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"Bad to the Bone"
Single by George Thorogood & the Destroyers
from the album Bad to the Bone
B-side	"No Particular Place to Go"
Released	September 17, 1982
Format	7"
Recorded	1981
Genre	blues-rock, hard-rock
Length	4:52
Label	EMI America
Writer(s)	George Thorogood
Producer	The Delaware Destroyers
George Thorogood & the Destroyers singles chronology
"Nobody But Me" (1982) "Bad to the Bone" (1982)

"Bad to the Bone" is a song by George Thorogood and the Destroyers released in 1982 on the album of the same name. While it was not a major hit on initial release, its memorable video made recurrent appearances on the nascent MTV, which was created only a year before and just taking off. Widespread licensing for films, television, and commercials has since made "Bad to the Bone" one of the best-recognized songs of the 80s.

Structure and influences

The song's roots can be traced back to rock and roll legend Bo Diddley's song "I'm a Man", which uses the same guitar riff and vocal rhythm, and has a similar overall structure, as well as Muddy Waters's "She Moves Me" and "Mannish Boy".

The famous guitar riff easily recognizable, and it is also played on sax throughout.

Music video

The video intercuts a live performance by Thorogood and his band with his playing a lengthy game of pool with Bo Diddley himself. Pool legend Willie Mosconi is summoned from another room by a spectator, and he wagers a large sum of money on Diddley. As Thorogood appears to be winning, a group of children outside celebrate while Diddley gets a dirty look from Mosconi.

Thorogood prominently smokes a fat cigar throughout the pool-playing sequence. The video ends with Thorogood making the 8 ball drop into a pocket by flicking a large quantity of cigar ash on the floor, apparently triggering the drop of the ball in the pocket.

Appearances in other media

Due to its aggressive-sounding guitar riff and recognizable lyrics, the song is frequently used in movies and television shows when a "bad guy" needs to be introduced or identified. The song was for instance used in the bar scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day where the Terminator first is shown in his full leather outfit. "Bad to the Bone" can also be heard in the remake of The Parent Trap (featuring Lindsay Lohan) in the poker scene, the opening credits to Major Payne, in the first scene and during the closing credits of Stephen King's Christine, as well as multiple episodes of the sitcom Married... with Children, in the Super Nintendo classic game Rock 'n Roll Racing, and in the film Talk Radio as the song that starts off the talk show. The song also served as the main theme to Problem Child. The song also appears in the movie Joe Dirt, albeit for a few seconds before winding down to a stop.

It was also featured in the episode Endless Summer of the series Renegade. Almost the full Song can be heard at the beginning of the Episode "Nobody Lives Forever" on the TV-Series Miami Vice.

The song is used by Dennis Anderson's Grave Digger monster truck as entrance music, and plays during his portion of the freestyle round at Monster Jam events, and as an entrance theme for closing pitcher Takashi Saito of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was also played during every at bat of former Seattle Mariners slugger Jay Buhner and former Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres slugger Ryan Klesko.

As of 2008, "Bad to the Bone" was being used for a Wrangler Jeans TV commercial featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. A similar commercial featuring Brett Favre was released later that year.

The song is also quite a popular entrance theme song in professional wrestling. As many wrestlers have used it as their theme song. Such as Kevin Wacholz, who used the song in the 1980s as "Mr. Magnificent" Kevin Kelly, while wrestling for the American Wrestling Association. American Mixed Martial Artist Phil Baroni used it as his entrance song at UFC 106. It was also used by the Bad Crew.

A modified version of the song was used in a TV ad for the Buick Grand National

In advertisements for the tv show Lost, the song was used as the theme music for the character James "Sawyer" Ford.

On October 7, 2008 the song was released as downloadable content for the music video game series Rock Band.

An episode of Disney's tv show 101 Dalmatians: The Series has an episode named after the song.

One of the songs used in the D-TV AMV Video by Disney "Doggone Valentine" as a tribute to the rivalry between Pluto and Butch the Bulldog.