Under the Bridge
Encyclopedia
"Under the Bridge" is a song by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers
, released on March 10, 1992 as the second single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis
wrote the lyrics to express a feeling of loneliness and despondency, and to reflect on narcotics and their impact on his life. Kiedis initially did not feel "Under the Bridge" would fit into the Chili Peppers' repertoire and was reluctant to show it to his band mates until producer Rick Rubin
implored him to do so. The rest of the band was receptive to the lyrics and wrote the music.
The song became a critical and commercial success, peaking at number two on the Billboard
Hot 100
and later certified platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
. The single's success was widened with the release of its accompanying video, which was frequently played on music television channels. It won the "Viewer's Choice Award" and "Breakthrough Video" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
.
"Under the Bridge" allowed the Red Hot Chili Peppers to enter the mainstream. David Fricke of Rolling Stone
said the song "unexpectedly drop-kicked the band into the Top 10", while Philip Booth of The Tampa Tribune
commented that it was a "pretty, undulating, [and] by-now omnipresent single." Its success led in part to the departure of guitarist John Frusciante
, who preferred the band to remain underground. The song has become an inspiration to other artists, and remains a seminal component of the alternative rock movement of the early- and mid-1990s.
' 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik
, producer Rick Rubin regularly visited singer Anthony Kiedis
to review Kiedis's new material. He found a poem titled "Under the Bridge" while flipping through Kiedis' notebook and instantly took an interest in the poignant lyrics. Rubin suggested Kiedis show it to the rest of the band: "I thought it was beautiful. I said 'We've got to do this.'" Kiedis was exceedingly reluctant as he felt the poem was too emotional and did not fit the Chili Peppers' style. After singing the poem to guitarist John Frusciante
and bassist Flea
, Kiedis recalls that they "got up and walked over to their instruments and started finding the beat and guitar chords to match it". Frusciante chose the chords he played in the introduction to balance out the depressing nature of the lyrics, saying "my brain interpreted it as being a really sad song so I thought if the lyrics are really sad like that I should write some chords that are happier".
For several days Frusciante and Kiedis worked on the song, and it became one of the few tracks written and completed prior to the band moving into The Mansion where they recorded the album. After the song was recorded, Rubin felt the grand and epic outro would benefit from a large group of singers. Frusciante invited his mother, Gail and her friends, all of whom sang in a choir, to perform.
. The dejection he was experiencing, coupled with memories of Skye and prior drug use, led to emotional distress: "the loneliness that I was feeling triggered memories of my time with Ione and how I'd had this beautiful angel of a girl who was willing to give me all of her love, and instead of embracing that, I was downtown with fucking gangsters shooting speedballs under a bridge."
Kiedis' feelings of alienation from his bandmates led him to believe that the city of Los Angeles was his only companion: "I felt an unspoken bond between me and my city. I'd spent so much time wandering through the streets of L.A. and hiking through the Hollywood Hills
that I sensed there was a nonhuman entity, maybe the spirit of the hills and the city, who had me in her sights and was looking after me." The line "Sometimes I feel like/My only friend/Is the city I live in/The City of Angels/Lonely as I am/Together we cry" shows a direct link to Kiedis' isolation and sense of susceptibility. Despite these emotions, Kiedis believed his life was better without drug addictions, telling Rolling Stone that "no matter how sad or lonely I got, things were a million percent better than they were two years earlier when I was using drugs all the time. There was no comparison." The optimistic ideology gave birth to the chorus of the song: "I don't ever want to feel/Like I did that day/Take me to the place I love;" the place he loves being his fellow band mates, friends and family.
One of the most notable verses in the song discuss the harsh effects of drugs, their role in destroying many of Kiedis' past relationships, and impact on his happiness. Based on one of Kiedis's experiences, the verse of "Under the Bridge" illustrates his efforts to enter a gang territory under a bridge to purchase drugs. Kiedis was forced to pretend that a sister of one of the gang members was his fiancée to be permitted inside. Although he successfully acquired the drugs, Kiedis considers this moment to be one of the worst of his life as it demonstrated the level to which he was willing to sink in order to feed his addiction. Because of this, the singer refuses to acknowledge the location of the bridge, though he notes that it is in downtown Los Angeles
.
in the key of D major
, shifting to the key of E major
after the introduction of the first verse. The song marks an important shift in style for Kiedis, who had spent most of his career singing rapidly due to his limited ability to reach high notes. The song begins with Frusciante playing a moderately slow intro that the guitarist said drew heavily on the 1971 David Bowie
song "Andy Warhol
". As Kiedis begins to sing, the guitar playing becomes more rapid until it reaches an E major seventh chord
that halts the song; the silence is broken by Chad Smith's closed hi-hat
and wood block
struck at a moderately fast tempo. Frusciante borrowed the E major seventh chord technique from British
guitarist Marc Bolan
of the glam rock
band T. Rex
, who initially wrote it in the song "Rip Off" from the group's 1971 album Electric Warrior
; Frusciante lightheartedly noted that "I ripped off a song called 'Rip Off'. I thought that was interesting."
The song continues with another verse and subsequent chorus, when the bass
finally enters. After the next verse an E major seven chord again marks a break before the start of the chorus. The second chorus transitions into a different verse, where Chad Smith
begins to play the drums, and Kiedis sings "Take me all the way/Yeah/Yeah-e-yeah/Oh no, no". A choir, whose presence was added to make the ending sound more epic, sings "Under the bridge downtown", in which Kiedis sings "Is where I drew some blood/I could not get enough/Forgot about my love/I gave my life away" in between. As the choir, Kiedis and drums stop, Frusciante and Flea play the outro until the song ends.
chart, peaking at number two. The single has been certified platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
.
Critical response to "Under the Bridge" was universally positive. Tom Moon of Rolling Stone
felt the song "revealed new dimensions. The rhythm section displays a growing curiosity about studio texture and nuance". David Fricke
of Rolling Stone said "Under the Bridge" is a "stark and uncommonly pensive ballad", commenting that the song "drop-kicked the band into the Top 10". Philip Booth of The Tampa Tribune
believed the single was "undulating [and] omnipresent" not only in the alternative rock genre, but pop music as a whole. Ben DiPietro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
praised the record as a whole, but was most impressed by Chili Peppers' shift from exclusive hard rock to adding more moderately paced tracks: "there's still plenty of sonic funk to bang heads to, but the best tracks are the slower ones such as 'Under the Bridge'". Amy Hanson of Allmusic noted that the song has "become an integral part of the 1990s alterna-landscape, and remains one of the purest diamonds that sparkle amongst the rough-hewn and rich funk chasms that dominate the Peppers’ own oeuvre". She went on to praise "Under the Bridge" for being a "poignant sentiment that is self evident among the simple guitar which cradles the introductory verse, and the sense of fragility that is only doubled by the still down-tempo choral crescendo".
"Under the Bridge" has been included in many publications' "Best of ..." lists. In 2002, Kerrang!
placed the song at number six on their list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time". Q
ranked the song number 180 on their compilation of the "1001 Best Songs, Ever". Life
included "Under the Bridge" in the compilation "40 Years of Rock & Roll, 5 Songs Per Year 1952–1991", with the year being 1991. Pause and Play included the song in their unordered list of the "10 Songs of the 90's"; and the song ranked fifteenth in VH1
's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s". Rolling Stone and MTV
compiled a list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs Since The Beatles" in 2000, with "Under the Bridge" coming in fifty-fourth. "Under the Bridge" was also ranked #98 in the list of Rolling Stone "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
The music video for "Under the Bridge" was directed by Gus Van Sant
, who photographed the band during their stay at The Mansion and provided the art direction for Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Van Sant knew Flea due to the bassist's role in his 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
. The members of the band respected Van Sant both as a person and an artist and were elated when he agreed to direct the video for "Under the Bridge". Flea credits the video as "the thing that really made us break through the mainstream of American and worldwide pop culture".
The video was shot on the streets of Los Angeles and in a studio soundstage. It begins with Frusciante standing alone on a pedestal wearing a red-and-white-striped collared shirt, brown khaki pants, brown shoes, and a purple, green and multicolored chullo
, with white stitched wolves in the middle. He plays a 1966 Ocean Turquoise Fender Jaguar
behind the backdrop of a desert and an inverted cloudy sky. His shadow is projected on the left and right of where he stands. The guitar can be seen at Hard Rock Cafe Caracas. Frusciante's girlfriend of the time, Toni Oswald, selected his clothes that day. Frusciante remembers Van Sant's surprised, though favorable, reaction: "when I got [to the studio] Gus Van Sant was just looking at me and going 'God I'm so glad you wore that hat. I'm so glad you wore that shirt. Oh! Those pants are so great I'm so glad you wore those'". The video marks a significant shift in Frusciante's on-camera behavior; he no longer wished to jump around fervently as he had done in the band's prior music videos.
As Kiedis begins to sing he appears on camera bathed in purple light with blue fluorescent stars as a backdrop, surrounded by clouds. As the camera pans closer, an image of the skyline of Van Sant's home city, Portland
, is superimposed from his chin downwards. Flea and drummer Chad Smith are then placed into the image while playing their instruments. Van Sant wanted superimposing to be a notable component in the overall theme of the video; the idea came from a project he worked on with novelist William S. Burroughs
. The scenes in the studio are coupled with scenes of Kiedis walking the streets of LA, wearing a white T-shirt with "To Hell And Back" printed on the front; as he walks, the camera focuses on various people. This, according to Kiedis, was vital; he felt the studio portion alone would not convey enough emotion: "the first time we shot [the video] it was all in a studio and that didn't seem to capture everything we needed to capture. It needed more; it needed to be combined with an outdoor, streets-of-Los-Angeles thing". Towards the end, Kiedis is seen running down the Los Angeles River
in slow motion; the background is a shot of an atomic bomb
exploding. The video ends with various superimposed images of the band, followed by Frusciante playing alone on a pedestal—this time with an inverted shot of the ocean as the sky.
MTV
placed the "Under the Bridge" video on heavy rotation. At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
the Red Hot Chili Peppers led the nominations, which included the categories of "Best Video", "Best Group", and "Best Direction". "Under the Bridge" won the group "Breakthrough Video" and "Viewers Choice Best Video"; the band's video for "Give It Away" won "Best Art Direction". The video ranked eighth best in a poll dictated by the readers of the Chicago Tribune
called "The Best and Worst of '92".
on February 22, 1992. Kiedis said it "felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while [Frusciante] was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment." The guitarist used a distortion
pedal for the ending verse and screamed incomprehensibly into the microphone when providing backup vocals, neither of which were originally planned or typical of live performances. Nevertheless, sales of Blood Sugar Sex Magik skyrocketed following the show.
At times Kiedis has also resented singing the song, especially during instances when he felt distanced from the song's lyrics. In the past few years, however, Kiedis has experienced a revival in interest: "Although there have been times when I was over ['Under the Bridge'], I've rediscovered it and now I feel close to it and it still has power, and life, and purpose as a song." Frusciante believed the flexibility of "Under the Bridge" has contributed to its success: "A lot of the time that is one of the ingredients of a hit; you can hear it over and over and it will still always mean new things, but you do go through cycles." Flea believes the reason "Under the Bridge" has had a recent revival in relevancy is due to Frusciante's return to the band after quitting in 1992. Flea believes it is vital to have the four members who wrote the track together.
"Under the Bridge" was played at the 1999 Woodstock Festival
, which the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined. They were the final act to perform. Attempts at distributing candles that were to be lit during the song backfired. The crowd, which was already disorderly, instead created a bonfire. Lighthearted foul-play escalated into violence when several women who had been crowd surfing
and moshing
were raped and nearby property was looted and destroyed. Other notable performances were at Slane Castle
in August 2003 to 80,000 attendees; and in 2004 at London
's Hyde Park
, in which, over the course of three days, an estimated 250,000 people were in attendance. Released as the band's first live album, the event became the highest grossing concert at a single venue in history, with a total revenue of $
17.1 million. "Under the Bridge" is also performed on the Chili Peppers' concert video Off the Map released in 2001, and on an exclusive performance for iTunes
in 2006.
several times since its release in 1992. The song was first transcribed in 1994 by the a cappella
group The Flying Pickets
from their debut album The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1. Notable jazz musician Frank Bennett covered the song by fusing elements of big band
s and bebop
in his 1996 album Five O'Clock Shadow. Hip hop
artist Mos Def
included the beginning verse of "Under the Bridge" in the song "Brooklyn," from his 1999 record Black on Both Sides
. He, however, changed the line "the city I live in, the City of Angels", which refers to Los Angeles, to "the city I live in is beautiful Brooklyn," to match his song's premise. Tony Hadley
covered the song on his 1995 album Obsession. Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
has modified "Under the Bridge" at several concerts—they perform various rock pieces combined into a single orchestral ensemble, often including the Chili Peppers' hit.
Alternative hip hop
band Gym Class Heroes
performed "Under the Bridge" on the 2006 assemblage Punk Goes '90s, an album that compiled popular rock songs from the 1990s being covered by contemporary artists. Gym Class Heroes continued to play "Under the Bridge" during their tour; lead singer Travis McCoy has said it is "a timeless song. It's one of those songs you hear and are like 'Damn did this shit just come out?'" The most successful cover version of "Under the Bridge" was released in 1998 by the British/Canadian pop band All Saints
, with the single reaching number one in the United Kingdom
. The cover removed the final verse of the song that discusses drug use. Red Hot Chili Peppers were, however, displeased with this version; Kiedis felt the cover was poorly recreated and, with the omission of the final verse, it lost all personal significance. All Saints filmed a music video to promote the single. The 1993 "Weird Al" Yankovic
song "Bedrock Anthem
," is part parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away." Yankovic's satire includes an intro similar to that of "Under the Bridge". In 2009, the Stanley Clarke
Trio covered the song from his album "Jazz in the Garden."
7", cassette (1992)
12" (1992)
UK CD1 (1994 UK re-release)
UK CD2 (1994 UK re-release)
7" Blue Vinyl (1994 UK re-release)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
, released on March 10, 1992 as the second single from the group's fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Rick Rubin, it was the band's first record released on Warner Bros. Records...
. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis is an American vocalist/lyricist, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his 12th birthday, to Hollywood,...
wrote the lyrics to express a feeling of loneliness and despondency, and to reflect on narcotics and their impact on his life. Kiedis initially did not feel "Under the Bridge" would fit into the Chili Peppers' repertoire and was reluctant to show it to his band mates until producer Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
implored him to do so. The rest of the band was receptive to the lyrics and wrote the music.
The song became a critical and commercial success, peaking at number two on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and later certified platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. The single's success was widened with the release of its accompanying video, which was frequently played on music television channels. It won the "Viewer's Choice Award" and "Breakthrough Video" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
.
"Under the Bridge" allowed the Red Hot Chili Peppers to enter the mainstream. David Fricke of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said the song "unexpectedly drop-kicked the band into the Top 10", while Philip Booth of The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune, published in Tampa, Florida, is one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area, second in circulation and readership to the St. Petersburg Times. The paper's tagline is "Life...
commented that it was a "pretty, undulating, [and] by-now omnipresent single." Its success led in part to the departure of guitarist John Frusciante
John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
, who preferred the band to remain underground. The song has become an inspiration to other artists, and remains a seminal component of the alternative rock movement of the early- and mid-1990s.
Origins and recording
During the production of the Red Hot Chili PeppersRed Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
' 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Rick Rubin, it was the band's first record released on Warner Bros. Records...
, producer Rick Rubin regularly visited singer Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis is an American vocalist/lyricist, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his 12th birthday, to Hollywood,...
to review Kiedis's new material. He found a poem titled "Under the Bridge" while flipping through Kiedis' notebook and instantly took an interest in the poignant lyrics. Rubin suggested Kiedis show it to the rest of the band: "I thought it was beautiful. I said 'We've got to do this.'" Kiedis was exceedingly reluctant as he felt the poem was too emotional and did not fit the Chili Peppers' style. After singing the poem to guitarist John Frusciante
John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
and bassist Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
, Kiedis recalls that they "got up and walked over to their instruments and started finding the beat and guitar chords to match it". Frusciante chose the chords he played in the introduction to balance out the depressing nature of the lyrics, saying "my brain interpreted it as being a really sad song so I thought if the lyrics are really sad like that I should write some chords that are happier".
For several days Frusciante and Kiedis worked on the song, and it became one of the few tracks written and completed prior to the band moving into The Mansion where they recorded the album. After the song was recorded, Rubin felt the grand and epic outro would benefit from a large group of singers. Frusciante invited his mother, Gail and her friends, all of whom sang in a choir, to perform.
Lyrics and meaning
Kiedis wrote much of the song's lyrics during a period when he felt distraught and emotionally drained. He had maintained sobriety for roughly three years and felt that this had distanced him from his bandmates. While the group worked on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Frusciante and Flea often smoked marijuana together, decisively ignoring and disregarding Kiedis. Because of this, Kiedis felt that Frusciante was "no longer in [his] world." Driving home after rehearsal in April 1991, Kiedis felt a profound sense of loss; his best friends, Flea and Frusciante, in some form resented him. The depressed state of mind he subsequently entered reminded him of his heroin and cocaine addiction during the relationship he had with former girlfriend Ione SkyeIone Skye
Ione Skye Lee is an English-born American actress, who became a teen idol after the 1989 movie Say Anything.... In 2006 VH1 placed her at number 84 in the "100 Greatest Teen Stars" list.-Early life:...
. The dejection he was experiencing, coupled with memories of Skye and prior drug use, led to emotional distress: "the loneliness that I was feeling triggered memories of my time with Ione and how I'd had this beautiful angel of a girl who was willing to give me all of her love, and instead of embracing that, I was downtown with fucking gangsters shooting speedballs under a bridge."
Kiedis' feelings of alienation from his bandmates led him to believe that the city of Los Angeles was his only companion: "I felt an unspoken bond between me and my city. I'd spent so much time wandering through the streets of L.A. and hiking through the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
that I sensed there was a nonhuman entity, maybe the spirit of the hills and the city, who had me in her sights and was looking after me." The line "Sometimes I feel like/My only friend/Is the city I live in/The City of Angels/Lonely as I am/Together we cry" shows a direct link to Kiedis' isolation and sense of susceptibility. Despite these emotions, Kiedis believed his life was better without drug addictions, telling Rolling Stone that "no matter how sad or lonely I got, things were a million percent better than they were two years earlier when I was using drugs all the time. There was no comparison." The optimistic ideology gave birth to the chorus of the song: "I don't ever want to feel/Like I did that day/Take me to the place I love;" the place he loves being his fellow band mates, friends and family.
One of the most notable verses in the song discuss the harsh effects of drugs, their role in destroying many of Kiedis' past relationships, and impact on his happiness. Based on one of Kiedis's experiences, the verse of "Under the Bridge" illustrates his efforts to enter a gang territory under a bridge to purchase drugs. Kiedis was forced to pretend that a sister of one of the gang members was his fiancée to be permitted inside. Although he successfully acquired the drugs, Kiedis considers this moment to be one of the worst of his life as it demonstrated the level to which he was willing to sink in order to feed his addiction. Because of this, the singer refuses to acknowledge the location of the bridge, though he notes that it is in downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
.
Music and composition
"Under the Bridge" is performed in 4/4 timeTime signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
in the key of D major
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
, shifting to the key of E major
E major
E major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
after the introduction of the first verse. The song marks an important shift in style for Kiedis, who had spent most of his career singing rapidly due to his limited ability to reach high notes. The song begins with Frusciante playing a moderately slow intro that the guitarist said drew heavily on the 1971 David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
song "Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (song)
"Andy Warhol" is a song written by David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory. This is an acoustic song about one of Bowie's greatest inspirations, the American pop artist Andy Warhol. The song starts with some studio chat where Bowie explains to producer Ken Scott, who has just been heard to...
". As Kiedis begins to sing, the guitar playing becomes more rapid until it reaches an E major seventh chord
Major seventh chord
In music, a major seventh chord is any nondominant seventh chord where the "third" note is a major third above the root.Most typically, major seventh chord refers to where the "seventh" note is a major seventh above the root . This is more precisely known as the major/major seventh chord, and it...
that halts the song; the silence is broken by Chad Smith's closed hi-hat
Hi-hat
A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
and wood block
Wood block
A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
struck at a moderately fast tempo. Frusciante borrowed the E major seventh chord technique from British
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
guitarist Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
of the glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
band T. Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
, who initially wrote it in the song "Rip Off" from the group's 1971 album Electric Warrior
Electric Warrior
Electric Warrior is the sixth album by British rock group T. Rex, and is widely considered to be one of the quintessential glam rock releases. Electric Warrior reached number thirty-two in the US; it went to number one for several weeks in the UK, becoming the biggest album of 1971...
; Frusciante lightheartedly noted that "I ripped off a song called 'Rip Off'. I thought that was interesting."
The song continues with another verse and subsequent chorus, when the bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
finally enters. After the next verse an E major seven chord again marks a break before the start of the chorus. The second chorus transitions into a different verse, where Chad Smith
Chad Smith
Chad Smith is an American musician, best known as the longtime and current drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Smith is also the drummer of the hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot which includes Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, and Michael Anthony, former Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes' backing band and...
begins to play the drums, and Kiedis sings "Take me all the way/Yeah/Yeah-e-yeah/Oh no, no". A choir, whose presence was added to make the ending sound more epic, sings "Under the bridge downtown", in which Kiedis sings "Is where I drew some blood/I could not get enough/Forgot about my love/I gave my life away" in between. As the choir, Kiedis and drums stop, Frusciante and Flea play the outro until the song ends.
Release and reception
The first single off Blood Sugar Sex Magik was "Give It Away", which reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in late 1991. The band did not foresee "Under the Bridge" being as successful, but understood the potential commercial viability. Warner Bros. Records sent representatives to a Chili Peppers concert to determine which song should be the next single. When Frusciante began playing "Under the Bridge", Kiedis missed his cue and the entire audience began singing the song instead. Kiedis was initially "mortified that I had fucked up in front of Warner's people [...] I apologized for fucking up but they said 'Fucking up? Are you kidding me? When every single kid at the show sings a song, that's our next single'." "Under the Bridge" became the album's second single in March 1992; upon release, journalist Jeff Apter noted that it "was the bona fide, across-all-formats radio hit that the band had been working towards for seven years." It spent twenty-six cumulative weeks on the United States Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, peaking at number two. The single has been certified platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
.
Critical response to "Under the Bridge" was universally positive. Tom Moon of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
felt the song "revealed new dimensions. The rhythm section displays a growing curiosity about studio texture and nuance". David Fricke
David Fricke
David Fricke is a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he writes predominantly on rock music. In the 1990s, he was managing editor before stepping down.-Background:David Fricke is a graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania...
of Rolling Stone said "Under the Bridge" is a "stark and uncommonly pensive ballad", commenting that the song "drop-kicked the band into the Top 10". Philip Booth of The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune, published in Tampa, Florida, is one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area, second in circulation and readership to the St. Petersburg Times. The paper's tagline is "Life...
believed the single was "undulating [and] omnipresent" not only in the alternative rock genre, but pop music as a whole. Ben DiPietro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
praised the record as a whole, but was most impressed by Chili Peppers' shift from exclusive hard rock to adding more moderately paced tracks: "there's still plenty of sonic funk to bang heads to, but the best tracks are the slower ones such as 'Under the Bridge'". Amy Hanson of Allmusic noted that the song has "become an integral part of the 1990s alterna-landscape, and remains one of the purest diamonds that sparkle amongst the rough-hewn and rich funk chasms that dominate the Peppers’ own oeuvre". She went on to praise "Under the Bridge" for being a "poignant sentiment that is self evident among the simple guitar which cradles the introductory verse, and the sense of fragility that is only doubled by the still down-tempo choral crescendo".
"Under the Bridge" has been included in many publications' "Best of ..." lists. In 2002, Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
placed the song at number six on their list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time". Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
ranked the song number 180 on their compilation of the "1001 Best Songs, Ever". Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
included "Under the Bridge" in the compilation "40 Years of Rock & Roll, 5 Songs Per Year 1952–1991", with the year being 1991. Pause and Play included the song in their unordered list of the "10 Songs of the 90's"; and the song ranked fifteenth in VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s". Rolling Stone and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
compiled a list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs Since The Beatles" in 2000, with "Under the Bridge" coming in fifty-fourth. "Under the Bridge" was also ranked #98 in the list of Rolling Stone "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
Music video
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
, who photographed the band during their stay at The Mansion and provided the art direction for Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Van Sant knew Flea due to the bassist's role in his 1991 film My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...
. The members of the band respected Van Sant both as a person and an artist and were elated when he agreed to direct the video for "Under the Bridge". Flea credits the video as "the thing that really made us break through the mainstream of American and worldwide pop culture".
The video was shot on the streets of Los Angeles and in a studio soundstage. It begins with Frusciante standing alone on a pedestal wearing a red-and-white-striped collared shirt, brown khaki pants, brown shoes, and a purple, green and multicolored chullo
Chullo
Chullo is an andean style of hat with earflaps, made from vicuña, alpaca, llama or sheep's wool. Alpaca has wool-like qualities that help to insulate its wearer from the harsh elements in the Andean Mountain region...
, with white stitched wolves in the middle. He plays a 1966 Ocean Turquoise Fender Jaguar
Fender Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar introduced in 1962. A descendant of the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar quickly caught on in the emerging Surf music scene...
behind the backdrop of a desert and an inverted cloudy sky. His shadow is projected on the left and right of where he stands. The guitar can be seen at Hard Rock Cafe Caracas. Frusciante's girlfriend of the time, Toni Oswald, selected his clothes that day. Frusciante remembers Van Sant's surprised, though favorable, reaction: "when I got [to the studio] Gus Van Sant was just looking at me and going 'God I'm so glad you wore that hat. I'm so glad you wore that shirt. Oh! Those pants are so great I'm so glad you wore those'". The video marks a significant shift in Frusciante's on-camera behavior; he no longer wished to jump around fervently as he had done in the band's prior music videos.
As Kiedis begins to sing he appears on camera bathed in purple light with blue fluorescent stars as a backdrop, surrounded by clouds. As the camera pans closer, an image of the skyline of Van Sant's home city, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, is superimposed from his chin downwards. Flea and drummer Chad Smith are then placed into the image while playing their instruments. Van Sant wanted superimposing to be a notable component in the overall theme of the video; the idea came from a project he worked on with novelist William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
. The scenes in the studio are coupled with scenes of Kiedis walking the streets of LA, wearing a white T-shirt with "To Hell And Back" printed on the front; as he walks, the camera focuses on various people. This, according to Kiedis, was vital; he felt the studio portion alone would not convey enough emotion: "the first time we shot [the video] it was all in a studio and that didn't seem to capture everything we needed to capture. It needed more; it needed to be combined with an outdoor, streets-of-Los-Angeles thing". Towards the end, Kiedis is seen running down the Los Angeles River
Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...
in slow motion; the background is a shot of an atomic bomb
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
exploding. The video ends with various superimposed images of the band, followed by Frusciante playing alone on a pedestal—this time with an inverted shot of the ocean as the sky.
MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
placed the "Under the Bridge" video on heavy rotation. At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
the Red Hot Chili Peppers led the nominations, which included the categories of "Best Video", "Best Group", and "Best Direction". "Under the Bridge" won the group "Breakthrough Video" and "Viewers Choice Best Video"; the band's video for "Give It Away" won "Best Art Direction". The video ranked eighth best in a poll dictated by the readers of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
called "The Best and Worst of '92".
Live performances
The song's widespread success has made it indispensable to the band's live set-lists. Unlike several of the Chili Peppers' other songs, "Under the Bridge" is not interpreted in a different manner than what is on the record—aside from being played acoustically the track is performed the same as it appears on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Kiedis is, however, notorious for being incapable of achieving several high notes in live performances; the vocalist has noted that he sometimes forgets or rearranges song lyrics in the verses. Therefore, the song has sometimes suffered from his limitations as a singer. After being released as a single in March 1992, the song would be included in virtually all concerts; Frusciante, however, began to resent the song's popularity and would play convoluted intros, purposefully throwing Kiedis off. An example of this was during a televised performance on the highly rated program Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
on February 22, 1992. Kiedis said it "felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while [Frusciante] was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment." The guitarist used a distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
pedal for the ending verse and screamed incomprehensibly into the microphone when providing backup vocals, neither of which were originally planned or typical of live performances. Nevertheless, sales of Blood Sugar Sex Magik skyrocketed following the show.
At times Kiedis has also resented singing the song, especially during instances when he felt distanced from the song's lyrics. In the past few years, however, Kiedis has experienced a revival in interest: "Although there have been times when I was over ['Under the Bridge'], I've rediscovered it and now I feel close to it and it still has power, and life, and purpose as a song." Frusciante believed the flexibility of "Under the Bridge" has contributed to its success: "A lot of the time that is one of the ingredients of a hit; you can hear it over and over and it will still always mean new things, but you do go through cycles." Flea believes the reason "Under the Bridge" has had a recent revival in relevancy is due to Frusciante's return to the band after quitting in 1992. Flea believes it is vital to have the four members who wrote the track together.
"Under the Bridge" was played at the 1999 Woodstock Festival
Woodstock 1999
Woodstock 1999, also called Woodstock 99, performed July 22–25, 1999, was the second large-scale music festival that attempted to emulate the original Woodstock Festival of 1969. Like the previous Woodstock festivals it was performed in upstate New York, this time in Rome, New York, around 200...
, which the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined. They were the final act to perform. Attempts at distributing candles that were to be lit during the song backfired. The crowd, which was already disorderly, instead created a bonfire. Lighthearted foul-play escalated into violence when several women who had been crowd surfing
Crowd surfing
Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person during a concert, transferring the person from one part of the venue to another...
and moshing
Moshing
Moshing is a dance in which participants push or slam into each other. They also flail their limbs to breakdowns of hardcore punk and its sub-genres. It is most associated with aggressive music genres, such as hardcore punk and heavy metal...
were raped and nearby property was looted and destroyed. Other notable performances were at Slane Castle
Slane Concert
Slane Concert is a concert held most years since 1981 in the grounds of Slane Castle near Slane, County Meath, in Ireland. The castle is owned by Henry Conyngham, 8th Marquess Conyngham, who was the Earl of Mountcharles until 2009. Slane lies between Navan and Drogheda, about 45 km northwest...
in August 2003 to 80,000 attendees; and in 2004 at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, in which, over the course of three days, an estimated 250,000 people were in attendance. Released as the band's first live album, the event became the highest grossing concert at a single venue in history, with a total revenue of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
17.1 million. "Under the Bridge" is also performed on the Chili Peppers' concert video Off the Map released in 2001, and on an exclusive performance for iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
in 2006.
Cover versions
"Under the Bridge" has been coveredCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
several times since its release in 1992. The song was first transcribed in 1994 by the a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group The Flying Pickets
The Flying Pickets
The Flying Pickets are a British a cappella vocal group, who had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover of Yazoo's track "Only You".-History:...
from their debut album The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1. Notable jazz musician Frank Bennett covered the song by fusing elements of big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s and bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
in his 1996 album Five O'Clock Shadow. Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
artist Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
included the beginning verse of "Under the Bridge" in the song "Brooklyn," from his 1999 record Black on Both Sides
Black on Both Sides
Black on Both Sides is the debut solo album of American rapper Mos Def, released October 12, 1999 on Rawkus Records. Prior to the album's recording, Mos Def had collaborated with rapper Talib Kweli for the duo's studio album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star , which raised high expectations for...
. He, however, changed the line "the city I live in, the City of Angels", which refers to Los Angeles, to "the city I live in is beautiful Brooklyn," to match his song's premise. Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley is an English pop singer-songwriter, occasional stage actor and radio presenter who gained celebrity as the lead vocalist for the 1980s band Spandau Ballet.-Early life:...
covered the song on his 1995 album Obsession. Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
has modified "Under the Bridge" at several concerts—they perform various rock pieces combined into a single orchestral ensemble, often including the Chili Peppers' hit.
Alternative hip hop
Alternative hip hop
Alternative hip hop is a sub-genre of hip hop music. Allmusic defines it as follows: -Origin:...
band Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
performed "Under the Bridge" on the 2006 assemblage Punk Goes '90s, an album that compiled popular rock songs from the 1990s being covered by contemporary artists. Gym Class Heroes continued to play "Under the Bridge" during their tour; lead singer Travis McCoy has said it is "a timeless song. It's one of those songs you hear and are like 'Damn did this shit just come out?'" The most successful cover version of "Under the Bridge" was released in 1998 by the British/Canadian pop band All Saints
All Saints (band)
All Saints were a British/Canadian girl group. Founded in 1993 as All Saints 1.9.7.5, the group consisted of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton...
, with the single reaching number one in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The cover removed the final verse of the song that discusses drug use. Red Hot Chili Peppers were, however, displeased with this version; Kiedis felt the cover was poorly recreated and, with the omission of the final verse, it lost all personal significance. All Saints filmed a music video to promote the single. The 1993 "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
song "Bedrock Anthem
Bedrock Anthem
"Bedrock Anthem" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic which was featured on his 1993 album Alapalooza. It is parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away" both by the Red Hot Chili Peppers...
," is part parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away." Yankovic's satire includes an intro similar to that of "Under the Bridge". In 2009, the Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
Trio covered the song from his album "Jazz in the Garden."
Formats and track listing
CD (1992)- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Sikamikanico" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:23
- "Soul to SqueezeSoul to Squeeze"Soul to Squeeze" is a song by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers that was originally recorded during the production of their fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik...
" (Previously Unreleased) – 4:50 - "Search and Destroy" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:34
7", cassette (1992)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "The Righteous & the Wicked" (Album) – 4:08
12" (1992)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Search and Destroy" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:34
- "Soul to Squeeze" (Previously Unreleased) – 4:50
- "Sikamikanico" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:23
UK CD1 (1994 UK re-release)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Sikamikanico" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:23
- "Suck My KissSuck My Kiss"Suck My Kiss" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released as the third single from their fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The "Suck My Kiss" single was released in 1992 in Australia only; a music video was made for the song using footage from the Funky Monks documentary...
" (Live) – 3:45 - "Search and Destroy" (Previously Unreleased) – 3:34
UK CD2 (1994 UK re-release)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Fela's Cock" (Previously Unreleased) – 5:10
- "I Could Have Lied" (Live) – 4:33
- "Give It Away" (In Progress) – 3:43
7" Blue Vinyl (1994 UK re-release)
- "Under The Bridge" - 4:24
- "Suck My Kiss" (Live)- 3:45
Chart history
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
2 |
| U.S. Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 6 |
| U.S. Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... (1992/1994 reissue) |
26 / 13 |
| Australian Top 40 ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Ireland Top 40 Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... |
20 |
| Norway Top 20 | 10 |