Bad to the Bone

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"Bad to the Bone"
Single by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
from the album Bad to the Bone (Album)
Released	1981
Format	?
Recorded	198?
Genre	Rock
Length	4:56
Label	?
Writer(s)	George Thorogood
Producer(s)	?
Chart positions
?
George Thorogood and the Destroyers singles chronology
?	"Bad to the Bone" (1981)	?

"Bad to the Bone" is a blues-influenced rock song by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. It was released in 1981 on the album of the same name. It was an early hit thanks to its memorable video on MTV, which was in its infancy and had very few titles. Almost any video played at that time became a hit because there were so few videos to be played and the medium so new.

The video intercut a live performance by Thorogood and his band with him playing a lengthy game of pool with blues guitar legend Bo Diddley. Pool legend Willie Moscone was summoned from another room by a spectator and he wages 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 Moscone. It ends with Thorogood making the 8 ball drop into a pocket by flicking a large quantity of cigar ash on the floor (a reflection of the less PC times, Thorogood prominently smokes a fat cigar throughout the pool playing sequence, but obviously not when he is performing), implying the impact of some ash made the ball fall in.

The song was used in the bar scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Bad to the Bone can also be heard in the remake of The Parent Trap (featuring Lindsay Lohan) in the poker scene, the opening credits to Major Payne and Problem Child - with its main riff appearing through the movie, in the first scene of Stephen King's Christine, as well as multiple episodes of the sitcom Married... with Children and in the Super Nintendo classic game Rock 'n Roll Racing. It is also widely known to monster truck fans as the theme song for Dennis Anderson's Grave Digger truck.

The song is said to be one of the best-recognised songs of the 80s and is one of the most heavily licensed songs for commercials, TV shows and movies, along with Katrina and The Waves hit Walking On Sunshine.

The songs roots can be traced back to Muddy Waters' 1955 song "Mannish Boy", which uses the same guitar riff and vocal rhythm. The song has also holds a very similar melody to AC/DC's hit Whole Lotta Rosie, released on their album Let There Be Rock in 1977.