Songfacts®:

• This song paints the picture of a street-smart woman who has been through a lot. Romeo Void lead singer Debora Iyall wrote the lyric with her best friend in mind, but it also relates to her life, serving as a pep talk to let her know that trouble will always pass.
  
  "I've earned my scars in my life," she told Golden Age Of Music Video. "That's reflective of me, a person who has never chosen anything for material gain. I'm bohemian and still on the fringe, but I am rich in so many ways, and grateful for it."
• Iyall says the song is also a reaction to the Michael Jackson song "Billie Jean," addressing the woman in the song (Billie Jean) - the girl Jackson keeps telling "the kid is not my son."
  
  Most people hear that song and think of Billie Jean as an opportunist, but Iyall thinks she's the victim, pregnant with the potential father (Jackson) denying his paternity instead of offering support.
• Debora Iyall wrote this song with Romeo Void bass player Frank Zincavage and their producer, David Kahne. The group had released two album and had become known for their 1981 song "Never Say Never," which got airplay on MTV and on lots of college radio stations.
  
  In an interview with Songfacts, Zincavage explained how "A Girl In Trouble" came together. "That song started in the key of A minor, as a mid-tempo rocker similar to an earlier Romeo Void song, 'In the Dark,'" he said. "It went through a variety of permutations; the song eventually became more syncopated and ended up as a fluffier pop tune."
  
  "The producer, David Kahne, was obsessed with having a radio hit," he continued. "To me, it seemed he was annoyed that we had such success with our song 'Never Say Never,' which he wasn't involved with. So, he spent a lot of time screwing around with the production of the tune. Changing the song's chord structure quite a bit. It became a C minor/G minor tune. He re-recorded the drum and bass tracks several times and added wimpy synthesizer parts. But Debora gave a good vocal performance and Benjamin Bossi played a great sax solo which gave it a nice boost. We did make it onto American Bandstand with that song so guess I can't complain too much. The chorus is C minor/G minor/G sharp/F."
• According to Debora Iyall, the streetwise woman in this song was modeled on the main character in the 1977 Mink DeVille song "Cadillac Walk."
• The music video was directed by Julia Heyward, who helmed the Talking Heads video for "Burning Down The House" the previous year. Both videos use big projections with a lot of action in the foreground.
  
  The "A Girl In Trouble" video shows Debora Iyall in the projection with an actress painting her way around the set. She's in peril. A hunter points his rifle at her, and later, she ends up underwater, but she stays calm and carries on.
  
  According to Iyall, the band chose Heyward to direct after she came to the San Francisco Art Institute (where they studied) to speak. But it was their record company that insisted an actress be in the video along with Iyall, who was heavier than most women seen on MTV.
• The song was a minor hit for Romeo Void, climbing to #35 in the US, but their label, Columbia Records, made the icy cold decision to drop them while they were in the middle of a tour. Romeo Void got through that tour but they broke up the following year and never released another album. Iyall put out some solo albums and the band got back together for various projects but never fully reunited.
• This was used in the 2017 first-season episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, "Put That on Your Plate!"