Good Girls Don't (song) - Lyrics and Music

Lyrics and Music

The lyrics, such as the refrain "She'll be telling you 'good girls don't but I do,'" were considered misogynistic by some critics. However, Joyce Canaan of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies wrote that this line succinctly captures the transformation of teenage girls' representations of their sexual practices; while they want to be seen as "good girls", even good girls may engage in practices not corresponding to established moral standards. Fieger has stated that "All we were doing in songs like the naughty 'Good Girls Don't' was reflecting the way 14-year-old boys feel. And there's a little 14-year-old boy in all of us. I think that's why the record did so well." Other lyrics that created controversy included the lines:

"And she makes you want to scream; wishing you could get inside her pants" (this line was re-recorded as "wishing she was givin' you a chance" on the "clean" single release), and:

And it's a teenage sadness

Everyone has got to taste.

An in-between age madness

That you know you can't erase

Til she's sitting on your face.

The "clean" single edit also changed this last line to "when she puts you in your place", which led to criticism this changed the meaning of the song. Spin critic Doug Brod claimed that another song from Get the Knack, "That's What the Little Girls Do" was the Knack's own answer to "Good Girls Don't". Like some other power pop songs, such as Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone" and "Sunday Girl", as well as The Beatles' "Please Please Me" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand", the drumming pattern of "Good Girls Don't" employs a double backbeat rhythm.