Bad Girl Song



"So come on, baby, let down your guard.

When your date's in the bathroom,

I'll slip you my card!

I can tell just by looking

That you've got it hard--

For ME!"

- "Special", Lucy the Slut from Avenue Q.

A subtrope of the "I Am" Song, in which a female character establishes her character... and her character is all about living freely, especially sexually. How explicitly that sexuality is addressed mostly depends on how old the musical is.

In musicals, usually sung by the secondary female character (soubrette). She might be anything from a prostitute to a Good Bad Girl.

Film

 * "Cause I'm a Blonde" from Earth Girls Are Easy (sung by Julie Brown) Also, "Brand New Girl" (also sung by Julie Brown), which is about a Good Bad Girl teaching the Good Girl heroine how to act bad to get her boyfriend's attention. ("Your beauty's fresh and wholesome, but science has a cure!")
 * "Naughty But Nice" from The Belle of New York.
 * Although a preexisting song, "Why Don't You Do Right?" serves as this for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * Subverted. She's not bad, she's just drawn that way.
 * "I Wanna be Evil" from Kinky Boots. Sung by Lola (despite being a drag queen).
 * "Sooner Or Later" as performed by Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy.
 * "Perfect Isn't Easy" from Oliver and Company.

Music
"Ere my verses I conclude
 * "Private Dancer" by Tina Turner.
 * "Call Me" by Blondie. The singer is a girl, and she's asking for a call. Get the picture?
 * "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer, anyone?
 * Pretty much any song by Beyonce after her split from Destiny's Child. Grrl Power attached to a danceable beat and long legs.
 * "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay":

I'd like it known and understood

Though free as air, I'm never rude

I'm not too bad and not too good!"


 * Tata Young's Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy
 * The Pussycat Dolls "Doncha"
 * "Shove" by L7 from the Tank Girl soundtrack.

Theatre

 * "I Cain't Say No" from Oklahoma!.
 * "You Can Always Count on Me" from City of Angels.
 * "The Real Love of My Life" from Brigadoon.
 * "It's All the Same" and "Aldonza" from Man of La Mancha.
 * "Special" from Avenue Q.
 * "My Body, My Business" from The Life.
 * "Out Tonight" and Maureen's half of "Take Me Or Leave Me" in Rent.
 * "Bring On The Men" from Jekyll and Hyde. Also "The Girls of the Night," which is a lament sung by prostitutes about their circumstances.
 * "Queenie Was A Blonde" for Queenie and "Look At Me Now" for Kate, from Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party.
 * In "Always True to You (In My Fashion)" from Kiss Me Kate, Lois sings that even though she's sleeping around, she's still true to Bill somehow.
 * "Does Your Mother Know?" in Mamma Mia- almost a subversion of the trope, since it's more of a "you're not going to get it from me" song even though Tanya spends the scene teasing the male characters.
 * "I Want To Be Bad" from Follow Thru.
 * "Shady Lady Bird" from Best Foot Forward.
 * Variation (and/or possible subversion)- The song "Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is sung by Janet "SLUT!" Weiss who is both the main female character and a pretty innocent girl... until Frank gets to her, that is.
 * "Lovely Ladies" from Les Misérables, which is literally about prostitutes.
 * "Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts" from Whistle Down the Wind: "Those good girls never know what they're missing / But us bad girls almost always do." (What exactly it is they're missing ranges from peroxide hair to "some real good times.")
 * "A Little Brains, A Little Talent" from Damn Yankees.
 * And "Whatever Lola Wants".
 * "I Wanna Be Good 'N' Bad" from Make a Wish.
 * "Please Don't Make Me Be Good" from Fifty Million Frenchmen.
 * "I'll Show Him" from Plain and Fancy, in which an Amish maiden vows to do "sinful" things to get her man.
 * "A Lady Must Live" from America's Sweetheart.
 * "Raunchy" from 110 in the Shade. Although it is sung by the main character, who is DEFINITELY not a bad girl, she sings it while flirting with the idea of being one for a while.
 * "Turn Back O Man" from Godspell is traditionally performed this way.
 * "Reciprocity" from Seventeen, a Good Bad Girl's interpretation of The Golden Rule.
 * "Any Kind Of Man" from Sometime. (Mae West was singing this number in 1918.)
 * "The Lorelei" from Pardon My English, except in the original production, which made the ill-advised decision to change it into a more generic comic duet. No wonder it flopped.
 * "Twice in Love Every Day" from The Likes Of Us.
 * "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" from Grease.
 * "My Picture in the Papers" from The Golden Apple.
 * "Hey, Big Spender" from Sweet Charity. About dancers (including those of the lap variety), not prostitutes, but certainly about the fun, laughs and good times that you can have with said dancers.
 * Though it is a bit of a subversion in that none of the girls singing are happy about it - the song is traditionally performed with very deadpan, bored faces and singing styles, despite the bouncy, seductive song.
 * Natalie's section of "Wish I Were Here" in Next to Normal; she's gone from a stressed student to an even more stressed club-goer who routinely steals medication from her bipolar mother.
 * Depending on the version of the musical, "A Lotta Locomotion" from Starlight Express has elements of this: except for Dinah, who establishes herself as a wholesome, hardworking waitress, the coaches characterize themselves in terms of the vices they enjoy. ("A Whole Lotta Locomotion," however, is a Chorus Girls song.)
 * "The Heat is on in Saigon" from Miss Saigon has a few verses sung by the prostitutes, along with the soldiers.
 * "The Girl Gets Around" from Footloose.
 * "Laura de Maupassant" from Hazel Flagg.
 * Nonono from the Slovak musical Adam šangala.

Web Original

 * The Batterys Down has "Takin' Off," which is sung by a group of strippers.

Western Animation

 * From Batman the Brave And The Bold, No one does it better than the Birds of Prey.
 * The song "I'm Me" from Phineas and Ferb, sung by Vanessa, can be seen in this light, but only if you use the Getting Crap Past the Radar interpretation of the apparently meaningless lyrics.

Video Games

 * "Pleather For Breakfast" from the No More Heroes soundtrack.