“Cherry Pie” is a song by the American rock band Warrant. It was released in September 1990 as the lead single from the album of the same name. The song became a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 10 and also reached number 19 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks.[1] The song has been cited by many as a “rock anthem”.[2] In 2009, it was named the 56th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.[3]
Despite its success, a daylong MTV special on the best and worst music videos of all time, MTVs Triumphs and Tragedies, listed the songs video as one of the worst.
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The lyrics appear to contain many metaphorical and blatant references to sex, such as “Well, swingin on the front porch/Swingin on the lawn/Swingin where we want/Cause there aint nobody home”, and “Swingin in there/cause she wanted me to feed her/So I mixed up the batter/And she licked the beater”. SomeTemplate:Who say the lyrics are a man bragging about his sexual exploits with a woman who is very attractive and who is the object of desire of many men. However, near the end of the song, the womans father accidentally walks in on the pair having sex in the bathroom and immediately declares that their relationship must end: “Swing in the bathroom/Swingin on the floor/Swingin so hard/We forgot to lock the door/In walks her daddy/Standin six foot four/He said you aint gonna swing/With my daughter no more.”
The song title itself is also thought by many to be another blatant reference to sex. Here, both “cherry” and “pie” may be used sexually, as “cherry” can mean a virgin (as used in the context “pop her cherry” meaning “to take her virginity”, specifically when breaking the hymen during sex), and “pie” is slang for vulva.
Even in a genre not exactly known for its understated nature, “Cherry Pie,” by hair-metal band Warrant, is about as screamingly obvious as it gets. It’s painfully blunt, to the point where it almost achieves the impressive goal of turning a double entendre into a single. It should be taught in introductory English classes as a means of explaining metaphor, because it renders the concept in language a particularly dim rutabaga could understand. A dolphin would hear the song and go, “Oh, that’s what humans mean by fucking? Seems a bit juvenile. Also, women are dramatically undervalued in mammalian society!” Only, you know, with clicking and echolocation.Advertisement
In 2015, this trashy stuff is practically quaint, the equivalent of finding a Playboy magazine from 1985. Sexism was a hallmark of the hair-metal genre, and this video turns it up to 11. In case you’re not getting it, after the first minute the entire band holds a fire hose, and then sprays it all over model Bobbi Brown’s face and chest. But the whole thing is nearly a one-to-one correlation between lyric and . Jani Lane tells you to “Think about baseball, swing all night”? There’s our girl, dressed in form-fitting baseball uniform. “Swingin’ in there, cuz she wanted me to feed her. / So I mixed up the batter / And she licked the beater!” Cut to a finger running over his lips, because even Warrant felt the explained would be too on the nose, and also, gross. But don’t worry, because they made sure to use the cover of the record to point out what they’re talking about. Advertisement
For all that, the song is undeniably catchy, although it doesn’t hurt that it basically repurposes a riff from an equally catchy hit by Living Colour only a year or so earlier. Like a child’s nursery rhyme, it bores steadily into your head—boring, boring—until it imprints itself forevermore on your psyche. That earworm quality might be part of what Lane regrets about the track: In an interview with VH1, he said, “I could shoot myself in the fucking head for writing that song.” (He later walked that sentiment back, because Jani Lane knows who pays the bills.) Hearing it now, a song whose video Canadian music network MuchMusic refused to air for being “offensively sexist” seems like a parody of demeaning bubblegum metal, some grad student’s camp impression of ’80s-style cheesecake. But ultimately, as the song reminds you roughly 4 million times, it’s not cheesecake. It’s cherry pie. Advertisement
Released in 1990, the track became a Billboard top 10 hit, and the band’s biggest success. Supposedly written in 15 minutes on the back of a pizza box—which, yeah, that sounds about right—”Cherry Pie” tells the heartwarming story of a guy repeatedly having sex with a nameless woman he refers to as foodstuff. It seems clear she was a virgin before lead singer Jani Lane got to her, too, which makes her first time (first 10 times?) fairly noteworthy among losing-your-virginity stories (“I did it with the lead singer of Warrant!”), and also fairly unfortunate. It would be best if you went ahead and watched the video, because there’s a lot to talk about. Advertisement
In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: We’re celebrating Thanksgiving with songs about all kinds of pie.Maksim Chmerkovskiy on “So You Think You Can Dance” and meeting John Travolta Share Subtitles
Warrant: The Tragic Death of Jani Lane Who Wrote ‘Cherry Pie’
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