Sweet Child O' Mine

About this song

"Sweet Child O' Mine" is the ninth track on Guns N' Roses' debut album Appetite for Destruction and became the band's most successful single, topping the Billboard Hot 100. Guitar World ranked its guitar solo among the greatest of all time, and the solo was recorded in one take. In 2015, MAX TV pointed out its similarity to "Unpublished Critics" by Australian Crawl, and Duff McKagan said he had never heard that song until shortly before the comparison came out.

What it's about

Axl Rose wrote the lyrics as a dedication to his then-girlfriend Erin Everly. He found the musical backing he needed after hearing Slash playing guitar downstairs.

Fun facts

• Sampled in 19 other songs, like “Intro by Violent J”.
• Covered 83 times, including “Sweet Child o’ Mine by Manic Street Preachers”.
• Written by Steven Adler, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, Axl Rose and Slash.
• Produced by Mike Clink.