Album: Train (1998)

Charted: 15

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Songfacts®:

• In this song, Train frontman Pat Monahan sings about an odd and strangely alluring girl named Virginia. Among her quirks: wearing high heels when she exercises and drinking coffee at midnight.
  
  This song was inspired at least partially by one of Monahan's friends, who according to Pat, would make up all these stories about stuff that Pat supposedly did. Monahan says the song isn't supposed to be about one woman, but rather, several people.
• This was the song that got Train rolling after years of struggle. Formed in San Francisco in 1994, they played small venues for a few years and in 1996 recorded their first, self-titled album, which included "Meet Virginia." They couldn't get a record deal, so they released it independently. In 1997 they got some gigs opening for acts like Hootie & the Blowfish and Barenaked Ladies, which attracted the attention of Columbia Records, which released the album in 1998 with a re-ordered tracklist. Columbia pegged their song "Free" as the most hit-worthy and issued it as their first single. It flopped, but when they tried again with "Meet Virginia," it caught on and slowly rose up the charts as the band kept touring. It reached its peak of #20 in the US in January 2000, nearly four years after it was first recorded.
  
  Train's next album was Drops Of Jupiter, released in 2001. The title track was a big hit, and many of their new fans went back in their catalog to discover "Meet Virginia." In concert, Monahan would sometimes joke by introducing "Meet Virginia" as a new song.
• The entire album cost just $25,000 to make, financed by the band. Fortunately, songs like this one don't need elaborate production, so they were OK on a budget. Their next album, Drops Of Jupiter, was much more involved and had a big-name producer: Brendan O'Brien, who had worked with Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, and Neil Young.
• Rebecca Gayheart, known at the time as the Noxzema Girl and for her appearances on Beverly Hills, 90210, plays the role of Virginia in the video. Directed by Luke Scott, it was Train's first music video and helped the band get exposure on both MTV and VH1.
• One of the girls who inspired this song was Train bass player Charlie Colin's girlfriend, Amber. According to Monahan, they were playing softball against the Counting Crows when Amber showed up from a formal event and played shortstop in a dress and high heels, thus the line, "Wears high heels when she exercises."

Comments: 22

• Anon from UsaThis is my favorite song of all time! I feel like it was written about me even though that’s silly.
• Phillip from London, UkSounds to me like it was inspired by Virginia Giuffre (Roberts)...timeline is right on, too.
• AnonymousI don’t know when you had an opportunity to be around the woman you sing about the tribute however is beautiful perhaps she could write a song about the appreciation
  Most of life is a lot of fun and the rest of it is like going to school
  Hugs and kisses from one Virginia that emotionally enjoyed your performance — on the international Vibing Highway known as telecommunication — i’m better alive and I’m sure you are too.
• Hen from VirginiaThink of the song as the state of Virginia. Can definitely be interpreted that way “the shape of her body, unusual” and””she wants to be the queen” and “I don’t really want to be the queen” - no formal dress, doesn’t mind smoking (tobacco history) …. So many interpretations you can consider in any artists song, regardless of intent
• Christy Erie Pa from Erie,pa Maybe we should ask pat about his friend Freddy and where he got a lot of these lyrics and songs from
• James from Southwick MaI think that Virginia , in the song, is actually a figment of his imagination . I believe Virginia is the girl of his dreams. The girl he wishes he would meet. Toward the end, there is a lyrics that says "I can't wait to.... meet Virginia" .
• Terry from Grafon, WiThis song will always take me back to the age of 16, driving around in my ex-boyfriend Blake's blue truck. I hear the first few lines, and I can't help but close my eyes, take a deep breath, and look back on my teenage years. The cold Wisconsin air, the shift of the truck changing gears, him holding my hand as I sang this song under my breath....everywhere we went, we would hear this song. It reminds me of a guy falling for a girl when she is obviously less than perfect. He sees the beauty in all of her little quirks, and thinks they're all beautiful. Blake always managed to make me feel like I was someone important, and someone beautiful, and although I was different from a lot of girls my age, there was nothing wrong with that. That's what he loved about me. I will always treasure this song and it will always take me back to a time I will never forget :)
• Jessie from Saldotna, AkA song can mean 100 things to 100 very different
  people but this song really touches me.
  I'd have to say it's one of my favorites.
  
  Well she wants to be the queen
  Then she thinks about her scene
  Pulls her hair back as she screams
  I dont really wanna be the queen
  
  This part of the song creates a image
  in my head that says "Hay, this is a girl with
  really low self easteam and her past doesn't help it."
  
  I think Train did a amazing job with this song.
  I love it.
• Matt from Ashland, VaThis Song Makes me think of a friend or old friend Kelsey...
  
  He loves her for everything but she doesn't love herself...
  
  She wants things she can't have but the people and things aren't her and she knows it... dispite it all and all her imperfections and qurks. she's beutiful. The writer loves her
• Kim from Norfolk , VaI think that this song is about his imagined ideal girl. She's all these fabulous and sort of quirky things, but he is realistic too - he knows girls are sometimes frustrated and unhappy, but he loves that nonetheless. He "can't wait to Meet Virginia." She his ideal woman. Maybe she is an amalgam of women he's known or just things he'd have in a woman if he could design her.
• Mickey from Mars, PaThis song is like something said by a man who really loves a girl for everything she does and doesn't do. It might be because I'm a writer, but I can see clear pictures of the couple, and her, and just everything. I get goosebumps listening to this!
• Renee from New York, NyThis song is amazing.. it makes me wanna cry because it's so beautiful... and so damn true.
  
  we all can relate
• Lorena from Melbourne, AustraliaThis is song is amazing.. I first heard it when my sister played it to me about 3 years ago and I just came across it again recently.. I love the way this guy describes this girl, it's obvious he loves her deeply... its a good song to relate to when you're having a (deleted) day... lovee it!!
  -Lorena, Melbourne, AUS
• Mandie from Spokane, WaMeet Virginia,? from Train?s first album, also inspires some unusual images about a woman who ?wears high heels when she exercises? and ?only drinks coffee at midnight.? This song, Monahan said, came from some of the ?interesting? people he?d met. ?I was new to San Francisco and I actually watched a woman play baseball in high heels and a long dress. I saw how confident women were, but also how self-conscious they were. It?s difficult to be a woman. I have incredible respect for women and the struggles they have in this man?s world. I was raised by an incredible woman and I?m in love with an incredible woman and I watch my daughter. It?s tough sometimes, I think, for a woman to be herself and want to be special but not really want to be the queen of anything - just herself - and not apologize for it. A woman friend of mine told me that the song always made her feel like she was allowed to think of herself as beautiful.? Now this was a quote straight from http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/train-123.htm. I totally agree, I have meet some great woman out there and I know as a indepent woman, its hard to live in this "man's wold" but I love how this song describes it! I love this song. I, along with every other woman out there have a lil Virgina inside too! So just keep beig you, no matter who stands in your way!
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScThose lyrics are pretty amusing.
• Valerie from Evansville, InAw, I love this song! It always makes me think of my friend Stephanie from junior high- it was her favorite song at the time. The lyrics are so amusing- "She smokes a pack a day, wait that's me, but anyway..."
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScKate from san diego, I think i agree with your interpretation of the song. i first heard it when my sister was listening to it. I think she knew about the song before it really caught on. My sister's name is Ursula though, not virginia.
• Kate from San Diego, United Statesi think the song is kinda obviously about a sad, eccentric girl
  
  when she says she "i dont really wanna live this life"
  i think shes either contemplating suicide or stuck in a life she doesnt want but doesnt know how to fix it
  
  the narrator is in love with her despite her problems
  
  this is my fav song
• Jim from South Bend, InI forgot to mention my mom's name...you guessed it, Virginia!
• Jim from South Bend, InI think "Meet Virginia" was about my mom. I don't know how they knew her, but get this. She and I used to sit and rip on President Clinton all the time. She drank coffee late at night and I could never understand how she could sleep. She had severe scoliosis so her spine was actually shaped like an "S", (the shape of her body - unusual). "I don't really want to live this life", (here is the weird part), she died October 15, 1998, after a long illness, three days before I heard the song for the very first time. It had just hit the top 40 in South Bend.
• Shawn from Loganville, GaOn Storytellers, Pat (the lead singer) said that he wrote this song about how beautiful women are without make up, and how he loves imperfection.
• Keri from Lansing, MiThis song is about a girl who wants to be something that she is actually is not and then she relizes what she wants to do is actually not what she wants to do.

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