Guns N’ Roses “Patience” charted

Patience Guns N’ Roses

Writer(s): Guns N' Roses (see lyrics here) Released: April 4, 1989 First Charted: December 24, 1988 Peak: 4 US, 4 CB, 6 RR, 7 AR, 10 UK, 10 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 319.5 video, 185.72 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After the success of their 1987 Appetite for Destruction album, Guns N’ Roses released G N’ R Lies as a sort of stopgap. The collection packaged the group’s 1986 Live Like a Suicide EP with four new songs. They included an acoustic reworking of “You’re Crazy,” which had appeared on Appetite, the eyebrow-raising “Used to Love Her” about killing one’s girlfriend, and the highly controversial “One in a Million” which insulted homosexuals and immigrants. The song’s big hit, however, was the ballad “Patience” about “waiting it out in a relationship.” SF The song has often been assumed to be about Axl Rose and his troubled relationship with Erin Everly, but the band has said Izzy Stradlin wrote the song about his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti McCoy. WK The song was originally recorded with all acoustic instruments and no drumming, although they use electric guitar and drums when performing the song in concert. The song also features Axl Rose whistling – something he also does on the GNR hits “Paradise City” and “Civil War.” The song is a favorite for karaoke, but Kimberly Starling of The Karaoke Informer says it is one of the top 5 songs that tends to bomb. SF A version of the song by Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) was released posthumously in 2020. He recorded the song after helping his daughter, Toni, learn it. He took it to #1 on the Billboard mainstream rock chart. Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/6/2022.