Hello, and welcome to Hearing Double, where I compare and contrast two unrelated songs of the same title and decide which title does the most justice!
This week, it’s all about money. We all know money can’t buy happiness, but it may at least muffle some of the sadness for a while. The age-old argument is that wealth provides opportunities for freedom and luxuries. While these are certainly valuable, love is something that money can’t just buy — it’s priceless.
Daryl Hall & John Oates and Gwen Stefani’s respective renditions of “Rich Girl” take different journeys to get to the same conclusion. Daryl Hall & John Oates are much more critical of wealth, while Gwen Stefani romanticizes it. In the end, however, they both decide that wealth isn’t a proper replacement for love.
Daryl Hall & John Oates’ “Rich Girl” was released in their 1976 album “Bigger Than Both of Us.” According to Spotify, this song is their third most popular with 867 million listens.
The upbeat tempo of the music swells to a climax at the first chorus and continues at an even pace for the rest of the song. I can’t quite put it into words, but there’s something uniquely ‘70s about the sound. It’s upbeat, yet it’s not loud, rough or particularly high energy like the music we see take hold in the ‘80s, it’s just easy listening.
Surprisingly, “Rich Girl” was initially written about a man — Hall’s then-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend to be exact. They started writing the song using the word “guy,” but decided “girl” sounded better. I always interpreted the song as a bitter condemnation of a girl who broke one of the duo’s hearts, but it turns out that it’s actually meant as commentary on the rich as a whole.
The main idea expressed in the lyrics is that money can only get you so far in life, and that wealth does not protect you from real hardship. You aren’t exempt from real human experience, even if money is temporarily effective as a Band-Aid.
“Rich Girl” may just be a fun beat to blast on a summer day while driving with your windows down, but the lyrics are very profound. It all circles back to my original argument that wealth has numbing qualities:
“It’s so easy to hurt others when you can’t feel pain”
The duo suggests that other people’s feelings are inconsequential when you have enough money to drown out the not-so-enjoyable moments of the human experience. This verse ends with what feels like the final nail in the heart:
“And don’t you know that a love can’t grow, ooh / ‘Cause there’s too much to give, ’cause you’d rather live / For the thrill of it all, oh.”
Love is about giving and taking, which means you have to be willing to give a little if you want something in return. The symbolic “rich girl” is so out of touch that she can’t even experience true love. It’s the most devastating loss resulting from self-importance: incapability of meaningful human connection.
This is one of my favorite songs of all time, not just because of the smooth and addictive sound, but also because of the social commentary. Love — whether it be romantic, familial, or platonic — is something money just can’t buy. It’s one of the greatest joys of life, but it can be easily tossed aside for material gain if you’re not careful enough.
Ironically, “Rich Girl” is also Gwen Stefani’s third most popular song on Spotify with 365 million listens. This 2004 hit was released as part of Stefani’s first solo album following the hiatus of her band No Doubt in 2003.
If you’ve ever seen “Fiddler on the Roof,” Stefani’s “Rich Girl” will sound very familiar. The melody is based on “If I Were a Rich Man” from the 1964 musical, but with a modern pop spin.
Stefani’s chorus, “If I was a rich girl / Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na” is substituted for the original, “If I were a rich man / Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum,” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Regardless, the melody is the same.
Samples can be amazing when done correctly and with respect to the original composer; I would consider this rendition of “Rich Girl” a good example of this.
The melody is translated into a more modern sound so that it can appeal to younger generations and fit into early 2000s pop trends, but it still maintains the elements of the original song. The lyrics, while clearly a reflection of trends at the time, beg the same question that Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof” wonders: What’s so bad about being rich?
“Think what that money could bring / I’d buy everything / Clean out Vivienne Westwood / In my Galliano gown.”
Imagining what you’d do with disposable wealth can be fun, but ultimately Stefani comes to the same conclusion as Daryl Hall & John Oates:
“All the riches baby / Won’t mean anything / All the riches baby / Won’t bring what your love can bring … Your lovin’ is better than gold.”
Even with all these glorious dreams of wealth and luxury, she sees that nothing is worth more than love. In contrast to Daryl Hall & John Oates, she doesn’t denounce wealth or those who have it. She just thinks that there are more important priorities in life.
The rock duo is inarguably more cynical about wealth than the popstar, though they’re merely taking two different paths to the same destination. Both songs recognize that love is more powerful than money because of its limitations on what it can achieve whereas love is infinite.
Even with an almost 30-year age gap, both renditions of “Rich Girl” do justice to their name. There are clear differences in approach to the subject, but the vision is the same.
That being said, Daryl Hall & John Oates’ version is a hard act to follow. All the elements of greatness are there: a unique and catchy melody, an interesting backstory, powerful vocals and deep meaning. So, as much as I love Gwen Stefani’s modern take on a classic musical, the crown belongs to Daryl Hall & John Oates.
Title Winner: Daryl Hall & John Oates