We're an American Band (song)
| "We're an American Band" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "The Railroad" |
"We're an American Band" (from the album of the same name) is a 1973 song by the band Grand Funk Railroad. It was the group's first number one single. Written by Don Brewer and produced by Todd Rundgren, the huge chart success of this single broadened Grand Funk's appeal to a much wider audience.
It is the 99th song on VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.[1]
Lyrics
Brewer's lyrics are somewhat autobiographical, detailing the band's recent tour and their energetic live performances. In the song, the band mentions traveling through Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as stopping to party with four groupies that sneak into their hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. The lyrics also mention "sweet sweet Connie", which is the first name of legendary groupie Connie Hamzy.
According to rock critic/writer Dave Marsh in his book, The Heart of Rock and Soul, Grand Funk was touring with the British group Humble Pie in early 1973. After one performance, the two groups were drinking in a bar when the two groups began arguing over the merits of British versus American rock. Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer stood up and after bragging about American rock heroes such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard and Elvis Presley, proudly announced, "We're an American band!" Thus inspired, Brewer wrote the song the next morning, and it was the top selling song in the world by September of 1973. A video was also made, showing the band playing the song as well as engaging in activities such as basketball, dirtbike riding and watersports.
The original single was released on gold transparent vinyl.
In film
The song is played as backdrop music during a high school football game in the film Radio.
In television
This song was used on ABC's Life on Mars with Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) impersonating Michael Jackson while dancing to it.
Subsequent versions
| "We're an American Band" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
The band Americade covered the song for their 1982 album release Americade.
Autograph covered the song in November, 1985 and had it added to their second album That’s the Stuff in early 1986, replacing the original track #6, which was released in October, 1985. The "Up all night with Freddy King, I got to tell you poker's his thing" portion early in the song is replaced by "Up all night, sleep all day, I got to tell you that's how we play" for unknown reasons, possibly because of King's death ten years earlier.
Poison covered the song and released it as a single for their The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock compilation which peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200[2] The song was slightly changed replacing the line "And we proceeded to tear that hotel down" with the line "And Poison tore that hotel down." It was also on the Poison cover album Poison'd.
Kid Rock covered the song during one year's MTV Video Music Awards, substituting "We'll help you party down" with "We'll take your panties down".
All-accordion rock band Those Darn Accordions parodied this song as "We're An Accordion Band", substituting many of the lyrics with references to famous accordion players such as Myron Florin and Flaco "The King" Jimenez". They replace "We'll help you party down" with "We'll help you polka down".
Jackyl covered the song for their 1998 compilation release Choice Cuts utilizing Jesse Dupree's unique vocal style.
The Village People, as well as Phish, cover the song as part of their live repertoire.
The Hardcore/Crossover/Thrash Metal Band Verbal Abuse covered the song on their Just An American Band LP in 1983.
Singers Aly & AJ have covered this song for Randy Jackson’s Music Club: Volume One.