She's About A Mover by Sir Douglas Quintet

Album: The Best Of Sir Douglas Quintet (1965)

Charted: 15 13

License This Song

Songfacts®:

It sounds like hip lingo, but "she's about a mover" is a meaningless phrase. The song was written as "She's A Body Mover."

The band was playing a bar gig in San Antonio, Texas when a lovely lady began dancing in front of the stage. Group leader Doug Sahm said to his bandmates, "She's a body mover, isn't she?," inspiring the song. That title was deemed too risqué for airplay, so they changed it to the nonsensical "She's About A Mover."
The song was written by Doug Sahm, who kept the lyric simple, repeating the same lines over and over. The storyline is rather vague, but the guy in the song connects with the girl for "love and conversation." Sahm didn't go for complex narrative in his lyrics, focused instead on repetition that would make the lines memorable.
This was the breakout hit for the Sir Douglas Quintet, which tried to pass themselves off as British when they released it. The group was from Texas, but British bands were all the rage in 1965 - not just The Beatles, but also The Animals, Herman's Hermits and The Dave Clark Five. So Doug Sahm became the knightly "Sir Douglas," and the band did their best to ape the look and stage moves of these British bands. The band was ordered to stay silent (Sahm couldn't pull off a British accent), but it quickly became clear they were playing a part. (A year earlier, the British group The Nashville Teens posed as American and had a hit with "Tobacco Road.")

Their sound was more Tex Mex than British Invasion. The group had a few more hits - notably "Mendocino" and "The Rains Came" - but never matched the success of "She's About A Mover."
A distinguishing sound on this song is the Vox Continental organ played by Augie Meyer. He based the part on polka music, modifying it with a rock sensibility.
The "Oh yeah, what'd I say" line is a nod to the Ray Charles hit "What'd I Say."
Ringo Starr covered this on his 1983 album Old Wave. Other acts to cover it include Trini Lopez, Roy Head and Doug Clifford.
Among the fans of Doug Sahm, who died in 1999, are Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of Kiss. "I remember Gene saying they used to play 'She's About a Mover,' and seeing dad try on the Axe Bass," Doug's son Shandon told Songfacts. "It was funny as hell. That's how in 1979 I got to meet them. I freaked out."

Comments: 2

Bob Jackson from Plano, Tx.I'm 75 yrs. old trying to go back to my teen and late teen years of living. My teenage years had to have been some of the most enjoyable, happy, carefree of all times living in the late 50's to mid 60's. It was a time unlike now that you could trust almost everyone. You had several close friends hanging around
and always had something to do. I graduated from Borger TX. High School in 1966. I along with my brother and three other friends formed a rock band
named "Chicago Fyre" from summer of 1967 to fall of 1969 when several members had to go back to college.

The drug scene started slow in 1968 in the Panhandle of Texas. The drug of choice was marijuana and alcohol. Marijuana use increased 10-fold over the next few years. Don't know how or where the kids got the stuff. As time went by more and more people (males and females alike) started smoking the stuff. It was not long after that cocaine started being the drug of choice. After that it's been going downward every since than with harder and more dangerous drugs came along.

That's a little history about drugs when they started becoming more and more popular, especially with college aged students.

So, playing in that R & R band, I learned a few things like playing was for fun only. I knew that I didn't want to do that for a career. Like I said, it was for
fun and the experience only. I was the lead singer, my brother played the drums (quite well, I might add), we had an organ player, a bass man, a lead guitar, and rhymin guitar. Of course. we thought we sounded pretty good, not perfect but good enough for people to dance our songs. We played alot of
top ten hits from i960 to 1968. I always regretted that we never had anyone to record any of our music.

So #2, I find if I'm having a down or bad day, to get out my old vinyls to help turn things around. It always works for me to get back to a more positive
frame of reference. Because my love of music of all kinds of it, sometimes my old memories button is pushed and an old school comes to my mind. Thruss,
for just only a few words to the song and I type them into google and wham-O there is the song sometimes with full lyrics. For this song "She's About a Mover", I typed in with this statement "hey, hey, hey, what did I say" and the song came up. If you can remember just a few words, you can get the whole song. Most of the time these songs just surface on their own, out of nowhere.

Hope you can or start to go back when and relearn and relive all those great memories in old songs.
Paul Osman from Liverpool, EnglandIronically on the list this song is next to the Beatles *She's A Woman", which is a clear influence on the SDQ song This song came out a year after the Beatles song yet borrows the shuffle rhythm. Still a good toon in its own right.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

We Are The WorldUSA for Africa

The actor Dan Aykroyd sang on "We Are The World." LaToya Jackson did too, so we know they weren't all that picky.

Walking In MemphisMarc Cohn

"Walking In Memphis" isn't so much about Memphis as it is The Hollywood Cafe in Mississippi, where Marc Cohn encountered an older woman named Murial playing piano.

Susie QCreedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival's first single was a cover of a rockabilly song called "Susie Q." When it became a hit, group leader John Fogerty went into a songwriting frenzy so they wouldn't be one-hit wonders, resulting in hits like "Proud Mary" and "Lodi."

Handle With CareThe Traveling Wilburys

"Handle With Care" started as a George Harrison song with guest appearances by Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, but it went so well the five of them decided to form a group - The Traveling Wilburys - and record an entire album.

I'll WaitVan Halen

Michael McDonald co-wrote the Van Halen song "I'll Wait."

(I've Had) The Time of My LifeBill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" was a huge hit from the movie Dirty Dancing. It was used in the climactic dance scene at the end, which was actually the first scene shot for the movie.