"Yankee Rose" is a song recorded by David Lee Roth, featuring the prominent electric guitar of its co-writer, virtuoso Steve Vai. Roth's first single on his 1986 first full-length solo LP Eat 'Em and Smile, with lyrical allusions to the American national anthem and Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", as well as July 4, independence, flag unfurling, rocket flare, fire crackers, apple pie, and her torch light, was recorded as a tribute to the Statue of Liberty,[2] as the statue was completing a major renovation for the 100th anniversary of its dedication in 1886:
| "Yankee Rose" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by David Lee Roth | ||||
| from the album Eat 'Em and Smile | ||||
| Released | June 18, 1986[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1986 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:55 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriter(s) | David Lee Roth, Steve Vai | |||
| Producer(s) | Ted Templeman | |||
| David Lee Roth singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"coast to coast, sea to shining sea, hey sister, you're the perfect host"
"...nothing like her in the whole world"
The song was Roth's third Top 20 hit, the first two being covers of "California Girls" (peak #3) and "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" (peak #12). "Yankee Rose" peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[3]
It also appears as a radio tune on the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the rock station "V-Rock". A cover of the song is the title song for the video game Rumble Roses and Rumble Roses XX performed by Teresa James.
Music video edit
Despite the song's topic, there were no visual references to the Statue of Liberty; rather it was a band performance with much sexual innuendo, bumping and grinding, as well as Roth rump shaking and even simulating coital insertion and thrusting with his microphone.
It featured a comical prolog of a gold medallion-wearing Indian convenience store clerk and various eccentric customers and their ensuing melodrama, as Bollywood type music plays in the background from his radio. A mismatched newlywed couple arguing about a hotel room; an African American woman in a lei covered-bikini, buying a dozen boxes of breath mints, who passionately rebukes the clerks advances, deriding him as "the last immigrant grocer on Earth"; an obese woman screaming about over the counter laxatives, to which the clerk replies, "Not in my store you don't!"; a sleazy playboy in a suit (flanked by blondes in bikinis), played by Roth's co-creator Pete Angelus; and finally, David Lee Roth himself, shirtless, in the same blue and red tribal face paint seen on his LP cover, head feathers and a loin cloth holding a spear, demanding "Give me a bottle of anything...and a glazed doughnut...to go," and cuts to the start of the song.
Charts edit
| Chart (1986) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] | 33 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[5] | 29 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[6] | 16 |
| US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[7] | 10 |
References edit
- ^ "The Best" cd liner notes (1997)
- ^ ""Yankee Rose" David Lee Roth". Rollingstone.com. 1986. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
- ^ "David Lee Roth – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 36. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was authorized by ARIA from 1970 to 1988.
- ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 0722." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
- ^ "David Lee Roth Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
- ^ "David Lee Roth Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
