A Horse with No Name
Encyclopedia
“A Horse with No Name” is a song written by Dewey Bunnell and originally recorded by the band America
. It was the band's first and most successful single, released in early 1972, topping the charts in several countries. It was certified “gold” by the Recording Industry Association of America
.
, in Puddletown
, Dorset
. The first two demos were recorded there, by Jeff Dexter and Dennis Elliott, and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert that had been depicted at the studio from a Salvador Dalí
painting, and the strange horse had ridden out of an M.C. Escher picture. Writer Dewey Bunnell also says he remembered his childhood travels through the Arizona
and New Mexico
desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base
.
on the day of final recording at Morgan Studios, at first the group thought it too corny and took some convincing to actually play it. Gerry Beckley has explained in Acoustic Guitar
magazine (March 2007) that the correct tuning for the guitar is D E D G B D, low to high. The chord pattern that repeats throughout the entire song is: 202002 (Em),then 020202 and 000202. The tuning is unique to this song; they did not use it on any other America song.
) because of supposed drug references, the song ascended to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
, and the album quickly reached platinum
status. The song did chart earlier in the Netherlands (reaching number 11) and the UK (reaching number 3) than it actually did in the United States. The interpretation of the song as a drug reference comes from the fact that “horse” is a common slang term for heroin.
The song's resemblance to some of Neil Young
's work aroused some controversy. “I know that virtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil”, Bunnell says. “I never fully shied away from the fact that I was inspired by him. I think it's in the structure of the song as much as in the tone of his voice. It did hurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash. I've always attributed it more to people protecting their own heroes more than attacking me”. By coincidence, it was “A Horse with No Name” that replaced Young's “Heart of Gold”
at the #1 spot on the U.S. pop chart.
The song has also been ridiculed for its banal, oddly phrased lyrics, including “The heat was hot”; “There were plants, and birds, and rocks, and things”; and “'Cause there ain't no-one for to give you no pain”.
. In 1987, the Danish
rock band
D-A-D
made a cover version
released on the album D.A.D. Draws a Circle
. Furthermore, the song has been covered by Larrikin Love
with somewhat Celtic
-sounding instrumentation and style for Q Magazine in 2006. The song is also featured in the movies The Trip
and Air America
. In 2008
, it was used in a Kohls TV commercial for Vera Wang
. It can also be heard in season 2 of Millennium
, in the episode “Owls” and was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
on the fictional classic rock radio station K-DST. The song bookends the third season episode of Breaking Bad, “Caballo sin Nombre” (Spanish for “Horse with No Name”), where the song plays on a car radio as Walter White drives through the desert in the beginning and is sung by Walter in the shower at the end. The song was also featured in the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
in Season 5 episode 22, The One With Joey's Big Break.
“A Place With No Name
” was released by TMZ as a 25-second snippet on July 16, 2009. The snippet closely resembles “A Horse With No Name”. Jim Morey, both Jackson's and America's former band manager, has stated that “America was honored that Michael chose to do their song and they hope it becomes available for all Michael's fans to hear.”
In 1999, the literary magazine Lamia Ink published a short play by American playwright Meron Langsner entitled The Name of the Horse, in which the problem of the horse's name is explored.
America (band)
America is an English-American folk rock band that originally included members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The three members were barely out of their teens when they became a musical sensation during 1972, scoring #1 hits and winning a Grammy for best new musical artist...
. It was the band's first and most successful single, released in early 1972, topping the charts in several countries. It was certified “gold” by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
.
Development
America's self-titled debut album was released initially in Europe with only moderate success and without the song “A Horse With No Name”. Trying to find a song that would be popular in both the United States and Europe, “A Horse with No Name” was originally called “Desert Song” and was written while the band was staying at the home studio of Arthur BrownArthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...
, in Puddletown
Puddletown
Puddletown is a village in Dorset, England, 5 miles east of Dorchester in the River Piddle valley. The village has a population of 1,177 , of which 30.3% are retired....
, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. The first two demos were recorded there, by Jeff Dexter and Dennis Elliott, and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert that had been depicted at the studio from a Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
painting, and the strange horse had ridden out of an M.C. Escher picture. Writer Dewey Bunnell also says he remembered his childhood travels through the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....
.
Composition
“A Horse With No Name” was recorded in the key of E minor with acoustic guitars, bass guitar, and bongo drums. The only other chord is a Dadd6add9, fretted on the low E and G strings, second fret. A 12 string plays an added F# (second fret, high E string) on the back beat of the Em. A noted feature of the song is the driving bass line with a hammer-hook in each chorus. A “waterfall” type solo completes the arrangement. Produced by Ian SamwellIan Samwell
Ian "Sammy" Samwell was an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known as the writer of Cliff Richard's debut hit "Move It" and his association with the rock band America with whom he had his biggest commercial success with their hit single "A Horse With No Name"...
on the day of final recording at Morgan Studios, at first the group thought it too corny and took some convincing to actually play it. Gerry Beckley has explained in Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar (magazine)
Acoustic Guitar is a monthly magazine published in the United States since July/August 1990 by String Letter Publishing. The magazine offers information related to acoustic guitars for players of all levels from beginners to teachers. Each issue includes a half dozen or so songs with notation and...
magazine (March 2007) that the correct tuning for the guitar is D E D G B D, low to high. The chord pattern that repeats throughout the entire song is: 202002 (Em),then 020202 and 000202. The tuning is unique to this song; they did not use it on any other America song.
Reception
Despite (or, perhaps, because of) the song being banned by some U.S. radio stations (including one in Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
) because of supposed drug references, the song ascended to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and the album quickly reached platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
status. The song did chart earlier in the Netherlands (reaching number 11) and the UK (reaching number 3) than it actually did in the United States. The interpretation of the song as a drug reference comes from the fact that “horse” is a common slang term for heroin.
The song's resemblance to some of Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's work aroused some controversy. “I know that virtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil”, Bunnell says. “I never fully shied away from the fact that I was inspired by him. I think it's in the structure of the song as much as in the tone of his voice. It did hurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash. I've always attributed it more to people protecting their own heroes more than attacking me”. By coincidence, it was “A Horse with No Name” that replaced Young's “Heart of Gold”
Heart of Gold (song)
"Heart of Gold" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. Released from the 1972 album Harvest, it is so far Young's only U.S. #1 single. In Canada, it reached #1 on the RPM national singles chart for the first time on April 8, 1972, on which date Young held the top spot on both the...
at the #1 spot on the U.S. pop chart.
The song has also been ridiculed for its banal, oddly phrased lyrics, including “The heat was hot”; “There were plants, and birds, and rocks, and things”; and “'Cause there ain't no-one for to give you no pain”.
In popular culture
The song was one of many popular songs quoted and parodied on the album The Third Reich 'n Roll by The ResidentsThe Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
. In 1987, the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
D-A-D
D-A-D
D-A-D is a Danish rock band previously known as "Disneyland After Dark", a name that had to be changed after a threatening lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company. Their style of music is often categorized as melodic heavy rock...
made a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
released on the album D.A.D. Draws a Circle
D.A.D. Draws a Circle
D.A.D. Draws a Circle is an album by Danish rock band D-A-D. The album was released on June 16, 1987.The album contains D-A-D's first and only cover version, A Horse with No Name by America, at the request of producer .-Track listing:...
. Furthermore, the song has been covered by Larrikin Love
Larrikin Love
Larrikin Love were an English four piece indie rock band from London.Consisting of Edward Larrikin , Micko Larkin , Alfie Ambrose and Coz Kerrigan , and also occasionally including violinist Rob Skipper from The Holloways or roving violinist Jonnie Fielding, the band were briefly described as...
with somewhat Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
-sounding instrumentation and style for Q Magazine in 2006. The song is also featured in the movies The Trip
The Trip (2002 film)
The Trip is a 2002 epic gay romance that traces the relationship between two men from their initial meeting in 1973 until 1984.-Plot synopsis:...
and Air America
Air America (film)
Air America is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. as Air America pilots, during the Vietnam War, flying missions in Laos...
. In 2008
2008 in television
The following is a list of events affecting American television in 2008. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel launches.-January:-February:-March:-April:-May:-June:-July:-August:...
, it was used in a Kohls TV commercial for Vera Wang
Vera Wang
Vera Ellen Wang is a Chinese American fashion designer based in New York City and former figure skater. She is known for her wide clientele of couture bridesmaid gowns and wedding gown collections.-Personal life:...
. It can also be heard in season 2 of Millennium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...
, in the episode “Owls” and was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
on the fictional classic rock radio station K-DST. The song bookends the third season episode of Breaking Bad, “Caballo sin Nombre” (Spanish for “Horse with No Name”), where the song plays on a car radio as Walter White drives through the desert in the beginning and is sung by Walter in the shower at the end. The song was also featured in the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
in Season 5 episode 22, The One With Joey's Big Break.
“A Place With No Name
A Place With No Name
"A Place with No Name" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. A 24—second snippet of the full song was released posthumously by website TMZ.com in July 2009, three weeks after the singer's death. The track resembles "A Horse with No Name", a hit song by rock band America...
” was released by TMZ as a 25-second snippet on July 16, 2009. The snippet closely resembles “A Horse With No Name”. Jim Morey, both Jackson's and America's former band manager, has stated that “America was honored that Michael chose to do their song and they hope it becomes available for all Michael's fans to hear.”
In 1999, the literary magazine Lamia Ink published a short play by American playwright Meron Langsner entitled The Name of the Horse, in which the problem of the horse's name is explored.
Charts
| Chart (1972) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 1 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 12 |
| UK Singles Chart | 3 |