Gigantic

Kim Deal and Black Francis wrote it, and Deal sings lead. It is credited to Mrs. John Murphy, the name she used at the time, which she treated as an ironic feminist joke. Deal said the main inspiration was the film Crimes of the Heart, in which a married woman falls in love with a teenager. Francis told Select that it came from a good chord progression, very Lou Reed influenced, and that the word gigantic had stuck in his mind because the chords seemed big. The melody comes from Deal's simple bass line, which repeats through the song, and her vocal was recorded in a bathroom at Q Division for the echo.

Ivo Watts-Russell did not think any track on Surfer Rosa would be played on the radio, so he had Gil Norton re-record Gigantic and River Euphrates at Blackwing Studios in London in early May 1988. Most of Norton's changes were to the mix, with small changes to the arrangement. The single came out on 4AD on 29 August 1988 in the UK, on 12-inch and CD,. Its extra tracks were a live Vamos and a live cover of In Heaven, the Lady in the Radiator song from Eraserhead, both recorded at the Town and Country Club in London. On the strength of the result Norton was asked to produce Doolittle. Deal began playing Gigantic with the Breeders in 2017.