Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon

Album: Just For You (1967)
Charted: 10
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  • Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Love you so much, can't count all the ways
    I'd die for you, girl, and all they can say is
    "He's not your kind"

    They never get tired of puttin' me down
    And I never know when I come around
    What I'm gonna find
    Don't let them make up your mind
    Don't you know

    Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Please, come take my hand
    Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Soon, you'll need a man

    I've been misunderstood for all of my life
    But what they're sayin', girl, just cuts like a knife
    "The boy's no good"

    Well, I finally found what I've been looking for
    But if they get the chance, they'll end it for sure
    Sure they would
    Baby, I've done all I could
    It's up to you

    Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Please, come take my hand
    Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Soon, you'll need a man

    Ah girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Please, come take my hand
    Girl, you'll be a woman soon
    Soon, you'll need a man Writer/s: Neil Diamond
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 13

  • Adriana Loborec from CroatiaFor me, it's not so much the lyrics that give me the creeps, but the tonality of his voice and that faint half-salivating sigh. Reminds me of older guys who tried to coerce me to sex with zero regard for my personality and my actual needs. In my experience at least, the older guys were worse than the young ones - much more manipulative. Those memories come up when listening to this song.
  • Carmen Araujo from NetherlandsH (ugh) Laurie, it takes one to smell one. Grow up, dude.
  • Von D from United KingdomI don't so much think it's the issue here is that the song is creepy because of the pedo connotations, I think the creepy issue here is the implication that because a young woman is growing and becoming herself she will 'need' a man. Sounds like he's pressuring her, 'you're growing into a young woman you're going to need a man' so I can understand the negative connotations here.
  • Lucia from New JerseyThe original is pretty good, but I prefer the Urge Overkill version. Through the movie Pulp Fiction is when I first heard it. My older brother even bought the soundtrack and I kept playing that track as crazy. I love the lyrics so much and I find it touching.
  • IrreverentJust throwing this out there for those who keep trying to call pedophile...pretty sure the guy in the song is supposed to be around the girl's age. Even says she was told "The boy's no good" indicating he, too, was young
  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenIf the girl will "be a woman soon" (Safe to assume she's around 17-19), how does that make the singer a pedophile?
  • Carla Nolte from California Oh grow up Hugh Laurie from Cambridge.
  • Austin from United StatesI'm not finding any record of Urge Overkill's album Saturation containing the song Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon. As far as I can tell, it was on a Single CD and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack only.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 2nd 1967, "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" by Neil Diamond entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #68; seven weeks later on May 21st, 1967 it peaked at #10 {for 1 week} and spent 11 weeks on the Top 100...
    Between 1966 and 1988 he had fifty-six Top 100 records; thirteen made the Top 10 with two reaching #1, "Crackin' Rosie" for 1 week in 1970 and "Song Sung Blue" for 1 week in 1972...
    He just missed having a third #1 when "Love On the Rocks" peaked at #2* {for 3 weeks} in 1981...
    Plus he almost had three more records make the Top 10 when "Play Me", "If You Know What I Mean", and "Yesterday's Songs" all peaked at #11...
    * The three weeks that "Love On the Rocks" was at #2, the #1 record for those three weeks was "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon.
  • Violet from VirginiaI do not understand anyone thinking anything negative about this song. I really don't. As for Hugh Laurie, is that YOU, House? lol
  • Alistair from New York, NyHugh, I used to feel the same way about this song, but that was because I only heard the refrain and never really listened to the lyrics. Also, maybe I was too young to appreciate it. I actually listened to the lyrics of the song recently and suddenly it is a new favorite of mine.

    The use of the word 'girl' is a little bit misleading, but it reflects the way we use the term in our society, or at least in the States. A 'girl' who is 17,18,19, even 21 years old is not really referred to as a 'woman', these late teen and college age females are still 'girls'. There is some ambiguity in the way the terms are used, but typically people don't start referring to an adult female as a 'woman' until her mid to late 20s. If someone pointed at a 20 year old female on the street, for example, they would most likely say "that girl over there" not "that woman over there", but a 30 year old female they would usually say "that woman". I think that is more the way the terms are used in this song, but it is clear anyway from the lyrics that the song is referring to a 'girl' who is at least in her late teens, as the girl and the 'man' in the song have an apparently public romantic relationship: "and all they can say is, he's not your kind ... they never get tired of putting me down etc".

    The song poignantly describes the experience of many couples where a young woman and a man several years older fall in love with each other, but all the people in her life that care about her are naturally suspicious of him and want to break up the relationship. I think if the age gap is ten years or less then the relationship is within the range of 'normal', with ten years being close to the outer limit before 'abnormal', 'unhealthy', 'creepy' territory is reached, but for many couples where the man is 5-10 years older, they go through this situation where the family imagined their 'girl' falling in love with a 'boy', and suddenly she brings home a 'man' that she is in love with and it is hard on everyone involved. Just my thoughts.

    I feel kind of guilty for being a hater of this song in the past, when it is actually a really sweet song.
  • Hugh Laurie from Cambridge, United KingdomDon't know about you blokes but this song is creepy. It's almost as if the guy in the song is a pedeofile.
  • Mark from Dublin, IrelandCliff richard recorded a great cover of thiss track in the late sixties, cliff also recorded a number of other diamond classics "ill come running" "i get the feeling" "just another guy" and "put my mind at ease" amongst others...Cliff also sang "girl youll be a woman soon" during his wanted tour 2003/04 because the fans had requested it
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