Fight for Your Right

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"Fight for Your Right (to Party)"

Single by Beastie Boys
from the album Licensed To Ill
Released	1987
Recorded	Spring 1986
Genre	Hip-hop
Length	3:29
Label	Def Jam/Columbia Records
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin
Beastie Boys singles chronology
"Brass Monkey" (1987)	"Fight for Your Right" (1987)	"No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (1987)

"(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" was the first single released from the Beastie Boys' breakthrough album, Licensed to Ill (1986). It is one of their best-known songs. It reached #7 on the Billboard 100, and was later named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Beastie Boys also included the track on their hits album, The Sounds of Science, in 1999.

Ironically, the song was intended as a parody of party and attitude songs, such as "Smokin' In The Boys' Room" and "I Wanna Rock." But the irony was lost on most listeners. Mike D commented that, "The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different. There were tons of guys singing along to Fight For Your Right who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them."^[1]

Despite probably being the group's most famous song, the Beastie Boys have expressed distaste for it. In, The Sounds of Science liner notes, MCA jokingly says the song "sucks," though they didn't feel the album would be complete without it. The group hasn't performed the song live since 1987.

[edit] Pop culture references

N.Y.C.C. covered this song in 1998.
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this in a lounge music style on his 2000 album Lounge Against the Machine and his 2006 album The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese.
The song was performed by former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in his reality TV show, Tommy Lee Goes to College.
The closing track of Public Enemy's album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is titled "Party For Your Right To Fight" in reference to this song; Atmosphere later included a track whose titled played on both songs, "Party for the Fight to Write", on their Lucy Ford album.
This song was the first song played on WCBS-FM after its switch to the Jack format.
Sammy Hagar now plays this song as a medley to close his shows—singing the first verse of "Summertime Blues", by Eddie Cochran, and then inviting a guest on stage the sing the rest of the song.
Pennywise has covered the song live in concert.
Heavy metal bands Firehouse, Trixter, and Warrant covered this song at a 1991 Louisiana concert. Warrant frontman Jani Lane also replaced the line "Momma, just chill it's just the Beastie Boys!" with "It's just Firehouse, Trixter, and the dirty Down Boys!"
The album's producer, and band's DJ, Rick Rubin appears in the video wearing the T-shirt of thrash metal band Slayer t-shirt who were another band on his label. Rubin can also be seen wearing AC/DC and Beastie Boys shirts. A very young LL Cool J appears in the video.
The song is featured in an episode of The Simpsons.
Green Day performed a medley of the choruses of "Fight for Your Right" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" during a jam at the end of their Woodstock 94 performance.
Stand Up Comedian Roy Chubby Brown used this as his intro music on his Standing Room Only Tour and DVD.