Songfacts®:

• "She's So High" was Blur's first single. It's also the opening song on the band's debut album, Leisure. It peaked at #48 in the UK.
  
  The song explores themes of obsession and infatuation, with the lyrics drawing a parallel between a woman and the intoxicating allure of a drug:
  
  She's so high
  She's so high
  She's so high
  I want to crawl all over her
• This song was one of the first Blur wrote and recorded together. It was initiated by a chord sequence provided by bassist Alex James and finished with lyrics written by guitarist Graham Coxon. The recording session took place at Battery Studios in London under the guidance of producer Steve Lovell.
  
  In his 2007 autobiography, Bit of a Blur, James recalled the sense of achievement the band felt upon completing "She's So High": "It sounded like a record. It was all shiny and shimmering and it floated. We got the tempo spot on. We got the feel spot on. We listened to it a hundred times and played it to all our friends, and also, and especially, to people we didn't like. We were In Business."
• The cover art for "She's So High" was painted by renowned American pop artist Mel Ramos. It features a nude blonde pinup elegantly astride a hippopotamus. The artwork caused considerable controversy, with some fans accusing Blur of promoting sexism. The London borough of Hackney went as far as to impose a ban on posters displaying the painting.
• David Balfe, former keyboardist for The Teardrop Explodes and founder of Blur's label, Food Records, directed the official video for "She's So High." It shows the band performing while surrounded by neon ring lights. Drummer Dave Rowntree humorously recounted making the video for MTV's Blurography in 1996: "The head of Food had this vision. He made this big circle of little neon rings, which was strung on three ropes. There was a man on each, pulling the rope to make it wobble. And he kept shouting, 'I haven't seen the definitive wobble yet!'"
  
  Frontman Damon Albarn wears a T-shirt showing the Penguin Books classic The Thin Man, the 1934 detective novel by American author Dashiell Hammett, throughout the video. The shirt has since become a cult collectible among Blur fans.
• Musically, Albarn has likened "She's So High" to Oasis. In an interview with SPIN in 1997, he quipped: "We know how to make songs like theirs – if you sang our first single 'She's So High' with a Manc accent it'd be an Oasis song, very simple, very driving. Even the lyrics are up to Oasis standards."
  
  Blur and Oasis were frequently depicted as archrivals during the '90s. The two bands infamously competed for the #1 spot on the UK chart in 1995, with "Country House" by Blur beating "Roll With It" by Oasis to the top position in what was dramatically dubbed "The Battle of Britpop."
• Leisure was released in the UK on August 26, 1991. It reached #7 in the country, where it was also eventually certified Gold. The photograph adorning the album cover was taken in 1954 by Charles Hewitt for the British magazine Picture Post. Originally, the image showed two women and was included alongside a fashion feature about bathing hats called "Glamour in the Swim."