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"So Young" is a pop song written by Joe Camilleri, Jeff Burstin and Tony Faehse and recorded by Australian blues, rock and R&B band Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons. The song was the group's fifth single, released in September 1978 as the lead single from a 12" EP also entitled So Young (1978).

Camilleri said of the song "It's Reggae meets son of Blues, with many different time changes. It took the band a week to learn because it was so intricate and not like anything else we'd tried." He claimed to have written the song in June 1978 and said on its release that it was not necessarily about being young, but about "innocence". He added: "For that reason the vocals are softer. I was trying to make the sound compatible with the sentiments expressed in the song."

'So Young' peaked at number 48 on the Kent Music Report in Australia, becoming the band's first top 50 single. "Everyone said that should have been a hit," Camilleri commented the following year, "but no one bought the bloody thing." A live version of 'So Young' appeared on the 'free album' included in the first 5,000 Australian pressings of their next album, Screaming Targets. The group also re-recorded the song for the internationally released version of Screaming Targets.

Track listing

7" (OZ-11794)

• Side A – "So Young" - 3:33
• Side B – "Long Distance Call" - 3:10

Charts

Cover versions

• Elvis Costello and the Attractions added the song to their live set, and recorded it in the studio, in 1979; their version of the song is included on the album Out of Our Idiot (1987)
• Frankie Miller also played the song live and included it (as 'So Young, So Young') on his 1980 album Easy Money.

Return Home

In Ray Argall's 1987 film Return Home Camilleri has a brief cameo role as a busker on the Glenelg foreshore. At the behest of the character Noel (Dennis Coard), Camilleri plays a snippet of 'So Young'.

References

1. "Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons". Rock on Vinyl. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
2. Camilleri quoted in Rebecca Batties ‘So Young and oh so different’ Melbourne Age 6 October 1978 p. 42
3. Camilleri quoted in Stuart Coupe, ‘Jo Jo Zep back – with a bonus’ Sun Herald 1 July 1979 p. 86
4. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. p. 156. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
5. Stuart Coupe ‘Nick’s “not a musician” Sun Herald 23 September 1979 p. 106
6. Rob Patterson ‘Down Under Musicians Take on the States’ Nobleseville Ledger, 31 July 1980 p. 13

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