"Lonely Boy" is a song by American rock band

the Black Keys The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their ...

. It is the opening track from their 2011 studio album '' El Camino'' and was released as the record's lead single on October 26, 2011. The song is also the A-side of a promotional 12-inch single that was released in commemoration of

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

's "Back to Black" Friday event. The single was accompanied by a popular

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music video of a man dancing and lip-synching the lyrics. "Lonely Boy" became one of the group's most successful singles. It topped several rock radio charts, including the

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

and Rock Songs charts in the US, and the Alternative Rock and Active Rock charts in Canada. On the singles charts, "Lonely Boy" was the group's highest-charting song in several countries, peaking at number 64 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number two on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, and number 33 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record ...

. At the

55th Annual Grammy Awards The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 10, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ...

, the song won awards for

Best Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for s ...

and Best Rock Song, while also receiving a nomination for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

Composition

"Lonely Boy" is 3:13 in length. The song was written by

Dan Auerbach Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...

and

Patrick Carney Patrick James Carney (born April 15, 1980) is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. Early life Carney's father, Jim, is a retired reporter for the ''Akron Beacon Journ ...

with producer Danger Mouse. The song is played in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: : Changes needed ...

, with only three chords used throughout the song. "Lonely Boy" is set in the

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

of 168 beats per minute. According to Auerbach, the guitar

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...

was inspired by

Johnny Burnette John Joseph Burnette (March 25, 1934 – August 14, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter of rockabilly and pop music. In 1952, Johnny and his brother, Dorsey Burnette, and their mutual friend Paul Burlison formed the band that became ...

's cover of "

Train Kept A-Rollin' "Train Kept A-Rollin'" (or "The Train Kept A-Rollin'") is a song first recorded by American jazz and rhythm and blues musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951. Originally performed in the style of a jump blues, Bradshaw borrowed lyrics from an earlier son ...

". The guitar line features a dive bomb although Auerbach uses a

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Super Shifter pedal to achieve the effect.

Release

Music video

The promotional music video for "Lonely Boy" features actor, musician and part-time security guard Derrick T. Tuggle dancing and lip-syncing to the song in front of the Pepper Tree Motel in North Hollywood, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The video, shot in a single take, went viral and garnered more than 400,000 views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

within 24 hours. The video originally had a script and a cast of more than 40 people, but the group was not pleased with the results. Auerbach said, "A couple of weeks after we shot it they sent us the edit and it was awful. We sent it back... they sent us another edit and it was terrible. That's when we said 'what about that one guy, the extra who had that one dance scene' and that's the video – the most expensive single shot ever recorded." Tuggle was originally cast as an extra who would be handed a set of keys to the band's motel room by Auerbach and Carney. While on set, Tuggle's improvised dancing drew the attention of director

Jesse Dylan Jesse Byron Dylan (born January 6, 1966) is an American film director and production executive. He is the founder of the media production company Wondros and Lybba, a non-profit organization. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relati ...

. He said, "The director just sort of noticed me dancing and asked me, 'Can you perform?' I said, 'I can dance, anybody can dance,' so I took some moves from everybody:

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom '' Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes '' Carrie'' ( ...

from ''

Saturday Night Fever ''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends h ...

'' and ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...

'', the

Carlton Banks Carlton Banks is a fictional character portrayed by Alfonso Ribeiro on the NBC television sitcom ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' from September 1990 to May 1996, the preppy and politically conservative cousin, main foil, and eventual close friend ...

dance from '' The Fresh Prince'' and a little bit of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

, so it was a smorgasbord of everybody in there." He added, "It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. My acting teacher Mark McPherson, he has us do this thing before we start class called 'Song and Dance,' where he'll have us sing one of our favorite songs, and then while we're singing it, he'll have us do a crazy dance, or a sexy dance, and I guess it spawned from that." The video was nominated for a

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MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video. Tuggle's performance later earned him a cameo appearance in the music video for "

Happy Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. Sin ...

" by

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

Cover art

The cover of the single release features an image of a bulldozer sitting on an empty tract of land. The lot was previously filled by the factory at which the group's 2004 album ''

Rubber Factory ''Rubber Factory'' is the third studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys. It was self-produced by the band and was released on September 7, 2004, on Fat Possum Records. The album was recorded in an abandoned tire-manufacturing factory in ...

'' was recorded. Michael Carney, the group's

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

, went to take a photo of the factory but found that it had been demolished. Auerbach joked about the cover's significance: "We keep stumbling into these profound artistic expressions. That's how we roll though."

Commercial performance

"Lonely Boy" became one of the group's most successful singles. It topped several rock radio charts, including the

and Rock Songs charts in the US (the second such Black Keys song to top both), and the Alternative Rock and Active Rock charts in Canada. On the

Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in ...

chart, it has become their highest-charting song, peaking at number five. On the singles charts, it became the band's highest-charting song in several countries, reaching a peak of number 64 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (which beats the number 87 peak achieved by 2010's " Tighten Up"), number two on the

, and number 33 on the

. The song was certified nine-times platinum in Canada, triple-platinum in Australia, platinum in New Zealand, and gold in Denmark.

Reception

Critical reaction

In a review of the single, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' gave the song four out of five stars, saying that "Frustrated desire is the song's ostensible theme... but for Keys fans, this is a clean hit of instant gratification." Its review of ''El Camino'' praised the song's arrangement, particularly the "sugar-crusted keyboard" that, along with the chorus, "chang sthe swampy chug into a seductive singalong". James Lachno of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' said the song "blends Steppenwolf's road-tripping aesthetic with the

proto-punk Proto-punk (or protopunk) is rock music played mostly by garage bands from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. The phrase is a retrospective label; the musicians involved were generally not originally associated w ...

of the Modern Lovers" and was an example of how a "broader collage of influences allows the duo to fashion a more distinctive sound".

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

reviewer Rob Harvilla called it a "surging opener" and highlighted the "machine-gun surge of Dan Auerbach's gong-banging guitar". Kitty Empire of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' wrote, "It's hard to resist the taut and catchy single".

Accolades

Readers of ''Rolling Stone'' voted "Lonely Boy" the third-best song of 2011 in an end-of-year poll. '' Paste'' ranked it number 20 on its list of "The 50 Best Songs of 2011". The song placed second on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2011 The 2011 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2012. It is the nineteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced on 14 Decemb ...

poll of the most popular songs in Australia. According to AirCheck, "Lonely Boy" was the most-played song on Australian radio in 2012, logging more than 884 hours of playtime. At the

, "Lonely Boy" was nominated for

, Best Rock Song and

, winning the first two.

Use in popular media

The song has been used for the UFC Primetime event, '' UFC on Fox: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos'', and in the soundtracks for '' Need for Speed: The Run'' and '' Forza Horizon''. It was also used in a highlights package prior to the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

vs.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

match in the

2012 Six Nations The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was ...

and for

Drew Brees Drew Christopher Brees (; born January 15, 1979) is an American former American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. A member of the New Orleans Saints for most of his career, Brees i ...

and

Alex Smith Alexander Douglas Smith (born May 7, 1984) is an American former quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football at Utah, where he received first-team All-American honors and won the ...

in the pregame before a 2011 NFL Divisional Playoff game between Brees'

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

and Smith's

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's Nationa ...

. It also featured on ''

Channel 4 Racing ''Channel 4 Racing'' was the name given to the horse racing coverage on the British television stations Channel 4 and More4. History The first transmission of racing on the channel was on 22 March 1984 from Doncaster, as it took over midweek cov ...

'' during their preview of a big race where Jim McGrath talked through the runners. This song was featured in ''Need for Speed: The Run'' video game. During the midpoint of the

2011–12 NHL season The 2011–12 NHL season was the 95th season of operation (94th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Los Angeles Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Final four games to two to win the team's first Stan ...

, it has been the goal song for the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, alon ...

and

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

. For most of the

, it has been the song played when the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its ho ...

come onto the ice before home games. On TV, the song was featured in episodes of '' Workaholics'', ''

Eastbound & Down ''Eastbound & Down'' is an American sports comedy television series that was broadcast on HBO, and created by Ben Best, Jody Hill, and Danny McBride. It stars McBride as Kenny Powers (character), Kenny Powers, a former professional baseball ...

'' and '' Hawaii Five-0'', the first episode of ''24/7 Flyers/Rangers: Road to the NHL Winter Classic'', the twelfth episode of season three, "The Ties That Bind", on ''

The Vampire Diaries ''The Vampire Diaries'' is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 10, ...

'', the episode " Broken" of ''

Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis (writer), Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was r ...

'', and in the opening sequence for episode one in the Australian TV show '' Underbelly: Badness''. It was also used in 2012 commercials for the launch of the A&E in Australia and

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. In movies, it was most recently heard in the trailers for the 2013 zombie comedy ''

Warm Bodies ''Warm Bodies'' is a novel by author Isaac Marion. The book was described as a "zombie romance" by the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' and makes allusions to William Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet''. The author, based in Seattle, originally w ...

'', the 2014 family comedy '' Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day'', and the 2016

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action comedy film '' Monster Trucks''.

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom ''Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". Sh ...

danced to this song with her audience as the opening dance on an episode of ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...

'' in the fall of 2012. '' The Free Beer and Hot Wings Show'' uses a sample of the song at times to bring the show back from commercial break. In 2014, the Austrian company A1 Telekom Austria used "Lonely Boy" for advertisement. Spanish TV show ''

Late Motiv ''Late Motiv'' (also known as ''Late Motiv de Andreu Buenafuente'') is a Spanish late-night talk show hosted by Andreu Buenafuente. It airs on #0, the flagship TV channel of subscription platform Movistar+, and is Buenafuente's first program to ...

'' used a version of it performed by its

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

as its opening theme. In 2018,

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

used an instrumental version of this song for their UK ad campaign.

Track listing

Personnel

– guitars, vocals *

– drums * Danger Mouse – production, bass guitar, keyboards Additional personnel: * Leisa Hans – backing vocals * Heather Rigdon – backing vocals * Ashley Wilcoxson – backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

{{Authority control The Black Keys songs Songs written by Dan Auerbach Songs written by Patrick Carney 2011 singles Grammy Award for Best Rock Song Songs about loneliness