"Lit Up" is the debut single by American
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
band
Buckcherry
Buckcherry is an American hard rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, ''Buckcherry (album), Buckcherry'' (1999) and ''Time Bomb (Buckcherry album), Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckche ...
, taken from their
self-titled debut album. It was the band's first and only number one song on the ''Billboard''
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...
chart.
Steve Jones Steve or Steven Jones may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Steve Jones (English presenter) (born 1945), English musician, disk jockey, television presenter, and voice-over artist
*Steve Jones (musician) (born 1955), English rock and roll guitar ...
from the
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...
played guitar on the song. The riff was taken from the intro riff to the
Kiss
A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...
song "
Shock Me
"Shock Me" is a song by American rock band Kiss that first appeared on their 1977 album ''Love Gun''. It was written by lead guitarist Ace Frehley, who made his lead vocal debut with the track. The song was inspired by an event that took place du ...
".
Content
Singer Josh Todd said, "'Lit Up' is about the first time I did cocaine. I knew a couple of dealers in high school and had a lot of fun with that until it wasn't fun anymore - haha!"
Awards
The song reached number one on the ''Billboard''
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...
chart for three weeks and number 33 on the
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...
in mid-1999. It was ranked number 98 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs in January 2009.
Music video
The music video for the song features the band playing in front of an audience. MTV censored the lines glorifying
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
.
See also
*
List of ''RPM'' number-one alternative rock singles
*
List of ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1990s
References
1999 debut singles
Buckcherry songs
Songs written by Josh Todd
Songs about cocaine
DreamWorks Records singles
1998 songs
{{1990s-rock-song-stub