Leaving Las Vegas (song)

1994 single by Sheryl Crow

"Leaving Las Vegas" is a song co written by David Baerwald, Bill Bottrell, Sheryl Crow, Kevin Gilbert, Brian MacLeod, and David Ricketts that appears on Crow's debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993). It charted within the top 75 in the United States and the top 30 in Canada. Crow performed the song on her live album Sheryl Crow and Friends: Live from Central Park.

The song's title was based on the semi autobiographical 1990 novel of the same name by the late John O'Brien, who was a good friend of one of the song's writers, David Baerwald. After a performance on the Late Show with David Letterman, the host asked Crow if the song was autobiographical. She answered "sort of" because she had left Los Angeles. This infuriated Baerwald and the rest of the original Tuesday Night Music Club who helped write most of the album. Though O'Brien's suicide occurred soon after this incident, his family came forward to state there was no connection.

Larry Flick from Billboard magazine wrote, "It's time for the critically revered Crow to finally get a moment of radio fame. Bright spot on her "Tuesday Night Music Club" album is a kicky blend of acoustic strumming and percussion. Crow's voice is raw and incredibly expressive, which helps the song's cinematic lyrics pack the powerful punch they do." Troy J. Augusto from Cash Box stated, "This slow rolling number sports nifty acoustic guitar, dramatic lyrics and loads of Crow’s character filled, rough and tumble vocal stylings. Plus she’s cute as a button and is a natural on stage. What more could you want?" Linda Ryan from the Gavin Report noted that the track "has a slow, hypnotic groove that entranced almost as thoroughly as her dusty, whiskey soaked vocals." Pan European magazine Music & Media commented, "Miss Crow doesn't believe in Elvis' tribute to the capital of showbizz, and gets out of town on an adventurous funky synth bassline a lot of singer/songwriters would not dare to think of." A reviewer from People Magazine described it as "a disillusioned, neon dazzled desert tune".

The song was accompanied by Crow's first ever promotional video. It was directed by David Hogan, who also shot her video for "All I Wanna Do". The 1993 video shows Crow performing the song with her guitar in the dark, with only some parts of her face lit up. Other scenes include famous Vegas images such as dancers and Elvis Presley lookalikes walking on a highway, "leaving Las Vegas", and Peter Berg driving with Crow in the passenger seat of his convertible. The video uses an edited version of the song.

RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)United StatesApril 4, 1994Top 40 radioA&MUnited KingdomJune 6, 19947 inch vinyl, CD, cassette