Songfacts®:

• This lascivious rocker was the first hit for John Parr, who spent over a decade toiling in clubs before landing a record deal with Atlantic, which released his self-titled debut album in 1984. Parr is English, but his success came mostly in America, where Atlantic focused their marketing efforts. His photogenic look was part of a marketing strategy that had him recording racy songs accompanied by risqué videos. Parr wrote and recorded this song with that directive. In his Songfacts interview, he explained: "Ahmet Ertegun signed me to Atlantic. He was a great mentor and although he recognized I was quite diverse as an artiste, he saw me as a rocker. 'Sex sells' he would say, hence 'Naughty Naughty.'"
• It took a while for this song to catch on, but it reached #23 US in March 1985. A few months later, Parr released "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)," which went to #1 in the US. He got the gig working on that song after David Foster, who was doing music for the St. Elmo's Fire movie, heard his first album and asked him to come on board.
• Musically, the song is built on a unique keyboard bassline. Parr told us how it happened: "I had my band at Criteria studio in Florida over from England to record my first album. I had all the songs written but we would start each day with a warm-up jam. I had the riff and it would develop each day until 'Naughty Naughty' was born. The keyboard player tried to copy what I was doing on guitar, so did the bass player. They couldn't get it but out of the effort came that hooky riff. A happy accident."