Guns N’ Roses’ song ‘November Rain’ becomes the first rock video to hit two billion views on YouTube
New figures have been revealed showing that ‘November Rain’, the iconic single of Guns N’ Roses, is the first rock music video to hit two billion views on YouTube. The achievement has been reached just over 13 years after the original 1992 music video was uploaded to the video streaming service on Christmas Day in 2009.
The classic tune is accompanied by an equally iconic video featuring Guns N’ Roses’ frontman Axl Rose and his then-partner, the supermodel Stephanie Seymour. One of the most memorable moments from the video sees guitarist Slash head outside into a church courtyard to rip into one of his most cherished guitar solos.
A number of music videos have reached the two billion views milestone, but ‘November Rain’ is the first strictly-rock track to do so. The pop-orientated ‘Believer’ by Imagine Dragons has 2.3billion views, while Coldplay’s collaborative track with The Chainsmokers ‘Something Just Like This’ has 2.1billion views, but neither of those are solely rock music, unlike the Guns N’ Roses’ classic.
Topping the list is the much-maligned ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, with an eye-watering 8billion views. In terms of rock competitors, ‘Numb’ by Linkin Park and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana are close behind ‘November Rain’ with 1.9billion and 1.6billion views, respectively.
‘November Rain’ was written by Rose and was released as the third single from the band’s third studio album, Use Your Illusion I. The album version is nearly nine minutes in length, and, amazingly, Slash claimed in his autobiography that in 1986, the band recorded an 18-minute version of the song with Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton before they began recording sessions for their debut album Appetite for Destruction. If the song weren’t already self-indulgent enough at nine minutes, it certainly would be at 18.
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