Guns N' Roses – «Sweet Child o' Mine» туралы

1988 single by Guns N' Roses

"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 on June 21, 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 in August 1988, reaching number 24 on the UK Singles Chart the same month. Re released there in May 1989, it peaked at number six.

During a jam session at the band's house in Sunset Strip, 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. 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.

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, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers; 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." 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, including the end credits. The music video currently has over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.