My Top 1000 Songs #884: The Girl I Can't Forget

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I'm kinda surprised I don't have more Fountains of Wayne songs here; I think that's a sign of restraint on my part, with so many great songs to choose from (or maybe just a tragic oversight I need to correct with my remaining selections). And it's particularly amazing that they could come up with a song as delightful as "The Girl I Can't Forget" and leave it on the shelf (eventually popping up on the 2005 outtakes/b-sides collection Out-Of-State Plates, right up there with Odds & Sods on the I-can't-believe-these-are-the-songs-they-didn't-release meter).

"Girl" is a bit of a novelty number, a colorful narrative of a drunken date-gone-terribly-wrong, but I'm a sucker for a romantic meet-cute pop song (shades of "Christmas Wrapping" here), catchy as all hell, and a happy ending to boot. The lyrical hook--"It was the night I can't remember, with the girl I can't forget"--is a drop-dead keeper. Though I don't know if they came up with it before or after the Magnetic Fields, who drop a similar "The night you can't remember, the night I can't forget" on 69 Love Songs.

Fun cover from some DC musicians: