"Sweet Child o' Mine" is the third single by American hard
rock band Guns N' Roses, and the third from their 1987 debut
studio album,
Appetite for Destruction. Released on August 18, 1988,
the song topped the Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's first
and only number-one single, and reached number six on the UK
Singles Chart.
Slash has been quoted as having a disdain for the song due
to its roots as simply a 'string skipping' exercise and a joke
at the time. In a VH1 special, it was stated that Slash played
the riff in a jam session as a joke. Drummer Steven Adler and
Slash were warming up and Slash began to play a "circus" melody
while making faces at Steven. Izzy asked Slash to play it
again, meanwhile Axl was upstairs to in his room and heard the
'jam session' going on downstairs and couldnt help but write
lyrics. He based it on his girlfriend Erin Everly. With Steven
Adler's added drum part, the harmony became the core of the
song. Originally, there was a third verse to the song. However,
this verse was later cut from recording as the band's producer,
Spencer Proffer, felt the song would carry on for too long. The
final dramatic breakdown was not added until Proffer suggested
the band add one. They agreed, but weren't sure what to do. Axl
started saying to himself, "Where do we go? Where do we go
now?" Spencer suggested that he sing that, and "Sweet Child o'
Mine" was born. In an interview with
Hit Paradermagazine in 1988, bassist Duff McKagan
noted:
The "Sweet Child o' Mine" video depicts the band rehearsing
in an abandoned theater, surrounded by crew members. All of the
band members' girlfriends at the time were shown in the clip.
Izzy Stradlin's dog was also featured. The video was extremely
successful on MTV, and helped launch the song to success on
mainstream radio.
In an effort to make "Sweet Child o' Mine" more marketable
to MTV and radio stations, the song was cut from 5:56 minutes
to 4:12, with much of Slash's guitar solo removed. This move
drew the ire of the band members, including Axl 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."
On an interview on Eddie Trunk's New York radio show in May
2006, Axl 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.
There is also an alternative video for "Sweet Child o' Mine"
with different shots, all in black and white. It can be watched
in Guns N' Roses/VEVO official channel on YouTube.
"Sweet Child o' Mine" placed #37 on
Guitar World's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos."
It also came in at number three on
Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, and at
number 196 on
Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In
March 2005, magazine placed it at number 6 in its list of the
100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The introduction's famous riff was
also voted number-one riff of all-time by the readers of
Total Guitarmagazine. It was also in
Rolling Stone's 40 Greatest Songs that Changed the
World. It places number 7 in VH1's "100 Best Songs of the 80s",
and placed #210 on the RIAA Songs of the Century list. On a
recent BBC poll, the song was voted to have the "greatest
guitar riff ever".
The song came 1st in
Kerrang!'s Slash's top 30 guitar anthems. The song is
currently ranked as the 91st greatest song of all time, as well
as the best song of 1987, by Acclaimed Music. Recently, it was
again popularized by its appearance in
Guitar Hero II, spreading the song to a younger
generation of listeners. The famous intro makes the song one of
the most easily recognizable tunes of all time. In October 2009
it came first in
Kerrang!'s 100 greatest riffs.
The first time this song appeared in a movie was in 1988, it
played as the credits were rolling for the movie Bad
Dreams.
"Sweet Child o' Mine" is featured in the 2008 film
The Wrestler. The song is played when Randy "The Ram"
Robinson (played by Mickey Rourke) makes his entrance to the
ring at the end of the film. Rourke, who is friends with Axl
Rose, convinced him to allow the song to be played in the film
for a fraction of what would have been normally charged. Rourke
himself used the song as his entrance music during his boxing
career.
It is also sung a capella by Derek's family in the 2008 film
Step Brothers.
The song is also in the Sean Penn, Gary Oldman film
State of Grace.
An extract of this song was also featured in the Adam
Sandler film,
Big Daddy.
The song has been covered by many artists including Texas,
Most Precious Blood, Akasha featuring Neneh Cherry, DJ Dougall,
Schmoof, Flat Pack, Luna, Chester the Pup, Bumblefoot, Dead
Tongues, DJ Dex & A, The Aluminium Group and DZK. The song
was also performed in many live concerts by country singer
Carrie Underwood, opening with her alone on acoustic guitar and
using her voice to reference Slash's intro guitar tones before
launching into a full band rock-out. Bonnie Tyler performed it
on the for Charity DVD
Rock for Asiain 2005.
Occasionally, as a joke, Linkin Park performs parts of the
song during some concerts. The Manic Street Preachers also
frequently play it as an introduction to their song "Motown
Junk" in live concerts. The main riff is replayed by Red Hot
Chili Peppers at the end of the song "Punk Rock Classic". The
intro is also sampled in a song on the
Fort Minormixtape, titled "S.C.O.M."(Sweet Child o'
Mine). Avenged Sevenfold frequently use the opening riff as a
segue between songs during live concerts.
In 1999, the song was covered by Sheryl Crow and re-recorded
by the then-new Guns N' Roses members for the film
Big Daddy. Crow's version earned her a Grammy Award for
Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. The new Guns N' Roses
version which morphed into a live version half way through was
not featured on the original soundtrack album of the movie, but
can be heard during the movie's ending credits. The song was
also featured in the 1990 film
State of Grace, in a bar during a brawl.
It was performed on December 2, 2006 at the Nokia Theatre
Times Square in New York City by jam band Umphrey's McGee.
Black Eyed Peas usually performs the first verses of this
song as well during their live shows. Turbonegro uses the intro
as Introlick for the Song Bad Mongo played live.
A cover of the song is featured as a special encore in the
music video game
Guitar Hero II.
Part of the song is featured at the beginning of the episode
"Witch Hunt" of the hit CBS show
NCIS. Part of the song is used in scenes of a little
girl. The song ends when a sound of a gunshot is heard
indicating that the girl in the scenes is the deceased daughter
of the show's main character Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
"Sweet Child o' Mine" was also covered in 2005 by
Flatpack/Mylo.
The song "Homecoming Queen" by Hinder bears a strong
resemblance to "Sweet Child o Mine."
Slash performed "Sweet Child o' Mine" with Fergie at his
recent 43rd birthday party in Las Vegas at the Mirage Hotel
& casino on July 23, 2008.
During the 2008 Reading Festival, band Tenacious D announced
they were going to perform a cover of one of Metallica's most
well known songs as a tribute. They then proceeded to play the
opening riff to "Sweet Child o' Mine".
Swedish music artist Johan Darius released a version of the
song through his website in December 2008.
Irish dance act The Lazy Boyz recorded a trance version in
2004. It went on to appear on two Ministry of Sound
compilations,
Big Tunesand
The Annual 2005.
Australian vocal group Human Nature performed a cappella
version on
Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge
SR-71's song, "Axl Rose", contains part of the opening
riff.
Indie pop artist Victoria Bergsman, under the name Taken by
Trees, also covered the song. Her version was used in the
trailer for the remake of the Wes Craven film
The Last House on the Left, and in a 2009 UK advert for
department store John Lewis and announced would be released as
their next UK single. This cover peaked at #23 on the UK
Singles Chart.
A version of this song was performed by Lucie Jones on the
sixth series of (UK) in 2009.
During the Use Your Illusion Tour, Axl Rose would sometimes
sing a few lines from songs by other artists as an
'introduction' to the song. The songs used were: