Bad to the Bone

"Bad to the Bone" is a song by George Thorogood and the Destroyers released in 1982 on the album of the same name. The song adapts the hook and lyrics of Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy.[1] While it was not widely popular during its initial release, its video made recurrent appearances on the nascent MTV, created a year before. Licensing for films, television, and commercials has since made the song more popular. Author Jim Beviglia argues that despite the song not making the pop charts, it "outstrips all other 80s songs in terms of the way it has essentially become cultural shorthand".[2]

For the album by the same performer, see Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood & The Destroyers album). For other uses, see Bad to the Bone (disambiguation).
"Bad to the Bone"
Single by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
from the album Bad to the Bone
B-side"No Particular Place to Go"
ReleasedSeptember 17, 1982
Recorded1982
Genre
Length4:52
3:36 (single edit)
LabelEMI America
Songwriter(s)George Thorogood
Producer(s)The Delaware Destroyers
George Thorogood and the Destroyers singles chronology
"Nobody but Me"
(1982)		 "Bad to the Bone"
(1982)		 "Rock and Roll Christmas"
(1983)

Music video

The video intercuts a live performance by Thorogood and his band with his playing a lengthy game of pool with Bo Diddley. Pool player Willie Mosconi is summoned from another room by a spectator (played by Michael Fusco), and he wagers a large sum of money on Diddley. As Thorogood appears to be winning, a group of children outside celebrate while Diddley gets a dirty look from Mosconi.

Thorogood smokes a fat cigar throughout the pool-playing sequence. The video ends with Thorogood making the 8 ball drop into a pocket by flicking a large quantity of cigar ash on the floor, apparently triggering the drop of the ball in the pocket.

Personnel
  • George Thorogood – guitar, vocals
  • Billy Blough – bass
  • Jeff Simon – drums
  • Hank Carter – saxophone
  • Ian Stewart – piano

Film and television

The song has been used in filmmaking and television productions, often as a tongue-in-cheek comedic device when a "bad guy" needs to be introduced or identified. An example of this is in the opening of the movie Christine, where the song is played as the red and white 1958 Plymouth rolls down the production line and injures an inspector, and again in the ending shot when a piece of Christine's grille moves. The song was used in the bar scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day where the Terminator first is shown in his full leather outfit. It can also be heard in the card game scene from the remake of The Parent Trap. The song was used in the scenes in the 1988 drama film Talk Radio in the scenes where radio talk show host Barry Champlain's radio show, used as the opening and closing theme of his radio show. It was also used in the 2010 computer-animated superhero movie, Megamind. It was also the title theme to Problem Child and its sequel, and Major Payne. It is also included in the South Park episode "You're Not Yelping" while Cartman walks down a hallway. It is also played during Shaun the Sheep Movie after Shaun is caught by Animal Containment.

The song was used many times in Married... with Children, when Al Bundy does something fun, usually followed by the line "Let's Rock." For example, in "Hot off the Grill", "A Man's Castle", "Heels on Wheels" episodes.

The song was referenced in the episode of Family Matters, "Crash Course", by Steve Urkel when Eddie Winslow crashed the family station wagon in the living room without a driver's license. Urkel stated that he is bad to the bone and that bad is his middle name.

The song was played in the episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "I Bowl Buster", when Will Smith and Carlton Banks go bowling to celebrate Carlton's acceptance to Princeton University and is played through the times Carlton struggles to bowl and causes multiple mishaps and injuries for him and Will.

Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for the episode "Alvin's Oldest Fan" from their TV series. It was also featured in the episode "Endless Summer" of the series Renegade. Almost the entire record can be heard at the beginning of the episode "Nobody Lives Forever" on the TV series Miami Vice. An episode of Disney's TV show 101 Dalmatians: The Series has an episode named after the song. It also was in the BBC 2010 World Cup 50 most shocking moments at number 49 to indicate how tough the Dutch were In The tournament.

Uses in film

"Bad to the Bone" has been used in many films, such as:

Sporting events

The song is used by Dennis Anderson's Grave Digger monster truck as entrance music, and plays during his portion of the freestyle round at Monster Jam events, and as an entrance theme for closing pitcher Takashi Saito of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was also played during every at bat of former Seattle Mariners slugger Jay Buhner and former Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres slugger Ryan Klesko.

The song is also used by 2-Time World Champion Professional bull rider J. B. Mauney.

The song is also used as an entrance theme song in professional wrestling. Multiple wrestlers have used it as their theme song, such as L. A. Park in Mexico, Kevin Wacholz, who used the song in the 1980s as "Mr. Magnificent" Kevin Kelly while wrestling for the American Wrestling Association, and Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams as "The Bad to the Bone Boys" in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas. American mixed martial artist Phil Baroni used it as his entrance song at UFC 106. It was also used by The Bad Crew.

The song is used in the home matches of HIFK (a Finnish professional ice hockey team competing in the Liiga) when HIFK acquires a penalty.

Other media

On October 7, 2008, the song was released as downloadable content for the music video game series Rock Band. It also featured in Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock. The video game Rock 'n Roll Racing also uses it.

The song has also been used as a theme song for Mr. Bungle.

Talk show host Bill Cunningham uses the song as the opening intro to his afternoon talk show on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, and on his Sunday night radio show. The song "E.V.I.L. B.O.Y.S." from the hit Disney show Phineas and Ferb sampled the base melody of the song to give it a blues sound.

Thorogood appeared in a UPS commercial, convincing NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett to race the brown delivery truck, and rewriting the lyrics as "Brown to the Bone", in 2002.

Authorship claim

Chicago area musician James Pobiega, who goes by the stage name "Little Howlin' Wolf", has claimed that he wrote "Bad to the Bone" and that Thorogood stole it from him.[3] The song is obviously influenced by Muddy Waters' much earlier classic Mannish Boy'.[4] Thorogood initially offered the song to Waters, who rejected it outright,[5] and other commentators have noted unusual similarities to Waters' original melody.[6]

References
  1. Fender.com, Muddy Waters (24 January 2021). "Learn How to Play 'Mannish Boy' by Muddy Waters". Fender.com.
  2. Jim Beviglia. "'Bad to the Bone' by George Thorogood and the Destroyers." Playing Back the 80s: A Decade of Unstoppable Hits. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. ISBN 9781538116401 p. 79.
  3. Mehr, Bob (10 November 2005). "Out of the Wilderness". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  4. Bad to the Bone (25/01/21). "Rolling Stone Magazine". Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. Muddy Waters rejected Bad to the Bone (25/01/21). "George Thorogood Interview 2014". earlofnewt.com. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. Sounds Just Like. (2021-01-25). "Sounds Like Mannish Boy". soundsjustlike.com.
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