“I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry

"I Kissed a Girl" was Katy Perry's debut single, out on Capitol in April 2008 to launch One of the Boys, and it hit like a sugar bomb. Perry wrote it with Max Martin, Cathy Dennis and Dr. Luke, who produced it and played guitar, bass and drums, with Benny Blanco adding production, Dennis singing backup and Serban Ghenea mixing. It's electropop and pop rock with a glam and new wave wink, cut in New York and Hollywood.

Its bi-curious flirting stirred up controversy, though it has since been credited with raising LGBTQ visibility in pop; Perry said it was about the beauty of women. It spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100, the 1,000th number one of the rock era, and earned a Grammy nomination. Kinga Burza's burlesque-flavored video featured Kesha and Shannon Woodward.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.