Songoftheday 3/23/18 - But if this ever changin' world in which we live in makes you give in and cry...
from the album Use Your Illusion I (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from the down and dirty hard rock band from Los Angeles, Guns N' Roses, whose double-album/separate-release set Use Your Illusion I & II had set records for simultaneous releases, and already had landed a pop hit from each volume with the top ten "Don't Cry" from the first and "You Could Be Mine" from the second. The third release from the pair came from the first set again, with a cover of one of the most popular and celebrated themes from the iconic James Bond film series. "Live and Let Die", written and recorded by Paul McCartney with his band Wings, reunited him with his former Beatles studio svengali Sir George Martin. Released in 1973, the orchestral-rock track climbed to #2 on the American rock chart and #9 in his native Britain...
In 1991, Axl Rose, Slash, and the rest of the Roses recorded the song for their Use Your Illusion set, and actually was quite faithful to the original, even including sonic orchestral flourishes. It was released with a music video filmed at one of their live shows right before rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin quit during the tour...
Guns N' Roses' version of "Live and Let Die" became the third top-40 pop hit from the Use Your Illusion collection in February of 1992. The single also climbed to #20 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, the record did even better, topping the singles chart in New Zealand for two weeks, and reaching the top ten in Norway (#3), the UK (#4), Ireland (#5), and Australia (#10). It also made the top 40 in the Netherlands (#13), Sweden (#15), Switzerland (#19), Belgium (#20), Austria (#27), Germany (#33), and France (#39). Their cover was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Vocal performance, losing out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their breakthrough single "Give It Away".
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Here's Guns N' Roses performing in London in 1991, live for the MTV Video Music Awards, and their final show with Izzy...
...and then a year later in Tokyo, after Gilby Clarke took over for him...
And finally, from their reunion tour in 2017....
As an aside, here's the version of the song heard during the movie, sung by soul singer BJ Arnau...
Up tomorrow: Alternative rap duo plays with combustible toys.
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