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Swingtown (song)
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Wikipedia article
"'Swingtown'" is a 1977 hit song by the Steve Miller Band. It was their third and final single release from their 'Book of Dreams' album, and became the second biggest hit from the LP.
"Swingtown" reached on the U.S. 'Billboard' Hot 100 and spent two weeks at on the 'Cash Box' Hot 100. It also peaked at on the Canadian pop chart.
Reception
'Cash Box' said that it "centers around an infectious drum/bass riff."
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Use in media
In late 1978 and 1979, Ford used an edit from the instrumental sections of the song in its television ads for the '79 Ford Mustang.
"Swingtown" appears in the soundtrack of the 1994 film 'My Girl 2'.
"Swingtown" is used in the 2000 episode entitled "D-Girl" from the second season of the HBO series, 'The Sopranos'.
"Swingtown" is a popular song sung by students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, especially at Wisconsin football games at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Marching Band plays it and the students sing the "O-OOOOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O" part of the song ending it with the word "sucks" to refer to section "O" of the student section, the "sucks" is chanted by other student sections especially section P, this is usually followed by a chant of "fuck you, eat shit" by student sections O and P. Despite the song being popular among the students, several attempts to have the song banned by the UW staff and the Chancellor have been attempted due to the controversial "fuck you, eat shit" chant, but the banning of the song has so far proven to be unsuccessful.
Steve Miller, himself a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and vocalist of the Steve Miller Band guest conducted the song with The Wisconsin Marching Band.
It appears in promotions for the 2022 The Players golf tournament.
Inspiration for Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"
Guitarist Greg Leon, who initially took Randy Rhoads' place in Quiet Riot, claims that the iconic verse riff to Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" came about when he and Rhoads were messing around with "Swingtown". We were hanging out, and I showed him the riff to Steve Millers "Swingtown". I said: "Look what happens when you speed this riff up". We messed around, and the next thing I know he took it to a whole other level and end up writing the "Crazy Train" riff.
References
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