Next time you stick your fork into a pancake, think of rockers Daryl Hall and John Oates – who pulled off the greatest gender-bender switch in the history of rock ’n’ roll.
Turns out their iconic 1976 hit “Rich Girl” was written about a GUY…who Oates claims was the spoiled son of a pancake tycoon!
The song’s lyrics go: “You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far, ’cause you know it don’t matter anyway. You can rely on the old man’s money, you can rely on the old man’s money…”
In a recent interview, Oates revealed that the song was written about a wealthy restaurant heir he called a “burn-out.”
Hall was even more direct in an interview with “American Songwriter” when he divulged that the tune was written about an ex-boyfriend of his then-girlfriend Sara Allen.
“His name is Victor Walker,” Hall recalled. “He came to our apartment and he was acting sort of strange. His father was quite rich. I said, ‘This guy is out of his mind, but he doesn’t have to worry about it because his father’s gonna bail him out of any problems he gets in.’”
His father had opened the first Original Pancake houses. Victor, now 62, and his two brothers followed in their dad’s restaurateur footsteps.
The tune the flapjack flipper inspired became the first No. 1 single for Hall and Oates.
Fortunately, before releasing it, Hall says he realized: “You can’t write, ‘You’re a rich boy’ in a song, so I changed it to a girl!”
