"Goody Two Shoes" is the debut solo single by Adam Ant, released on 7 May 1982.[7] It became Ant's third overall number one in the UK and his highest charting song in the US, where it peaked at number 12.
History
There are two versions of the cover. The first has Adam and the Ants across the top of the sleeve and the later version just Adam Ant. This is probably due to the confusion around the timing of Ant going solo, particularly as the song was performed by three fifths of the band: Ant, Pirroni and Hughes.[8]
There are also two different studio versions of the song. The UK 7" single version is notably different from the re-recorded version which appears on Friend or Foe. The single version has a different, more reverberating drum track. The Friend or Foe version, instead of Hughes on drums, features Bogdan Wiczling, drummer on the rest of the album.[9]
It was fairly common for Ant to record new versions of his pre-1980 compositions for the B-side of his singles. For this single, an old Ant song from 1977 called "Red Scab" was used.[8]
Music video
The video presents a stylised vision of a day in the life of Adam Ant, from dressing in the morning to performing on stage, to being hounded by the media. At the end of the day, he takes home a woman journalist played by British actress Caroline Munro,[12] in effect answering the song's theme question, "What do you do?" The video also starred veteran actors Graham Stark and Dandy Nichols, as the butler and cleaning woman, respectively.[13]
In 2014, singer-songwriters Jim Boggia and Pete Donnelly released a cover version of the song on the multi-artist compilation album Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion.[33]
With altered lyrics, it was used in a 1984 commercial for milk.
^Considine, J.D.; Coleman, Mark; Evans, Paul; McGee, David (1992). "Adam and the Ants". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Random House. pp. 4–5.
