About The Song
“Hurts So Good” is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing under the stage name “John Cougar”. The song was a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the singer/songwriter. It was the first of three major hit singles from his 1982 album American Fool. The others were “Jack & Diane” and “Hand to Hold On To,” which were all released in 1982. The song was also a critical success with Mellencamp, winning the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male at the 25th Grammy Awards on February 23, 1983.
“Hurts So Good” was written by Mellencamp and George Green, Mellencamp’s childhood friend and occasional writing partner. The song was first conceived, Mellencamp claims, when he had uttered the phrase “hurt so good.” Mellencamp repeated the lines to Green, and they finished the song very quickly. In 2004, Mellencamp expounded on the writing of “Hurts So Good” in an interview with American Songwriter magazine: “George Green and I wrote that together. We exchanged lines back and forth between each other and laughed about it at the time. Then I went and picked up the guitar, and within seconds, I had those chords.”
The song was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, California and was engineered by Don Gehman and George Tutko. Backing Mellencamp were Larry Crane and Mike Wanchic (guitars, backing vocals), Kenny Aronoff (drums), George “Chocolate” Perry (bass) and Dave Parman (backing vocals).
The song hit number one on Billboard’s Hot Tracks mainstream rock chart. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 7, 1982, and, although it failed to make number one, it spent 16 weeks in the top 10, the longest time for any song in the 1980s. It was kept off the top spot by “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. The song was listed at #83 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time.
Video
Lyrics
When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I’m gettin’ older, so much older
I long for those young boy days
With a girl like you
With a girl like you
Lord knows there are things we can do, baby
Just me and you
Come on and make it, uh
Hurts so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
Don’t have to be so exciting
Just tryin’ to give myself a little bit of fun, yeah
You always look so invitin’
You ain’t as green as you are young
Hey baby, it’s you
Come on, girl, now, it’s you
Sink your teeth right through my bones, baby
Let’s see what we can do
Come on and make it, uh
Hurts so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
I ain’t talkin’ no big deals
I ain’t made no plans myself
I ain’t talkin’ no high heels
Maybe we could walk around all day long
Walk around all day long, uh
Hurts so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
Hurts so good, c’mon baby now
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
Hey, hey