Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids from the film American Graffiti "She's So Fine"

Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids are the cover band that plays the school dance in the film American Graffiti.

In the film they do a pretty cool song called “She’s So Fine”.
Realizing that they were a cover / revival band, I figure theirs is not the original version of this song. The real life band was cast in the movie because of the authenticity with which they performed the hits of the time period (the time period being ten years prior to the making of the film), the band as “characters” in the movie are playing a highschool dance and are expected to play songs the kids know- rather than original material.

So I’ve been trying to find out who originally did the song. Googling “She’s So Fine” is, of course, no help at all.
Mystery #1: Who originally recorded it?

I’ve tried finding the lyrics by Googling “Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids” “Shes’ So Fine” “Lyrics”, hoping I could find a writing credit on a lyrics page- thinking the writing credit would lead me closer to finding the song.
Mystery #2: Every appearance on the web of lyrics for “She’s So Fine” by “Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids” provides lyrics to a different song!!! The song is titled “She’s So Fine” and it is credited to Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids but it is not the song from the movie!!!

A Sample Clip of the song can be heard here (Track 8, Disc 1).

These are the lyrics provided on every lyrics site I’ve been able to find.

Compare. See? Totally different songs!

So what’s the deal?
Who did the original song?
Why is it that every lyric sheet for the Flash Cadillac version actually provides lyrics for a different song all together???

The original song (“She’s So Fine”) was indeed done by Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids. In fact, two of the band members wrote it. From Flash Cadillac’s website, the biography information on band member Kris Moe:

As for why those sites have the incorrect lyrics (I know you’re looking for the song that starts, “I’ve been searching for a girl/bobby socks and a pony tail…”) I have no idea. Even Googling the correct lines I could remember, and allowing for common variations, produced nothing useful. The correct lyrics to Flash Cadillac’s “She’s So Fine” don’t seem to be out there.

Thanks, Spoons!
Mystery #1 solved, Mystery #2 to remain a mystery I suppose.

You can hear the full song on YouTube.

I’ve spent a little time working on this one today, and while I have no definite answer, I’ve at least come up with a theory.

First of all, what is that other song? Well, it is indeed called “She’s So Fine,” and it’s from Jimi Hendrix’ Axis: Bold as Love album. You can hear the song at this YouTube link. The Wikipedia entry for Axis: Bold as Love devotes a single sentence to “She’s So Fine,” but it is enough to tell us a couple of important facts about the song:

So this “She’s So Fine” was composed and sung by Redding, and was included on Hendrix’ Axis: Bold as Love album.

Those are the facts, and now we get into some (hopefully not too shaky) theory. Here, we need to look at two things: the efforts of well-meaning but misinformed Internet posters, and Flash Cadillac’s reputation as a cover band.

Thinking back to those pre-RIAA-lawsuit days of about ten years ago when file-sharing was popular, it was surprising to see all the errors in the listings of songs available. There were spelling errors, of course (Led Zeplin, Lead Zepelin, Led Zeppllin, etc.), but there were also many errors in songs, artists, and composers. Some were obvious errors (The Who never did “Rocky Mountain High” for example), but others weren’t so obvious.

Let’s take an example. If you were asked, “Who recorded ‘The Loco-Motion’?” your answer would likely give away your age. Older Boomers might respond with “Little Eva”; younger Boomers with “Grand Funk Railroad”; and Gen-X with “Kylie Minogue.” All correct answers, by the way. But what would you do if the person asking said, “No, it was Carole King”? Because this is a valid answer too–Carole King (along with Gerry Goffin) originally wrote “The Loco-Motion,” and recorded and released it in 1980, years after she wrote it, on her Pearls album. So here we have a composer, who has written a song, that is better known by other artists, who has recorded and released it anyway, and it’s one of a number of versions floating around. But given that King’s version never did as well popularity-wise as Little Eva’s, Grand Funk’s, or Kylie Minogue’s, “Carole King,” while a valid answer to the original question, is going to be an unusual answer to the question.

Now, let’s assume that the one person who really and truly believes that Carole King did the one and only version of “The Loco-Motion” worth listening to, puts the MP3 of the King version out there. Somebody else sees it, and hearing a woman’s voice doing it, and knowing that Little Eva did it originally, corrects the artist to Little Eva. Somebody else, who is a lot younger, listens and corrects it to Kylie Minogue. Someone else doesn’t listen, but knows it’s a Grand Funk song, so they correct it too. Pretty soon, King’s version is out there and widespread, but is no longer attributed to King. You simply cannot find King’s version–at least, not using her name.

Hold that thought a moment, and we’ll look at Flash Cadillac’s reputation as a cover band.

We already established that Flash and his boys aren’t always a cover band–they did, after all, originally compose their version of “She’s So Fine.” But most importantly, they are seen as a cover band. I believe this is mentioned in the OP.

But think, for a moment, of Sha-Na-Na. Fifties greasers doing old songs. Another cover band, right? Not quite. Among their early recordings are a number of original compositions, not all of which follow the “greaser doo-wop” model. They are nearly impossible to find nowadays (unless I dig my boxes of old LPs out of the basement, I suppose), but Sha-Na-Na albums like Live at Columbia University and The Night is Still Young, both of which are from the early 70s, contain a number of original compositions as well as covers. But I haven’t been able to find much on Sha-Na-Na’s originals out there. Why? Because Sha-Na-Na is a cover band, isn’t it? :wink:

Now, let’s put those two thoughts together. Flash Cadillac is, and always has been, a cover band. Everybody knows this. Everybody also knows that “She’s So Fine” is a song on rock legend Jimi Hendrix’ Axis: Bold as Love album. So when a well-meaning but misinformed person sees an entry for “She’s So Fine” attributed to Flash, but it’s going on about “bobby socks and a ponytail,” well, whoever posted that must have made a mistake. They must have meant Redding’s version on the Hendrix album, because Flash Cadillac only covers songs–that band doesn’t do originals–and so it must have covered this Redding song. This must be one of their covers. Let’s just fix that up…

And just like you’ll never find Carole King’s version of “The Loco-Motion,” due to the actions of well-meaning but misinformed people, you soon won’t ever find Flash Cadillac’s “She’s So Fine.” See what might have happened?

That’s my theory anyway. I hope it makes sense and that you find it useful. I sure did; it helped give me a break from some boring work.

works for me.

The lyrics are here although I disagree with one or two words.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/m/misc_unsigned_bands/flash_cadillac_the_continental_kids_-_shes_so_fine_crd.htm

A masterful explanation that I’m sure is quite true in many cases.

However, I have a simpler one for the alarming amount of misinformation attached to artists/lyrics etc. floating around on the web: some people are just plain stupid, and in no hurry to correct their stupidity. Others probably know that their suppositions are at least on the shaky side, but that never seems to stop them!

What blows my mind is the volume of woefully incorrect lyric/chords postings out there. I usually work out chords myself with little problem, but if I’m sharing a song I plan to add to our repertoire with my musical partner, it’s convenient to be able to just copy lyrics/chords rather than writing them from scratch.

When it comes to chords, though, I almost always end up doing this myself anyway! It’s bad enough that so many of them are not in the key the original recording is in…many more are just plain wrong regardless of key, to the extent that you really wonder how the people who came up with them could possibly have even listened to the song in question.

The problem, however, is that once said wrong version gets out there, it’s endlessly replicated on dozens of other sites, and one usually searches in vain for an alternate version that has a chance of being accurate.
OK, rant over, and sorry for the diversion!

Sorry to be so late to this party!
The first time I heard “Wait A Minute” by Tim Tam & The Turn Ons, I immediately thought of She’s So Fine by Flash Cadillac. The similarities are very evident, and I immediately noticed that, while “She’s So Fine” is an original song, and a great one at that, it was definitely influenced by Tim Tam & The Turn Ons - Wait A Minute, especially the last part of the song. And I am not surprised, since cover bands like Flash are by and large comprised of record collectors. So check it out!

I’m not hearing much similarity between the two songs, except in a very general sha-la-la doo-woppy way.