"All Right Now
" is a rock single by the English band Free. The song, released in the summer of 1970, hit #2 on the UK singles chart and #4 on the U.S. charts. "All Right Now" originally appeared on the album Fire And Water
, which Free recorded on the Island Records label, formed by Chris Blackwell. In 1991, the song was remixed and re-released, reaching #8 on the UK singles chart.
"All Right Now" was a #1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)
in 1990 for garnering 1,000,000 plus radio plays in the U.S. by late 1989, and in 2000 an Award was given to Paul Rodgers by the British Music Industry when "All Right Now" passed 2,000,000 plus radio plays in the UK.
The song has recently found a home as part of the encore set for Queen + Paul Rodgers. Before "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", it offers the fans one more chance to sing along. Curiously, one of the engineers during the recordings of "All Right Now" was Roy Thomas Baker, who would later become Queen's producer (he mixed "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Don't Stop Me Now" among others).
According to drummer Simon Kirke, "All Right Now" was written by bassist Andy Fraser in the Durham Students' Union building, Dunelm House. However, Paul Rodgers has stated unintentionally whilst performing with Queen that he wrote the lyrics to "All Right Now". This remark can be heard on the Queen + Paul Rodgers CD, Return of the Champions
, when "All Right Now" starts.
|
ALL RIGHT NOW TICKETS
|
Versions / Mixes
There are (at least) two mixes of Free's "All Right Now". The most popular version heard on album rock stations is 5:29 and a shorter mix is 4:13. The shorter one has a more complex guitar riff at the lead-in. The difference appears in the first seven seconds of the two tracks before Rodgers' "Whoa, whoa, whoa". The jazzier riff is apparent throughout the entire recording; there are also several slight variants to the
bassline.
Furthermore, there are two mixes of the common 4:13 version. The first is the original '1970s' version; this was later remixed using exactly the same vocal track, but replacing the guitars and drums with heavier, rockier sounding ones.
There is an outtake version on their box-set, and a version on Free Live!
Credits
- Written by Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers
- Produced by Andy Fraser, Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff
- Paul Rodgers -- Lead vocals
- Paul Kossoff -- Guitar
- Andy Fraser -- Bass guitar
- Simon Kirke -- Drums
In popular culture
"All Right Now" has made several notable pop culture appearances. A short list follows.
- The unofficial Stanford University fight song
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
- The Sopranos
(Season 6, episode 74: "The Ride"
- Entourage
(Season 2, episode 2: "My Maserati Does 185")
- Supernatural
(Season 1, episode 5: "Skin")
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
- American Beauty
- Now and Then
- Wonderland
- Outside Providence
- Lord of War
- Desperado
- Fox coverage of the 2006 World Series
- House
- Heartbeat (2006)
- Snow Cake
- Heroes
- American Idol (season 7) ~ David Cook
- Rock Band Series
Downloadable Content (October 7, 2008)
American Beauty Sam Mendes Dir.
It has also featured in adverts, notably:
- "Wrigley's Spearmint's bus advert in 1990
Cover versions
"All Right Now" has been covered by many bands and artists; the most popular are by
The Runaways in 1978, (Rick) Santers in 1984,
Rod Stewart in 1985, ex-
Wham! backing singers
Pepsi & Shirlie in 1987, and by
Scottish girl band
Lemonescent in 2003. It has also been sampled in
Tone-Loc's song "
Funky Cold Medina" in 1989.
Sawyer Brown covers "All Right Now" as a part of their 2008 tour.
"All Right Now", recorded by
Mike Oldfield (produced by
Tom Newman), with vocals by Wendy Roberts and Pierre Moerrlen, was issued as a one-sided promotional blue flexi-disc 7" single in 1979. The single was given only to
Virgin Records executives and was never issued to the public, making it one of the most elusive collectors' items in the Oldfield catalogue. Its catalogue number is "Virgin TT-362"
[1].
Since 1976, "All Right Now" has been the de facto fight song of the incomparable Leland
Stanford Junior University Marching Band (
LSJUMB).
Steve Miller acknowledged that the intro to his
1976 #1 single "
Rock 'n Me
" was a tip of the hat to All Right Now. "Yeah, it's a tack on the wall for Paul. I did one concert in the two years that I was off the road. I went to
London and played with
Pink Floyd...it was a big, huge outdoor show so we needed a big rock and roll number that was really going to excite everybody. I just put it together and didn't think much about it."
See also
- Return of the Champions
- Super Live in Japan
References
- Rare Tracks