Phoebe singing Smelly Cat at Central Perk.
"Smelly Cat" is a song written by Phoebe Buffay.
In-universe[]
First appeared in the second season episode "The One With The Baby On The Bus" when Phoebe mentions the song in a conversation with Rachel. At the end of the episode she teaches musician Stephanie Schiffer (played by guest star Chrissie Hynde) to play the song. In "The One Where Eddie Moves In" Phoebe makes a professional recording of the song for possible commercial release, though her voice is replaced by an older singer (voice provided by Elizabeth Daily). A short video for the song also appeared in this episode and is included in full as a bonus feature on the second season DVD set. In "The One With Phoebe's Ex-Partner" a character played by guest star Elizabeth Daily uses the song as a jingle for a cat litter commercial.
In the fifth season episode "The One With Joey's Bag" Phoebe meets her estranged father, who reveals he sang a lullaby to her when she was a child, called "Sleepy Girl", which has the same melody as "Smelly Cat".
In "The One With Ross' Inappropriate Song", when meeting Mike's parents, Phoebe sings it to them during dinner because nobody had spoken in seventeen minutes.
Production[]
The lyrics of the song were written by Friends writer Betsy Borns with the help of writer Adam Chase, and the music was composed by Chrissie Hynde and Kudrow.
Lyrics[]
Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat,
It's not your fault!
They won't take you to the vet,
You're obviously not their favorite pet,
You may not be a bed of roses
But you're no friend to those with noses!
I promise you, before we're done,
All the world will smell as one!
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Lisa Kudrow said in Larry King Now that the writers of Friends penned the lyrics to "Smelly Cat", but she came up with the tune for it and all of her character's song.
- The "Smelly Cat Medley" track on the Friends Again soundtrack, credited to Phoebe Buffay & The Hairballs (featuring the Pretenders), features a recording of the scene from "The One With The Baby On The Bus", and then a new, more artistic recording of the duet between Hynde and Phoebe. Hynde then launches into a hard-rock version with new lyrics.
- At a 2015 Taylor Swift concert, Lisa Kudrow sang "Smelly Cat" with Swift.
- The song became so famous that a group of Portuguese comedians had elected "Gato Fedorento" ("Smelly Cat" in Portuguese) for the name of their show, claiming they were fans of Friends.
- In 2021, Lisa Kudrow performed it with Lada Gaga in "Friends: The Reunion".
External links[]
- "Smelly Cat" at Wikipedia