lyrics and Glenn Tillbrook wrote the music." One where it happened the other way round was "Cool For Cats", Difford tells Classic Pop Magazine. " Glenn had the music for that one and didn’t have a lyric idea, so he gave it to me and I started writing an idea. I sang it and it became a hit but, like all things in Squeeze, it wasn’t planned, it just happened."