- Year of release
- 1987
- Global sales
- 27 million
- Genre
- Rock/metal
- Buy this album
- Buy CD
Unforgettable riffs, banshee wail vocals and lurid tales of temptation and excess abound on this gloriously sleazy debut from California's filthiest rockers
Best tracks:
Sweet Child O' Mine
Welcome To The Jungle
Paradise City
Top facts:
- The record's original cover, a painting in which a robot has apparently raped a woman, was considered so obscene by MTV that they blacklisted the band's videos. Realising the harm this would do their career, the band replaced the image with the cross and skulls we see today.
- Hitch-hiking through New York, the young Axl and his bandmates came across a homeless man who berated them with the words: "You know where you are? You're in the jungle baby - you're gonna die!" This encounter was to inspire one of the group's biggest hits - Welcome To The Jungle.
- Those pornographic noises on the track Rocket Queen are, allegedly, real. Engineer Steve Thompson revealed: "Axl wanted some pornographic sounds on Rocket Queen, so he brought a girl in and they had sex in the studio. We wound up recording about 30 minutes of sex noises. If you listen to the break on Rocket Queen it's in there."
If you like this, try:
Mötley Crüe: Girls, Girls, Girls
Velvet Revolver: Contraband
Aerosmith: Get A Grip
Skid Row: Slave To The Grind
