Guns N’ Roses ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ Becomes First 80s Video To Hit 1 Billion Views

Guns N’ Roses notches another milestone, with ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ becoming the first 80s music video to reach a billion views on YouTube.

This follows their previous record-breaking feat, when their epic music video for ‘November Rain’ became the first (and only) music video from the 90s to reach 1 billion views back in (appropriately) November of 2018.

The legendary LA rockers famously made their MTV debut in 1987 with ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, but it wasn’t until ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ that the band became a household name.

Coming of age during the rise of the music videos and MTV, Guns N’ Roses would become regular fixtures on the small screen, with their theatrical promo videos.

‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ was one of the biggest hits off their explosive debut, 1987’s Appetite For Destruction, which remains the best-selling US debut album ever, selling more than 30 million copies globally.

By 6 August 1988, Appetite For Destruction had made it to No.1 on the Billboard 200 after 50 weeks of working the charts much in part to the success of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, which hit No.1 on the Hot 100 on 10 September 1988.

From its iconic opening riffs, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ remains from of GNR’s most enduring hits. With no pyrotechnics in sight, the music video for the uptempo ballad, is relatively straightforward, just the band at the peak of their powers, playing with passion, surrounded by their partners and a camera crew. It also captures the innate charisma of the members and introduced audiences to a group who would become one of the biggest bands in the world.

“I had written this poem, reached a dead end with it and put it on the shelf,” Axl stated in a press release at the time. “Then Slash and Izzy got working together on songs and I came in, Izzy hit a rhythm, and all of a sudden this poem popped into my head.”

Guns N’ Roses’ star continues to shine, as their ‘Not In This Lifetime’ worldwide tour is now the fourth most successful tours in music history and they’re among the top 200 most-viewed artists of 2019, both globally and in the US on Youtube.

Listen to the best of Guns N’ Roses on Apple Music and Spotify.

Format: UK English