Diamond wrote this one for the ladies, which made up most of his fan base. David Wild wrote in his book He Is...I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, "When Diamond first recorded the slow, seductively sensitive song in 1967, it solidified his growing connection with his female fan base, many of whom are apparently still following him all these years later, even if they are no longer properly addressed as 'girl.' Diamond has said that the song was written for all those teenaged girls who would show up at his earliest tour dates and vocally express their tremendous support."
An early Neil Diamond song, "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" was part of his second album,
Just For You, produced by his New York City songwriting compatriots Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (among the hits they wrote: "
Be My Baby" and "
Hanky Panky"). It climbed to #10 in America, giving him his biggest hit since "
Cherry, Cherry" a year earlier. Diamond was just getting started, but "Girl" is a great example of how fearless he was as a songwriter, willing to incorporate unusual sounds and lyrics yet still give them pop appeal.
In 1994 a cover by the alternative rock band Urge Overkill was used in Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction, appearing in a famous scene where Uma Thurman's character plays the song on a reel-to-reel tape machine and sings along to it before snorting heroin, which nearly kills her - she's revived by an adrenaline shot to the chest administered by her minder, played by John Travolta (movie fact: to get the shot, Tarantino had Travolta jerk the needle away from Thurman's chest, then reversed it in post).
Diamond, who is very protective of his songs, initially refused to let Tarantino use it because he hated the violent script. He was probably glad he relented. The movie was a huge hit and the soundtrack sold over 3 million copies. It put Diamond back on the cultural radar after a period when his hits had dried up, and certainly boosted his cool factor. Urge Overkill's version reached #59 in America and #37 in the UK, and Diamond's back catalogue got a huge bump in sales.
The Urge Overkill version first appeared on their 1992 EP Stull, released on the independent Chicago label Touch And Go. They only recorded the song because they ran out of originals and needed one more song to fill the EP. When they recorded it, their producer, Mark Kramer from the band Bongwater, told them it would be a hit. Tarantino discovered the song when he picked up a copy of Stull at a record store in Amsterdam. He loved the track and worked it into the overdose scene with Thurman.
By the time Pulp Fiction came out, Urge Overkill had signed with Geffen Records and had released a moderately successful album called Saturation.
Urge Overkill are huge Neil Diamond fans and were thrilled when their cover of his song took off. Their version is sung by group member Nash Kato, who fronts the band along with King Roeser. "I think it made the movie because of the odd, haunting quality we gave it,"
Roeser told Songfacts.
"We did our version of 'Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon' from memory," he added to
Mojo magazine. "The lyrics, I don't even know if they go that way. It speeds up, the fills are all over the place, it's out of tune."
Urge Overkill were also huge fans of Quentin Tarantino and had seen his movie Reservoir Dogs together at a cinema. When they got the call about using "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon," they assumed it was the original Neil Diamond version Tarantino was after. They tried to steer Tarantino to one of their original songs, but it was "Girl" he was after.
"The song hit a nerve because it was in the movie," King Roeser said in his Songfacts interview. "We lucked out. I don't think the song would be part of history without it being associated with the movie."
Urge, though, faltered with their next album, Exit The Dragon, released in 1995. It sold poorly and they broke up two years later. In the mid-2000s they started performing again, and in 2010 they performed at a roast for Quentin Tarantino where they played the song and had a chat with the director. They released their next album, Rock & Roll Submarine, in 2011, followed by Oui in 2022.
In addition to Pulp Fiction, these movies have used the song:
War Dogs (2016)
The Upside of Anger (2005)
Sorority Boys (2002)
And these TV series:
Supernatural ("Our Little World" - 2015)
Friends ("The One with the Stoned Guy" - 1995)
Family Ties ("The Fugitive: Part 1" - 1983)