Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter

"Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter"
Single by Iron Maiden
from the album No Prayer for the Dying
B-side "I'm a Mover"
"Communication Breakdown"
Released 24 December 1990
Recorded Summer 1990
Genre Heavy metal
Length 4:44
Label EMI
Writer(s) Bruce Dickinson
Iron Maiden singles chronology
"Holy Smoke"
(1990)		 "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter"
(1990)		 "Be Quick or Be Dead"
(1992)
Alternative cover

"Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" is the second single from No Prayer for the Dying, Iron Maiden's first full-length album in over two years (following the 1988 release Seventh Son of a Seventh Son).[1] The song was originally recorded and released by Bruce Dickinson for the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,[2][3] but Steve Harris decided that Iron Maiden would rerecord it.[1] It is the only UK No. 1 single the band have ever had.[4]

Contents

Background

In 1989, while Iron Maiden were taking a break from touring, Zomba asked Dickinson to write a song for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.[3] Teaming up with former Gillan (and future Iron Maiden) guitarist Janick Gers, Dickinson recorded the song, which he claims he wrote "in about three minutes," and the project was expanded into an album, Tattooed Millionaire.[5] Upon hearing the completed track, Steve Harris decided that it would be "great for Maiden" and convinced Dickinson not to put it on his solo album.[1]

The original version of the song, which won a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Original Song" in 1989,[6] is, according to Dickinson, "substantially different to the Iron Maiden version," explaining that "the arrangement is identical, but mine's kind of... slinky. Maiden's just really goes for it."[1] Dickinson's original version was included on disc 2 of The Best of Bruce Dickinson in 2001.[7]

The single went straight to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart,[8] in spite of a ban by the BBC,[9] who refused to play the song on Radio 1 and only showed a 90-second live clip for Top of the Pops.[4] The B-side features cover versions of "I'm a Mover" (originally by Free) and Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown."

The video clip features footage from The City of the Dead/Horror Hotel[10] (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1960).

Like most songs from the No Prayer for the Dying album, "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" was rarely played live following the supporting tour, No Prayer on the Road, with the band only performing it on selected dates in 1992 and 2003.

Track listing

  1. "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" (Bruce Dickinson) – 4:44
  2. "I'm a Mover" (Free cover) – 3:21
  3. "Communication Breakdown" (Led Zeppelin cover) – 2:41

Versions

Songs Country & Year Catalog Number Format
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover Australia 1990 EMI 2552-7 Single 7"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover EEC 1990 EMI 204171 7 Single 7"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover UK 1990 EMI EMS 171 Single 7"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown EEC 1990 EMI 060 20 4171 6 Maxi Single 12"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown UK 1990 EMI 12 EMP 171 Maxi Single 12"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover UK 1990 EMI EMPD 171 Picture Disc 7"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown UK 1990 EMI 12 EMPD 171 Picture Disc 12"
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown Holland 1990 EMI CDEM 171 CD Single
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown Japan Promo 1990 EMI TOCP-6572 CD Single
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown Japan 1990 EMI TOCP-6572 CD Single
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown UK 1990 EMI EMS 171 CD Single
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover/Communication Breakdown USA Promo 1990 EMI Epic ESK 4007 CD Single
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter/I'm a Mover UK 1990 EMI TCEM 171 Cassette Single

Personnel

Chart performance

Chart (1990) Peak
position
Irish Singles Chart 6[11]
Swiss Singles Chart 19[12]
UK Singles Chart 1[13]
Preceded by
"Saviour's Day" by Cliff Richard		 UK number one single
5–12 January 1991 for two weeks		 Succeeded by
"Sadeness (Part I)" by Enigma

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 282. ISBN 1-86074-542-3. 
  2. ^ "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (Soundtrack)". Nightmare on Elm Street Films. http://nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com/nightmare5soundtrack.html. Retrieved 2008-12-17. 
  3. ^ a b Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 275. ISBN 1-86074-542-3. 
  4. ^ a b Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 286. ISBN 1-86074-542-3. 
  5. ^ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 281. ISBN 1-86074-542-3. 
  6. ^ "Golden Raspberry Archive- 1989". Golden Raspberry. http://www.razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=29. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
  7. ^ "Interview with BRUCE DICKINSON October 2001". http://dmme.net/interviews/dickinson.html. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
  8. ^ "UK Singles Chart Archive- 5th January 1991". http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1991-01-05/. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
  9. ^ "BBC- No Prayer for the Dying.". http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qjqv. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
  10. ^ City of the Dead trailer, IMDb
  11. ^ "Irish singles archive". http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
  12. ^ "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter- Swiss Charts". http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden&titel=Bring+Your+Daughter%2E%2E%2E+To+The+Slaughter&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
  13. ^ "Official UK Singles Archive- 5th January 1991". http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1991-01-05/. Retrieved 2011-10-14.