For My Sunday Song #212, we are going to discuss the song “Kinks Shirt” by Matt Nathanson. The song is off his 2013 album, ‘Last of the Great Pretenders’ and in July of that year he released this song as a video and a single. It was one of the fun songs on the album that shows he isn’t all heartbreak and sadness and that sometimes he can be a good mood or at least sound like he is.
The song was actually inspired by an actual girl that was wearing a Kinks Shirt. You know The Kinks, who doesn’t love The Kinks? No one, that is who. While recording the album, Matt and his producer and band mates would visit this diner quite frequently, I mean like every day for lunch. There was a girl that worked there with tattoos and piercings and nothing like someone that Matt would normally be attracted to maybe, but someone he was obsessed with. Not in a crazy stalker way, but more fantasizing way. He was so mesmerized by her that she inspired this song.
The song is an uptempo pop song, plain and simple. It is so catchy, fun and you can’t help but get caught up in the beat and dance around a little. Lyrically, Matt paints a vivid picture of this girl wearing The Kinks shirt and you can picture every little detail about her and how she makes him feel. Who hasn’t had a girl at one time you were mentally in love with, but never approached her to see what could’ve been.
Most of the other songs I will pick I believe have a lot more meat on the bone as far as the songs go, but this one is too perfect of a pop song not to include. Take a listen and let me know what you think. And the video is just as good and Matt is progressive so the video even turns the song on its head when the girl actually turns out to be a guy and it doesn’t matter. I hope you enjoy and have a Happy Sunday!!
“Kinks Shirt”
Sweet fiction silhouette
Meet me at 9th and Irving
Let’s do things we can both regret
It’s all there in your chipped red fingernails
It’s all there in the twist of your pigtails
It’s the way she walks
The way she talks
Can’t stop thinking
About the girl in the kinks shirt
Take me home, San Francisco
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
Sidewalk mariachis
I see you in your party dress
Played out Sid and Nancy
Bring on the apocalypse
Don’t need no songs playing on the radio
Get my truth from your thrift store halo
It’s the way she walks
The way she talks
Can’t stop thinking
About the girl in the kinks shirt
Take me home, San Francisco
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
Getting what you want can break your heart
Getting what you want can break your heart
Getting what you want is gonna break you
is gonna break you, is gonna break your heart
It’s the way she walks
The way she talks
Can’t stop thinking
About the girl in the kinks shirt
Take me home, San Francisco
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
You and my imagination
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt (Oh)
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt (Oh)
Can’t stop thinking about the girl in the kinks shirt
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
The lady from The Pretenders was married to the man from The Kinks!
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They had a daughter but they were not married. She did marry the guy from Simple Minds!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Hynde#Personal_life
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I didn’t know about the Simple Minds guy.
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LOL neither did I until I wikipedia’d!
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Oops, I need to fire my fact checkers…
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LOL!
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Mike answered this for me. But a cool couple even if they didn’t get married.
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Very bright, reminds me of the 80s. I think I have a crush on the girl in the Kinks shirt too.
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I bought my wife a Kinks shirt so I could sing this song to her!! Kidding…but I could do it.
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Catchy!
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Where Have All The Good Times Gone?
Knew a Dancer once who wore a Kinks shirt which is now a rag on the floor. Uptempo tune in a strip club none the less.
Surprised Ladano isn’t all over this video! bahaha
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Ha!! Yeah, he didn’t say anything.
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Cool concept for a song! Catchy good song.
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I always like to hear the back stories on how songs came to be. I will never listen to a Kinks song again without thinking of “Kinks Shirt”.
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Nice!!
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