Since then, it's been a cultural touchstone, the declaration of being "too sexy" for something now part of the American pop cultural fabric.
It received a lyrical shout-out from Jay-Z on his era-defining 2001 LP The Blueprint, was part of the dialogue on The West Wing, soundtracked The Smurfs 2 and added a touch of glitter absurdity to a pitch for the Toyota Camry.
He took his shirt off and started singing "I'm too sexy for my shirt" to the bass line. Phil Spalding, bass: When you listen to "I'm Too Sexy," the bass strings sound like rubber bands.
I'm a really hard player – I really hit the guitars I play.
Richard Fairbrass: It was the first time we'd ever made any money, so we had a holiday in Saint Lucia.
There was loads and loads of homophobia in Saint Lucia at the time, so we decided to leave.
So we formed a little independent label with the plugger to service this one record. We were funding everything – we borrowed the money through friends and a bank loan. It just had a life of its own, like "Gangnam Style" or "Moves Like Jagger" – these big songs that come out of nowhere.
I've probably done bigger and better things, but we were driving around in vans going to local radio and plugging away and doing … " I at the time was wearing almost a semi-see-through body stocking thing.Aronowitz: It was a learning curve, definitely, for all of us. He was putting them in all these crazy, outrageous bubble-wrap costumes. Fred Fairbrass: As I said, we'd just come back from New York. I think people use that expression even if they've never heard the song.Aronowitz: We did a big tour of the States, about six weeks. It was literally a different plane and a different city every day.But if you gave the janitor guy some money, he'd open it up at night, on the understanding you didn't put any lights on and you didn't put on the heating. Fred Fairbrass: We had to work from the lights that came off the equipment and the little spotlights in the studio.Fred Fairbrass: Finally, we started playing the song to some record companies and all the record companies said, "No." Every single label said, "Yeah, this isn't going to work." And we just thought, "They're not right." …