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Guns N' Roses Appetite for Success

08/06/2010
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Bryan Wawzenek of Gibson.com gives us an in-depth look at Guns N' Roses slow climb to No. 1 on the anniversary of Appetite for Destruction topping the charts. Here you go! It was a long, slow climb, but on August 6, 1988 Guns N' Roses finally hit #1 on the Billboard album charts with Appetite for Destruction. Over the course of a year, "the world's most dangerous band" had become the kings of rock and roll.

The Los Angeles-based hard rockers had released their debut album on July 21, 1987, but it took a while to catch fire. It's hard to imagine now, but when "Welcome to the Jungle" (written by Slash and Axl Rose) was first released, the single was practically a flop.

It wasn't until Geffen Records President David Geffen put in a good word with MTV that the song, the album and the band started to take off. Geffen personally convinced executives at the music video channel to try showing the "Welcome to the Jungle" video during the late night or early morning hours. Initially, the video only was played once at 4 a.m. on a Sunday, but that was all it took for some rock fans to take notice. Calls and requests started to come in and, steadily, "Welcome to the Jungle" got bumped up in MTV's rotation.

Then the floodgates really opened. "Welcome to the Jungle" became a hit and Appetite for Destruction began shooting up the charts. - more on this story

Gibson.com is an official news provider for the Day in Rock.



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