She Was A Hotel Detective

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name She Was a Hotel Detective
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Back To Skull, Dial-A-Song, tmbg.com (1998), TMBG Clock Radio (as "She Was A Hotel Detective DEMO"), Podcast 26A, John Henry + Factory Showroom
year 1994
first played December 30, 1995 (17 known performances)
run time 3:21
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

We got such a muted response from the second song — most people seemed to think it was a cover of the first song. Sometimes I think the only person who liked that song was Flansburgh. I basically made a demo at home and I played it for him and he was really excited about it. Then we recorded it and even some of our friends were not particularly... interested in it [laughing]. So, I don't know if I should get discouraged or not.
  • At shows, John Flansburgh sang the chorus falsetto, which partly inspired him to write the song "How Can I Sing Like A Girl?". However, on the studio version, Linnell sings with pitch-shifted vocals.
  • Interestingly, the text "Motel Directive Wigue Wigue Wishnick" is inscribed in the leadout groove of 1988's (She Was A) Hotel Detective (EP). This seems to be echoed in the lyric "She read that motel directive".
  • The lines "She didn't care about expensive things / No furs or pearls or fancy cars or diamond rings" are similar to lines from the musical Chicago. In "All I Care About", Billy Flynn sings "I don't care about expensive things / Cashmere coats, diamond rings".

Song Themes

Altered Voice, Conservatism, Death, Falsetto, Gender Issues, Hotel Detective Series, Intelligence, Espionage, Money, Not In Common Time, Occupations, People (Imaginary), Reading, Recycled Material, Weapons, Windows

Videos

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She Was A Hotel Detective is currently ranked #118 out of 1022. (136 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.91)