Tag: She’s About A Mover

I’ve known this song since the 1980s, when I heard it many times on oldies channels at work. This Doug Sahm-written song has stuck with me through the decades. I thought about it recently when I ran across an ’80s or ’90s live version that he and keyboard player Augie Myers played. 

This song is a blend of Tex-Mex and garage rock, one of the best examples of 1960s garage rock. It’s bigger than the chart position suggests. It paved the way for the Tex-Mex sound to seep into rock, a little taste inside a pop single. Sixty years on, it still works.

It was 1964, the height of Beatlemania, and producer Huey P. Meaux had an idea. The British Invasion was cleaning up the charts, so why not package a bunch of Texas guys to look like they’d just flown in from England, but still sound like San Antonio? He slapped the name Sir Douglas Quintet on Doug Sahm’s new band, dressed them in matching suits, and let people assume they were another English import.

The band cut this song in Houston’s Gold Star Studios in late ’64. It was a fast, live-in-the-room recording session. Sahm had the riff for a while, but the groove came together when the drummer, Johnny Perez, locked into that hypnotic drum beat, pushing the song forward.

Augie Meyers’ organ was the hook. Huey Meaux knew the song’s repetitive, almost trance-like quality would make it stand out on the radio. The song peaked at #13 on the Billboard 100 and #15 in the UK in 1965. The song was named the number one Texas song by Texas Monthly. 

Doug’s voice has a Ray Charles-like sound, and they ended up with 3 top 40 songs and 4 songs in the Billboard 100.

I usually try to add live versions of the song in the era it came from, but I could not pass this one up…it’s just TOO good.  Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers are doing their thing in Austin, Texas, in 1975. I can’t stop listening to this version. Sahm had a great stage presence. 

She’s About a Mover

She was walking down the street
Looking fine as she could be, hey, hey
She was walking down the street
She’s looking fine as she could be, hey, hey
You know I love you, baby
Oh hear what is say, hey, hey

She walked right up to me
Said, “Hey, big boy, what’s your name?”
She walked right up to me
Said, “Hey, big boy, what’s your name?” Hey, hey
We had love and conversation
Oh yeah, what I say, hey hey

She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
Hey, hey

She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
You know I love you, baby
Oh yeah, what I say, yeah, hey

Now, she walked right up to me, talkin’ about me
She said, “Hey, big boy, what’s your name?”
Well, she walked right up to me
Said, “Hey, big boy, what’s your name?”
We had love and conversation
Oh yeah, what I say, hey hey

She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover
She’s about a mover, hey