"Selfish Jean" is a song by Scottish alternative rock band Travis, and is the second track on their 2007 studio album The Boy with No Name. The song was released as the second single from that album in the United Kingdom, and was released in the UK on Monday 9 July 2007 on 1 CD and 2 7" vinyls. The b-side on the CD is a song called 'You Bring Me Down', whilst the two 7" vinyls each have one of 'Is That Love' and 'Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)'. Both of these songs are covers of songs by the group Squeeze.
Selfish Jean was written by Fran Healy between 2005 and 2006, most likely in his apartment in New York, and was demoed using Healy's own computer. He sampled the drum intro from the Iggy Pop song Lust For Life, looped it to create a basic rhythm, and then played the song and recorded vocals over the top of the rhythm track. Critics have humourously noted that Travis took the basic hook of an energetic song and yet still turned out a depressing song in the usual Travis style. The demo was then taken to Travis drummer Neil Primrose as an example of what to play, and thus, the song exists in its current form.
The single was at one point on BBC Radio 2's A playlist, receiving around 20 plays per week.
