"Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out"
"Back in the U.S.S.R." is a 1978 solo song by Dirk McQuickly, based on his newfound love for Russian music and culture. It features Barry Wom on drums and Stig O'Hara on guitar. The song was originally recorded by William Campbell and John Lennon in a taped rehearsal of an unused track from the film The Beatles: All You Need Is Love, based directly on "We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)". As the song was unreleased at the time, Dirk was given the song to record as a single. It became one of Dirk's best-selling solo singles, alongside "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
The song is a parody of the Rutles' "We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)", as such, Ron Nasty received a writing credit for the song. The lyrics subvert Nasty's optimistic sentiments about arriving at an undisclosed location and wanting to prove that he's there, as the narrator expresses relief upon returning home to the Soviet Union, formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
The song contains the lyric "Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out", a line that would become prophetic in later years, as Dirk was indeed "knocked out" by the looks of Ukraine girl Natalia Poklonskaya, whom he later married.