Born to Be Wild

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"Born to Be Wild"
Single by Steppenwolf
from the album Steppenwolf
B-side	"Everybody's Next One"
Released	June, 1968
Format	45-single
Recorded	Fall 1967
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	3:30
Label	Dunhill RCA / #D-4138
Writer(s)	Mars Bonfire
Producer	Gabriel Mekler

"Born to Be Wild" is a rock song written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by the Canadian rock band Steppenwolf. It is often used in popular culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. It is sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric "heavy metal thunder," marks the first use of this term in rock music.^[1]

Steppenwolf version

Although initially offered to other bands — The Human Expression, for one^[2] — Born to Be Wild was first recorded in 1968 by Steppenwolf. (Under an earlier stage name, Dennis Edmonton, Mars Bonfire was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf.) "Born to be Wild" was the band's second and most successful single, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed "Born to be Wild" at #129 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In 2009, it was named the 53^rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1.^[3]

The song was initially released in 1968, but it was subsequently included in many compilation albums and soundtracks. The first of these was the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider (1969). Unlike the album or single version, the song on this soundtrack is accompanied by the sounds of motorcycles as an introduction. (Another Steppenwolf song from their first album, "The Pusher" was also used in the film.) When the movie was in production, Born to Be Wild was used simply as a placeholder, since Peter Fonda had wanted Crosby, Stills and Nash to do the movie's soundtrack. Eventually, it became clear that the song was well suited for the movie.^[4]

Other movies that have used the Steppenwolf version of Born to Be Wild include Coming Home, One Crazy Summer, Opportunity Knocks, Dr. Dolittle 2, Speechless, Armed and Dangerous, Mr Bean's Holiday, Wild America, and many others.

The video game Rock N' Roll Racing also used the song but without the lyrics as an in-game tune that played during a race.

Professional wrestler Mick Foley used the Steppenwolf version during his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling, and he currently uses it in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

The video game Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party uses "Born to Be Wild" instrumentally (in Rabbid Boxing) and with vocals (during the 4-6 pm timeslot on the GrooveOn channel).

"Born to Be Wild"
Single by Kim Wilde
B-side	"All About Me"
Released	October 14, 2002
Format	CD-single
Genre	Pop
Label	Edel
Writer(s)	Mars Bonfire
Producer	Ricki Wilde
Kim Wilde singles chronology
"Loved" (2001) "Born to Be Wild" (2002) "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" (2003)

Others

Many artists have covered this song, including Slade, The Cult, Bewitched, INXS, Slayer, X Japan, Blue Öyster Cult, Status Quo, Kirka, and the Hampton String Quartet.

• Wilson Pickett released his version of "Born To Be Wild" in 1969. It was a moderate hit, climbing to the middle of both the US Pop and R&B charts.

• A 1969 cover by Pesky Gee! appeared on their album "Exclamation Mark." (Pesky Gee! reformed as Black Widow in 1970 sans vocalist Kay Garrett)

• In 1979, Riot covered the song on their album Narita.

• In 1983, Raven covered the song together with Udo Dirkschneider on their 7"EP and Picture-EP Born to be wild. The songs was one of the bonus tracks on the reissues of the album All for One.

• The Swedish punk rock band Ebba Grön recorded the song as a single in the late 70's.

• In The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, Lizzy Borden performs this song.

• Slayer were reportedly coerced into recording a cover version for a television racing show by their then-manager Rick Rubin. They are not particularly proud of this recording, as evidenced by Tom Araya's confused sounding vocal on the chorus.

• It was covered by the hard rock band The Cult on their 1987 album Electric

• It was covered by Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction on their 1988 album Tattooed Beat Messiah

• In 1993 it was covered by INXS to launch Virgin Radio in the UK

• In 2002 a release by British pop singer Kim Wilde was recorded as the theme song for broadcasts of the DTM.

• In 2005 The Mooney Suzuki covered it for the movie Herbie Fully Loaded.

• In 2007 a cover by rock band Hinder was recorded for use by TNT for their NASCAR on TNT Summer Series broadcasts of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The song also appears on a 2007 re-release of their Extreme Behavior CD along with a non NSCS version of the music video.

• In 2007 Fanfare Ciocărlia covered "Born to be Wild" on their album Queens and Kings. This version of the song also featured in the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

• It was also parodied by ApologetiX under the title "Born-Again Child".

• The song's main riff is played once midway through Blue Öyster Cult's The Marshall Plan.
• Adam Lambert performed it on 'The Songs of Cinema week' during season 8 of American Idol.

• Another version of the song appears on the game Karaoke Revolution Volume 2.

• Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band covered the song as the closer for the last show of the 2008 Magic Tour at the Harley Davidson anniversary.

• Fritz, a band that featured Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham covered the song on a live set in the early 1970s before disbanding where Nicks and Buckingham formed Buckingham Nicks.

Ozzy Osbourne Cover with Miss Piggy

Heavy Metal singer Ozzy Osbourne covered this song, featuring the voice talents of Miss Piggy, on the CD Kermit Unpigged, and later re-released on the box set Prince of Darkness.

Ozzy turns this song into a comedy, starting with Miss Piggy looking for Kermit the Frog, but then stumbles into the wrong room where she screams for Kermit. Ozzy's voice then answers her, and Miss Piggy apologizes to Ozzy, but he insists that she stay. The music then begins, Miss Piggy stating that "the frog can wait". As the song is played through, Miss Piggy frequently screams words, such as "Yes!" and "Yeah!" and sings the famous chorus line "Born To Be Wild!". Things start to get out of hand when Ozzy begins to go crazy, screaming the he "loves Miss Piggy" and then falling unconscious. He awakes a few seconds later, after the music has stopped, and asks Miss Piggy to give him a kiss. She storms out the room, angry with Ozzy.

"Born to Be Mild"

An obvious play on the name of this song is created by replacing "wild" with "mild", and that phrase has entered popular culture in many areas. The most prominent use of this phrase is probably a live comic performance by comedian Rita Rudner in Cleveland that was released on the VHS videocassette format in 1990 with the title Rita Rudner: Born to Be Mild. Also, "Weird Al" Yankovic has an unreleased song that is a parody of Born to Be Wild called "Born to Be Mild"; the singer is in the guise of a computer nerd.^{[citation needed]} An Estonian rock band Singer Vinger has a song titled "Born to Be Mild", about how staying in the middle (being average) is better than being in the front (standing out) or back (staying in the background).

This concept is also featured in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

References