"Valley Girl" is a song by American musician Frank Zappa and his then-14-year-old daughter, Moon Zappa. The song appeared on Zappa's 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch and was released as a single, becoming his sole Top 40 hit.
Background
The track resulted from the combination of a guitar riff that Frank had composed and Moon's desire to work with her father. According to Zappa biographer Kelly Fisher Lowe, Frank woke Moon in the middle of the night and took her to a studio to recreate conversations that she had had with friends. The lyrics were a deliberate attack on the slang and behavior of stereotypical valley girls. Zappa stressed that it was not a happy song, and that he hated the San Fernando Valley, calling it "a most depressing place." Moon supplied Frank with much of the content, speaking typical "valley girl" or "Valspeak" phrases she heard at "parties, bar mitzvahs, and the Galleria." Musically, the song is atypical for Zappa because of its conventional structure compared to his other compositions, and is played entirely in time signature with the exception of the groove at the very end.
Commercial release
"Valley Girl" was picked up by KROQ-FM, who obtained an acetate disc before release. Zappa praised the station's original programming but feared it would lead to others copying it, adding, "I would hate for it to become another service, freeze-dried to other stations." Moon was a regular KROQ listener and persuaded the station to play the track during an interview. There was an immediate response from the public, and the song began receiving regular airplay. The song was Zappa's only Top 40 single in the United States, peaking at #32 in the BillboardHot 100, although he had charted hits in other parts of the world. The song was also included on the 1995 compilation albumStrictly Commercial. In the U.S. the B-side was "You Are What You Is", but in other territories it was "Teen-Age Prostitute." Promotional copies contained the album and single versions of the song.
Cultural response
Though intended as a parody, the single popularized the Valley Girl stereotype nationwide. Following the single's release, there was a significant increase in "Valspeak" slang usage, whether ironically spoken or not. In particular, the film Valley Girl capitalized on this cultural curiosity. Zappa expressed concern that, despite his rich body of music, he was seen as a "novelty" artist because of songs like "Valley Girl" and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow". At the time of the single's release, Moon said, "I am not a valley girl, but I guess that is my claim to fame." Mimi Pond created a comic book about the song, The Valley Girl's Guide to Life, which launched her career. A parody, entitled "Valley Dudes", was recorded in 1982 by The Straight A's.
