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Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

"Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)"
Single by XTC
from the album Black Sea
ReleasedDecember 1980
Recorded1980
StudioThe Town House, London
GenrePop[1]
Length3:57
LabelVirgin
Songwriter(s)Andy Partridge
Producer(s)Steve Lillywhite
XTC singles chronology
"Take This Town"
(1980) 		"Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)"
(1980) 		"Respectable Street"
(1981)
Official audio
"Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" on YouTube
Audio sample

"Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" is a song by the British band XTC. Written by frontman Andy Partridge, it was released as the band's 12th single in December 1980, charting in the UK Singles Chart at No. 16 on 21 February 1981,[2] being XTC's biggest single chart success to that date. The song also reached the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at No. 20.[3]

The band performed the song on Top of the Pops[4] and the Saturday morning show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.[5] The tune itself was recorded at The Town House in London in June 1980. The 7" single is packed with a poster, showing a Sgt. Rock comic. The song is featured on the compilation albums Waxworks: Some Singles 1977–1982, The Compact XTC, and Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92.

Partridge has since expressed disdain with the song saying: "... [it] embarrasses the shit out of me. Of all the tunes that I've written, that made it to tape, this makes me cringe the worse. It's not the music, that's solid enough. All the instruments in the track mesh nicely enough, but the lyrical sentiment, oh dear. It was supposed to be ironic, you know, nerdy comic fan imagines two dimensional hero can help him with his unsuccessful chat up technique. It did not work. It just came out limply crap. Virgin insisted it be included in this set, otherwise I'd gladly erase it from our history. We all make mistakes".[6]

Track listing

  1. "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" [single edit] (Andy Partridge) (3:36)
  2. "Living Through Another Cuba" (Andy Partridge)/"Generals And Majors" (Colin Moulding) [live medley] (7:52)

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1980) Peak
position
Irish Singles Chart 20
UK Singles Chart 16

References

  1. ^ Woodstra, Chris. XTC - Black Sea (1980) Review at AllMusic. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  2. ^ "XTC - full Official Chart History - Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  3. ^ "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  4. ^ TOTP from the 80s (8 November 2014). "XTC – Sgt Rock Is Going To Help Me (Studio, TOTP)". Retrieved 10 December 2017 – via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ egidio sabbadini (10 April 2010). "XTC - Sgt. Rock-Multi-Coloured [S]wap Shop BBC1 Television 1981". Retrieved 10 December 2017 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ "Chalkhills: Reel by Real: XTC: "SGT. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)"".
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