Throwback Video Of The Week: Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
There have been a lot of personnel changes over the years, but the Guns N’ Roses we still love the most was the one we met in 1987: Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff “Rose” McKagan, and Steven Adler. And that lineup was at its peak on the band’s debut album, Appetite for Destruction.
“Sweet Child o’ Mine” was released in June 1988 as the album’s third single, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band’s only #1 single in the U.S. The song’s success was largely due to the popularity of the video on MTV. That’s what helped drive radio airplay.
The video for “Sweet Child o’ Mine” shows Guns N’ Roses rehearsing at what was once Mendiola’s Ballroom in Huntington Park, California. Various girlfriends and crew members are also seen. There are two versions of the video. One is almost entirely black and white, the other mostly color. Both are below. The dog at the beginning of the color version belonged to guitarist Izzy Stradlin.
According to Songfacts, in 2019, “Sweet Child o’ Mine” became the first music video from the ’80s to reach one billion views on YouTube. Incidentally, in 2018, G N’ R’s video for “November Rain” became the first ’90s video to hit the one billion mark.
