Sister Christian

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“Sister Christian”

Single by Night Ranger
from the album Midnight Madness

Released

1984

Recorded

1982

Genre

Hard rock
Power ballad

Length

5:02 (album)

Pat Glasser

Night Ranger singles chronology

"(You Can Still) Rock In America"
(1983)

"Sister Christian"
(1984)

"When You Close Your Eyes"
(1984)

Sister Christian is a power ballad by the hard rock band Night Ranger, which was first released on their album Midnight Madness.

1 Origin and meaning
2 Music video
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Origin and meaning

This section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008)

It was written and sung by the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, for his sister. It was the band's biggest hit, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #2 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

The song is about Keagy's little sister, Christy. Keagy wrote the song at his apartment, near Divisadero and California streets in San Francisco, after he had just returned from a visit to his hometown in rural Eugene, Oregon. He had been struck at how fast his teenage sister, 10 years younger than him, was growing up.

"After we started playing it a lot, Jack turned to me and said, 'What exactly are you saying?' " Keagy recalled. "He thought the words were Sister Christian, instead of Sister Christy, so it just stuck." He added that the real Christy was so mortified when the song came out she nearly changed her name.^[1]

The lyric, "You're motoring. What's your price for flight? In finding Mr. Right?" is the subject of much debate. The band stated in a VH-1 Behind the music interview^[2] that the term "motoring" was synonymous with the term "cruising". The term is most often used to describe driving around in a car slowly as a social experience, but can also be used to desribe picking up people for casual sex. When Keagy visited his family he heard second hand about his sister cruising for a man to casually sleep with. After verifying this with her he was shocked and lamented how fast she was growing up. he then went back home and wrote "Sister Christian" about the experience.

This song is sometimes incorrectly called, "Motorin".

[edit] Music video

The video of the song shows the band performing it, with the two guitar players standing shoulder to shoulder. The plot of the video portrays a girl questioning her ascension into womanhood. In the end, she rejects the nuns and makes herself beautiful in a bathroom with her friends, and then gets in a convertible with rock band members.