Carmine Appice, who played drums on this song, told Songfacts: "This was a story of a guy meeting a chick in a club. At that time, that was a cool saying. If you listen to the lyrics, 'She sits alone, waiting for suggestions, he's so nervous...' it's the feelings of what was going on in a dance club. The guy sees a chick he digs, she's nervous and he's nervous and she's alone and doesn't know what's going on, then they end up at his place having sex, and then she's gone." In a 2007 interview, co-writer Duane Hitchings noted that "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was "a spoof on guys from the 'cocaine lounge lizards' of the
Saturday Night Fever days. We Rock and Roll guys thought we were dead meat when that movie and the
Bee Gees came out. The Bee Gees were brilliant musicians and really nice people. No big egos. Rod, in his brilliance, decided to do a spoof on disco. VERY smart man. There is no such thing as a 'dumb' super success in the music business." After
Rod Stewart rejected the original arrangement for the song, Appice instead used it for "I Just Fell in Love Again" on
Carmen Maki's 1979 album
Night Stalker, which he was working on at the same time. Guitarist
Jim Cregan attributed the song's success to the
bass guitar line played by
Phil Chen, saying "That particular bass pattern, when he played that, the whole song seemed to fall into place. I was doing my
Nile Rodgers impersonations." ==Music and lyrics==