"Under the Bridge" is a song by the American rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the eleventh track on their fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991). It was released in February 1992 by Warner Bros. Records. The singer, Anthony Kiedis, wrote the lyrics while reflecting on loneliness and the struggles of being clean from drugs, and almost did not share it with the band.
"Under the Bridge" was praised by critics and fans for its emotional weight. The song was a commercial success and the band's highest-charting single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and certified platinum. It was also a success in other countries, mostly charting within the top 10. Gus Van Sant directed the song's music video, which was filmed in Los Angeles.
"Under the Bridge" helped the Red Hot Chili Peppers enter the mainstream. David Fricke of Rolling Stone said that the song "unexpectedly drop-kicked the band into the Top 10". The song has become an inspiration to other artists, and remains a seminal component of the alternative rock movement of the early-to-mid 1990s. In 1998, the English girl group All Saints released a cover that topped the UK singles chart for two weeks.
Writing
During the production of the Red Hot Chili Peppers's 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, producer Rick Rubin regularly visited singer Anthony Kiedis to review his new material. He found a poem titled "Under the Bridge" in Kiedis's notebook and took an interest in the poignant lyrics. Rubin suggested that Kiedis show it to the rest of the band: "I thought it was beautiful. I said, 'We've got to do this.'"
Kiedis was reluctant, as he felt the poem was too emotional and did not fit the Chili Peppers's style. After singing the poem to guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith, they "got up and walked over to their instruments and started finding the beat and guitar chords to match it".
Frusciante and Kiedis worked on the song for several days. It was one of the few tracks completed prior to the band moving into the Mansion, where they recorded the album.
Lyrics
Kiedis wrote many of the lyrics during a period of depression. After struggling with heroin and cocaine addiction, he had been sober for roughly three years. He felt that this had distanced him from his bandmates, who continued to use cannabis together; Kiedis felt that Frusciante was "no longer in [his] world". The verse recounts his experience entering gang territory under a bridge to purchase drugs; to gain access, Kiedis pretended that a sister of one of the gang members was his fiancée. Kiedis wrote that this was one of his lowest moments, as it demonstrated the level to which he was willing to sink for his addiction. however, this contradicts Kiedis's assertion that the bridge was under a freeway. Other possible locations include the Belmont Tunnel about half a mile from MacArthur Park, and the overpass where Interstate Highway 10 (the Santa Monica Freeway) crosses Hoover Street close to downtown L.A.
Composition
"Under the Bridge" is performed in time in the key of E major. The intro changes between D and F major chords before the first verse moves into E. The bridge and ending modulate to A minor. The song marked a shift in style for Kiedis, who had spent most of his career singing rapidly due to his limited range. The song begins with Frusciante playing a slow introduction he said drew from the 1967 Jimi Hendrix song "Little Wing".
As Kiedis begins to sing, the guitar playing becomes more rapid until it reaches an E major seventh chord that halts the song; the silence is broken by drummer Chad Smith's closed hi-hat and cross stick struck at a fast tempo. which reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart on October 26, 1991. The band did not expect "Under the Bridge" to be as successful, but understood its commercial potential. Warner Bros. Records sent representatives to a Chili Peppers concert to determine which song should be the next single. When Frusciante began playing "Under the Bridge", Kiedis missed his cue and the audience began singing the song instead. Kiedis was initially "mortified that I had fucked up in front of Warner's people [...] I apologized for fucking up but they said 'Fucking up? Are you kidding me? When every single kid at the show sings a song, that's our next single'."
"Under the Bridge" was released in February 1992 in Australia and on March 2, 1992, in the United Kingdom. Journalist Jeff Apter noted that it "was the bona fide, across-all-formats radio hit that the band had been working towards for seven years". It spent 26 cumulative weeks on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single has been certified 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Upon the 1991 release, Parry Gettelman from Orlando Sentinel described it as "an interesting Hendrix-Prince-Zep hybrid that has a lovely bass line (and none of Flea's increasingly predictable popping)." Nick Griffiths of Select dismissed it as "all mellow strumming and thoughtfully shallow vocals, though it's almost exonerated by a shrill unexpectedly choral middle eight". Reviewing the album, Ben DiPietro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch was impressed by the Chili Peppers' incorporation of slower tracks, especially "Under the Bridge". David Fricke of Rolling Stone said that it was a "stark and uncommonly pensive ballad" that "drop-kicked the band into the Top 10". Another Rolling Stone editor, Tom Moon, felt that the song "revealed new dimensions. The rhythm section displays a growing curiosity about studio texture and nuance."
Mark Frith from Smash Hits gave it five out of five, writing, "A classic. Far from being their usual in-yer-face energetic rap, "Under the Bridge" is a tender, thoughtful and quite sad tale of loneliness, the sort of thing that Pearl Jam would do if they forgot to ask their ten friends to play their guitars really loudly. Moody and brilliant." Philip Booth of The Tampa Tribune said it was "undulating [and] omnipresent" not only in alternative rock but pop music generally. According to Amy Hanson of AllMusic, it became "an integral part of the 1990s alterna-landscape, and remains one of the purest diamonds that sparkle amongst the rough-hewn and rich funk chasms that dominate the Peppers' own oeuvre". She praised "Under the Bridge" as a "poignant sentiment that is self evident among the simple guitar which cradles the introductory verse, and the sense of fragility that is only doubled by the still down-tempo choral crescendo". he has noted that he sometimes forgets or rearranges song lyrics in the verses. After its release, the song would be included in virtually all concerts; Frusciante, however, began to resent the song's popularity and would play convoluted intros, purposefully throwing Kiedis off.
At times Kiedis has also resented singing the song, especially during instances when he felt distanced from the song's lyrics. Recently, however, Kiedis has experienced a revival in interest: "Although there have been times when I was over ["Under the Bridge"], I've rediscovered it and now I feel close to it and it still has power, and life, and purpose as a song."
"Under the Bridge" was played at the 1999 Woodstock Festival, which the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined; they were the final act to perform. Attempts at distributing candles that were to be lit during the song backfired when the crowd, which was already disorderly, instead created a bonfire. Lighthearted foul-play escalated into violence when several women who had been crowd surfing and moshing were raped and nearby property was looted and destroyed. Other notable performances were at Slane Castle in August 2003 to 80,000 attendees; and in 2004 at London's Hyde Park, in which, over the course of three days, an estimated 250,000 people were in attendance. Released as the band's first live album, the event became the highest-grossing concert at a single venue in history, with a total revenue of $17.1 million. Q ranked the song number 180 on their compilation of the "1001 Best Songs, Ever". Life included "Under the Bridge" in the compilation "40 Years of Rock & Roll, 5 Songs Per Year 1952–1991", with the year being 1991. Pause and Play included the song in their unordered list of the "10 Songs of the 90's"; and the song ranked fifteenth in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s". Rolling Stone and MTV compiled a list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs Since The Beatles" in 2000, with "Under the Bridge" coming in fifty-fourth. "Under the Bridge" was also ranked No. 98 in the list of Rolling Stone "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" and ranked No. 328 on their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2021, Kerrang ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number seven on their list of the 40 greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers songs.
"Under the Bridge" helped the Red Hot Chili Peppers enter the mainstream. David Fricke of Rolling Stone said that the song "unexpectedly drop-kicked the band into the Top 10", Van Sant knew Flea due to his role in Van Sant's 1991 film My Own Private Idaho. Flea credited the video as "the thing that really made us break through the mainstream of American and worldwide pop culture". At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, the Red Hot Chili Peppers led the nominations, which included the categories of "Best Video", "Best Group", and "Best Direction". "Under the Bridge" won the group "Breakthrough Video" and "Viewers Choice Best Video"; the band's video for "Give It Away" won "Best Art Direction".
Track listings
- US cassette single (1992)
- "Under the Bridge" (album version) – 4:24
- "The Righteous & the Wicked" (album version) – 4:05
- UK 7-inch single (1992)
:A. "Under the Bridge" (LP version) – 4:34
:B. "Give It Away" (single mix) – 4:46
- UK 12-inch single (1992)
:A1. "Under the Bridge" (LP version) – 4:34
:A2. "Search and Destroy" – 3:39
:B1. "Soul to Squeeze" – 4:50
:B2. "Sikamikanico" – 3:25
- German CD single (1992)
- "Under the Bridge" (LP version) – 4:34
- "Sikamikanico" – 3:25
- "Give It Away" (12-inch mix) – 6:02
- "Give It Away" (Rasta Mix) – 6:47
- European 7-inch single (1992)
:A. "Under the Bridge" – 4:34
:B. "Sikamikanico" – 3:25
- UK limited-edition CD single (1994)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:34
- "Sikamikanico" – 3:25
- "Suck My Kiss" (live) – 3:45
- "Search and Destroy" – 3:39
- UK maxi-single (1994)
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
- "Fela's Cock" – 5:10
- "I Could Have Lied" (live) – 4:33
- "Give It Away" (in progress) – 4:37
- UK limited-edition 7-inch blue vinyl (1994)
:A. "Under the Bridge" – 4:34
:B. "Suck My Kiss" (live) – 3:45
Personnel
Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Anthony Kiedis – vocals
- John Frusciante – guitar
- Flea – bass
- Chad Smith – drums
Additional musicians
- Gail Frusciante and her friends – choir vocals
- Brendan O'Brien – Hammond B-3 Organ
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+Weekly chart performance for "Under the Bridge"
!scope="col"|Chart (1992–2012)
!scope="col"|Peak<br/>position
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Australia Alternative (ARIA)
| 1
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (VRT Top 30 Flanders)
| 1
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Denmark (IFPI)
| 7
|-
!scope="row"|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)
| 30
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Iceland (RÚV)
| 2
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Mexico International (Notitas Musicales)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Quebec Airplay (ADISQ)
| 9
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100
| 1
|}
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Year-end chart performance for "Under the Bridge"
!scope="col"|Chart (1992)
!scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
| 9
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
| 14
|-
!scope="row"|Brazil (Crowley)
| 42
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Singles (RPM)
| 21
|-
!scope="row"|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)
| 96
|-
!scope="row"|Germany (Media Control)
| 39
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)
| 8
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
| 6
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand (RIANZ)
| 7
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard Hot 100
| 8
|-
!scope="row"|US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)
| 8
|-
!scope="row"|US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)
| 5
|}
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!scope="col"|Chart (1994)
!scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|UK Singles (OCC)
| 131
|}
Decade-end charts
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Decade-end chart performance for "Under the Bridge"
!scope="col"|Chart (2010–2019)
!scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|US Top Airplay Spins (Nielsen Music)
| 9
|}