Low Rider

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“Low Rider”
Song by War
Album	Why Can't We Be Friends?
Released	1975
Format	LP
Genre	Funk, Latin, Rock

"Low Rider" is a song written by the band War and appearing on their album Why Can't We Be Friends?, released in 1975. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts and peaked at number 7 on the Pop Singles chart.

According to the Allmusic review of the song, "the lyric takes the cool image of the low rider — the Chicano culture practice of hydraulically hot-rodding classic cars — and using innuendo, extends the image to a lifestyle."

The writers and performers of "Low Rider" have formed the Lowrider Band. The band consists of Lee Oskar, Howard E. Scott, B.B. Dickerson and Harold Brown.

[edit] Cover versions

• The song has been covered by the following artists:
  • Blues Traveler
  • Peter Cetera
  • The Fantômas Melvins Big Band
  • George Clinton
  • Cypress Hill
  • Epsilon Minus
  • Exodus
  • Gary Hoey
  • JFA
  • Terry Kath
  • Korn
  • Latin Alliance
  • Phish
  • Popa Chubby featuring Galea
  • Quando Quango
  • Son Of Dave
  • Barry White
  • Yukon Kornelius
  • ZZ Top

• "Low Rider" was sampled by The Offspring in the remix version of "Pretty Fly For A White Guy".
• War's "Low Rider" was also significantly sampled by The Beastie Boys for their track "Slow Ride" on the 1986 album Licensed to Ill.
• The song "Jorge Regula" by The Moldy Peaches borrowed the main riff from "Low Rider."
• Sublime sampled the song in the bassline of Forman Freestyle on disc 2 of their posthumous release Everything Under the Sun.

[edit] Cultural references

• CWF Superstar 'The Casino Kid' Vegas Ford used the song as his entrance theme from 1996-97.
• The song was featured on the first compilation in the Lowrider Soundtrack series.
• The song has been featured in ten movies, including the Cheech and Chong series, Robots, 21 Grams, Dazed and Confused, Paulie, Beverly Hills Ninja, A Knight's Tale, the 2000 remake of Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Young Poisoner's Handbook and Friday.
• Low Rider is the theme song for The George Lopez Show and for its titular star's stand up comedy appearances.
• At the 2007 ALMA Awards, George Lopez also called this song, "The Chicano National Anthem".
• Low Rider is featured in the video games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (playing on Master Sounds 98.3) and Driver: Parallel Lines.
• Los Angeles Dodger Nomar Garciaparra and San Diego Padres Khalil Greene use this song as their entrance music when they come up to bat.
• In That 70's Show, it is considered by Eric to be his and Donna's song, since they heard it on their first date.
• It can be heard in MLB 08: The Show , an exclusive Playstation 2 game.
• Part of the song was used in advertisements for Marmite.

Preceded by "Sweet Sticky Thing" by The Ohio Players

Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number one single (War version) November 8, 1975

Succeeded by "Fly, Robin, Fly" by Silver Convention