Bad To The Bone It Wasn't Me I Drink Alone George Thorogood

Bad To The Bone Album: Bad to the Bone (1982)
It Wasn't Me Album: Move It On Over (1978)
I Drink Alone Album: Maverick (1985)
by George Thorogood and the Destroyers

This is based on the Bo Diddley blues song "I'm A Man." Thorogood is influenced by the blues, and Diddley is one of his heroes. Thorogood's version has a much heavier guitar sound, which replaces the harmonica in Diddley's recording. Both songs are full of swagger, with the singers exuding lots of testosterone.

The phrase "bad to the bone" means there isn't a bit of good in him. Other songs have been published with that title, but Thorogood popularized it and created a modern blues classic with this song. Some artists to cover it include The Countdown Singers, Molly Hatchet and The Starlite Singers. Hip-hop artist Tek did a rap version of the song.

With MTV coming on the air in 1981, Thorogood picked a good time to release a memorable video. The clip shows Thorogood playing pool against Bo Diddley in a place where there is no chance of a dance sequence breaking out. Pool champion Willie Mosconi also appears in the clip, which introduced Thorogood - and to some extent, Diddley - to the younger MTV crowd. Among the British New Wave acts that dominated MTV's playlist at the time, Thorogood certainly stood out, and he created an image of a bad man. While Thorogood is a disciple of the blues, he was raised in a Delaware suburb and by most accounts is actually a pretty nice guy, despite what he claims in this song.

Bad To The Bone was featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day when Arnold Schwarzenegger steps out of a bar wearing biker clothes. It also appears in the movies The Parent Trap, Major Payne, Christine and Problem Child. TV series to use the song include Top Gear, South Park, Nurse Jackie, My Name Is Earl, Las Vegas, According to Jim, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Married... with Children (three times), and Miami Vice.

In the 2019 The Good Place episode "A Chip Driver Mystery," there's this bit of dialogue between Bad Janet (D'Arcy Carden) and Michael (Ted Danson):

Janet: "To quote a terrible song by a terrible musician that people love so much they constantly put it in terrible movie trailers, humans are b-b-b-b-b-b-bad to the bone."

Michael: "Well, I think that they're g-g-good sometimes. And you should give them the b-b-benefit of the d-d-doubt."

Move It On Over is the second studio album released in 1978 by the label Rounder Records. The album peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was on the chart for 47 weeks. Track 5 is "It Wasn't Me" written by Chuck Berry.

A huge fan of blues music, Thorogood often sings about drinking, a common theme in the genre. One of his most popular songs is a cover of "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," originally recorded by Amos Milburn in the '50s and popularized by John Lee Hooker in the '60s.

Drinking is generally a social activity, but in this song Thorogood takes a self-deprecating approach, explaining that he prefers drinking alone. The song takes a humorous tone, with the names of drinks garnishing the lyric with double meanings. For instance, he is drinking with his good buddy Wiser (Budweiser), his pals Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam, and the Walker brothers: Blackie and Red (Johnny Walker Black label and Red label). The only family member who will drink with him is his dear old granddad (Old Grand Dad whiskey).

He's pretty convincing, but George Thorogood is playing a character in this song. He's not one to crack a beer in the morning and drink all day.

"I Drink Alone" is a comedy song," he told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "It's supposed to be funny. People didn't always get it."

Most of George Thorogood's songs - particularly his early ones - are covers, often of old blues tunes. This worked well for him in the '70s when he made the lion's share of his living on tour, but when radio (and even MTV) started playing his songs, it helped to have a few hits he wrote himself so he could glean royalties. "I Drink Alone" is one of these self-written songs; "Bad To The Bone" is another.

George Thorogood made a video for this song where he rides his motorcycle to an out-of-the-way watering hole and starts drinking alone. At the end, a pretty lady joins him, so he gets up and leaves, telling her, "I drink alone."

Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone" video got a lot of play on MTV, but this one wasn't appropriate for their audience of teenage boys.

By 1985, when he released this song, Thorogood was a big enough deal that he earned an invitation to Live Aid - he performed on the Philadelphia stage after The Beach Boys and before Simple Minds. Instead of playing "I Drink Alone," his current single, he brought up two blues legends to perform with him: Bo Diddley on "Who Do You Love?" and Albert Collins on "Madison Blues."

This appears in the 2005 movie North Country and in the 2012 Nurse Jackie episode "Kettle-Kettle-Black-Black."