"Sweet Child O' Mine" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, released on their debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). In the United States, the song was released in June 1988 as the album's first single, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming the band's only US number-one single. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on August 8, 1988,[7] reaching number 24 on the UK Singles Chart the same month. Re-released there in May 1989,[8] it peaked at number six.
Background and composition
During a jam session at the band's house in Sunset Strip,[9] drummer Steven Adler and Slash were warming up and Slash began to play a "circus" melody while making faces at Adler. Rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin asked Slash to play it again. Stradlin came up with some chords, Duff McKagan created a bassline and Adler planned a beat. In his autobiography, Slash said "within an hour my guitar exercise had become something else." Lead singer Axl Rose was listening to the musicians upstairs in his room and was inspired to write lyrics, which he completed by the following afternoon.[10] He based it on his girlfriend Erin Everly (daughter of Don Everly, of the Everly Brothers, and Venetia Stevenson), and declared that Lynyrd Skynyrd served as an inspiration "to make sure that we'd got that heartfelt feeling."[9] On the next composing session in Burbank, the band added a bridge and a guitar solo.[10]
When the band recorded demos with producer Spencer Proffer, he suggested adding a breakdown at the song's end. The musicians agreed, but were not sure what to do. Listening to the demo in a loop, Rose started saying to himself, "Where do we go? Where do we go now?" and Proffer suggested that he sing that.[10]
An alternate version featuring half a live version, half a newly recorded 1999 version plays during the credits of the movie Big Daddy.[11]
Music video
A music video was made for the song in 1987. The music video depicts the band rehearsing in Mendiola's Ballroom at Huntington Park, California, surrounded by crew members. All of the band members' girlfriends at the time were shown in the clip: Rose's girlfriend Erin Everly; McKagan's girlfriend Mandy Brix, from the all-female rock band the Lame Flames; Stradlin's girlfriend Angela Nicoletti; Adler's girlfriend Cheryl Swiderski; and Slash's girlfriend Sally McLaughlin. Stradlin's dog was also shown. The video was successful on MTV, and helped launch the song to mainstream success.
To make "Sweet Child O' Mine" more marketable to MTV and radio stations, the song was edited down from 5:56 to 4:58, for the radio edit/remix, with much of Slash's guitar solo removed. This drew the ire of the band, including Rose, who commented on it in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone: "I hate the edit of 'Sweet Child O' Mine.' Radio stations said, 'Well, your vocals aren't cut.' My favorite part of the song is Slash's slow solo; it's the heaviest part for me. There's no reason for it to be missing except to create more space for commercials, so the radio-station owners can get more advertising dollars. When you get the chopped version of 'Paradise City' or half of 'Sweet Child' and 'Patience' cut, you're getting screwed."[12]
A 7-inch vinyl format and cassette single were released. The album version of the song was included on the US single release, while the UK single was the "edit/remix" version. The 12-inch vinyl format also contained the longer LP version. The B-side to the single is a non-album, live version of "It's So Easy.”
On an interview on Eddie Trunk's New York radio show in May 2006, Rose stated that his original concept for the video focused on the theme of drug trafficking. According to Rose, the video was to depict an Asian woman carrying a baby into a foreign land, only to discover at the end that the child was dead and filled with heroin. This concept was rejected by Geffen Records.
This song was used for a teaser trailer premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder, which released on April 18, 2022, and the film itself,[13] including the end credits. As of 2024, the music video currently has over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.[14]
In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number six in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. On a 2004 Total Guitar magazine poll, the introduction's famous riff was voted the number one riff of all-time by the readers of the magazine.[17] It was also in Rolling Stone's 40 Greatest Songs that Changed the World. It places number seven in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s,” and placed number 210 on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Songs of the Century list.
The song has sold 2,609,000 digital copies in the United States as of March 2012.[18] In 2017, Paste ranked the song number 10 on their list of the 15 greatest Guns N' Roses songs,[19] and in 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number eight on their list of the 20 greatest Guns N' Roses songs.[20]
Guitarist Slash said in 1990, "[The song] turned into a huge hit and now it makes me sick. I mean, I like it, but I hate what it represents."[21]
Cash Box called it a "medium tempo rocker by the new hero's [sic] of metal, featuring a nice breakdown" and "standout guitar playing."[22]
Australian Crawl controversy
In 2015, the web page of the Australian music TV channel MAX published an article by music writer Nathan Jolly that noted similarities between "Sweet Child O' Mine" and the song "Unpublished Critics" by the Australian band Australian Crawl, from 1981.[23] The article included both songs, inviting readers to compare the two. It also cited a reader's comment on an earlier article[24] that had originally drawn attention to the similarities between the songs. As of May 2015, this comment no longer appeared on the earlier article. The story went viral[25] quickly, encouraging several comments on both the MAX article and the suggestion that "Unpublished Critics" had influenced "Sweet Child O' Mine,”[26][27][28][29] including one from Duff McKagan, bass player with Guns N' Roses when "Sweet Child O' Mine" was written and recorded.[30] McKagan found the similarities between the songs "stunning," but said he had not previously heard "Unpublished Critics."[31]
Uses in media
The song has been used in numerous films, most recently in the 2022 film Thor: Love and Thunder.[32][33] Other films include:
Slash performs his guitar solo as a guitarist auditioning for a band in a Capital One commercial in which the theme is "easiest decision in the history of decisions.”[36]
The song is used in a 2024 commercial for Spectrum cable service.
Formats and track listings
All tracks are written by Guns N' Roses except where noted
Ultimate Classic Rock profiled the song as part of a series on "Terrible Classic Rock Covers",[82] and Rolling Stone readers named it the fourth worst cover song of all-time.[83] Despite its negative reception, it became a moderate hit in Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it earned Crow a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.[84]
Charts
Weekly chart performance for "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Sheryl Crow
In 2009, Taken by Trees, the solo project of Swedish singer Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer of the Concretes covered the song for the 2009 John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert, a UK advertising tradition since 2007. It was later announced that the version would be released as their next UK single.[95] It was also used in the promotional trailers for the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left. The song was also used in the final scene for the 2010 film Life as We Know It. Bergsman's version reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart on November 28, 2009 during a six week spell in the top 75.[96]
