I Wanna Be Your Dog

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"I Wanna Be Your Dog" is a 1969 song by the American rock band The Stooges. The song is featured on their self-titled debut album. Its memorable riff is composed of only three notes (G, F# and E), and is played continuously throughout the song (excepting a brief 4-bar bridge). The 3-minute-and-9-second long song, with its raucous, distortion-heavy guitar intro, pounding, single-note piano riff played by producer John Cale and steady, driving beat, is a canonical example of The Stooges' heavy metal and punk sound. In 2004, the song was ranked number 438 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cover versions

The song has been covered by many artists, including Slayer, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Vicious White Kids, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, Cage the Elephant, Mission of Burma, Chris Whitley, Swans, Uncle Tupelo, Alejandro Escovedo, Emilie Simon, Styles of Beyond, The House of Love, Green Day, Ida Maria, Stereophonics and many others.

Slayer recorded a tribute parody called "I'm Gonna Be Your God" for their Undisputed Attitude album.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Let Me Be Your Hog" is a parody of the garage-punk genre and contains obvious elements of the song.

In 2007, R.E.M. performed this song with Patti Smith in their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Use in popular culture

The song is featured in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Transporter 3 and Friday Night Lights, The Crow: City of Angels (in which Iggy Pop played the role of Curve, one of the villains) and Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse, the skateboard video by Flip, entitled "Sorry", an episode of TV show Skins (Episode 2.9) and in an episode of the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother (Episode 2.16: Stuff).

It was also used in the games Vietcong and Grand Theft Auto IV, the latter of which features Iggy Pop as a DJ.