Songfacts®:

• This is a story about a guy who dreams about going out with a rocker chick, but realizes that she doesn't know he exists. It was written by Bowling for Soup lead singer Jaret Reddick and producer Butch Walker. When Songfacts spoke with Reddick in 2010, he explained: "'Girl All The Bad Guys Want' was my very first co-write ever, and me and Butch Walker sat in a room and literally wrote that song in 30 minutes. I mean, it was done. And then we turned around and did that same thing with 'Almost' and 'When We Die.' Both those songs were written in one evening over the span of about two hours. So when an idea is there and you've got a great concept and a line sort of appears there, sometimes it just flows out of you and sometimes it's a beating. It definitely varies. But more often than not, whenever one just comes out of you, it's going to be one of the stronger ones."
• This song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal, putting Bowling For Soup in the company of No Doubt (who won for "Hey Baby," Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, and 'N Sync. The band wore the powder blue tuxedos they sported on the Drunk Enough to Dance album cover to the ceremony and declared that they had "no chance to win." The nomination gave them a great deal of credibility, but it didn't go to their heads. Reddick told us: "Back in 2003, when that song was a hit and we got nominated for the Grammy, everybody's like, 'Hey, do you have a lot of pressure on you to try to do that again?' And if you sit and think about that, then really what are you going to deliver to people? You gotta just do what you gotta do."