| "Are You Gonna Go My Way" | ||||
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| Single by Lenny Kravitz | ||||
| from the album Are You Gonna Go My Way | ||||
| Released | 1993 | |||
| Format | CD single Maxi single |
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| Genre | Hard rock, funk rock | |||
| Length | 3:32 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Writer(s) | Lenny Kravitz Craig Ross |
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| Producer | Lenny Kravitz | |||
| Certification | Diamond (ABPD)[1] | |||
| Lenny Kravitz singles chronology | ||||
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"Are You Gonna Go My Way" is the first single to be released by Lenny Kravitz from the album of the same name. It was released in March 1993. It was written by Lenny Kravitz and Craig Ross. The single has been covered by numerous artists, such as Metallica, in a medley for "MTV Hits" at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards, Tom Jones and Robbie Williams on Jones' 1999 album Reload and Melanie Brown in her solo section, on the Spice Girls Reunion Tour. Serbian hard rock band Cactus Jack recorded a version on their live cover album DisCover in 2002. A remixed version is played as the opening theme song in Gran Turismo 3. The song is featured in Guitar Hero: World Tour, it is available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series, and it is a playable song in Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. It ranked #78 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.
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The music video consisted of Kravitz and his band playing, surrounded by people dancing. The opening shot of the video shows Lenny with his arms open, looking towards the heavens, before the scenery is filled with light. The background scenography consists of a futuristic and architectonical place, something not unusual on director Mark Romanek's videos. He would later direct more videos for Kravitz, such as "Is There Any Love In Your Heart" and "If You Can't Say No".
"Are You Gonna Go My Way" was one of the most played videos in 1993 on MTV [2] and is considered a landmark music video of the 90s. It won the 1993 MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Artist, and was played live during the show with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame on bass. In 2006, it was ranked as one of VH1's Top 20 Most Memorable Videos of All Time.
The video is featured in the DVD for the special tour edition for Kravitz's Greatest Hits album. It is also featured on Directors Label Volume 4: The Work of Director Mark Romanek.
The success of the song and the music video led to Kravitz being nominated for and winning several awards:
"Are You Gonna Go My Way" is one of Kravitz's most successful songs, and is also considered one of his signature songs. But the song appears to reproduce a riff Bo Diddley used on a funk cover of "Not Fade Away" on his 1976 album 20th Anniversary of Rock & Roll, a specific break from the Kinks' 1964 song "You Really Got Me", and the vocal melody of a 1982 Jean-Jacques Goldman song, "Quand la musique est bonne". The song failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, but reached #1 on the Album Rock Tracks and #2 on the Modern Rock Tracks. Besides, it reached the top 5 in the UK, peaking at number four.[3] It is still Kravitz's most successful single in Australia, where it peaked at number-one for six weeks through April and May 1993.[4] "Are You Gonna Go My Way" is the only Diamond certified single in Brazil, with over 500,000 downloads.[5]
| Chart (1993/94) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart[6] | 1 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[6] | 24 |
| Dutch Mega Top 100[6] | 8 |
| Canadian RPM Singles Chart[7] | 5 |
| French Singles Chart[6] | 4 |
| German Singles Chart[6] | 25 |
| Irish Singles Chart[8] | 6 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart[6] | 7 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[6] | 18 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[6] | 12 |
| UK Singles Chart | 4 |
| U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[9] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[9] | 2 |
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