Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"
"
Sweet Child O' Mine" (
US #1,
UK#24) is the name of a
song by the
hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on their debut
album Appetite for Destruction on
August 10,
1987.
"Sweet Child O' Mine" was Guns N' Roses' first number-one single on the
Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks at the top spot in the summer of
1988. The song is credited as being written by Guns N' Roses as a band. The subject of the song is generally thought to be lead singer
Axl Rose's then-girlfriend and eventual wife,
Erin Everly.
This song is listed on the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" from
Guitar World as number thirty-seven, and also came in at number three on
Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, and at number 196 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In March 2005,
Q magazine placed it at number 6 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The introduction's famous D-flat based
riff was also voted number-one riff of all-time by the readers of
Total Guitar magazine. Former Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist,
Slash, had been quoted as having a disdain for the song due to its roots as simply a technical exercise and a joke at the time. The lyrics were written by Axl Rose as a love letter to his girlfriend at the time.