Guns N’ Roses’ ‘November Rain’ Is First ’90s Video to Top 1 Billion YouTube Views
Guns N' Roses have become the biggest musical act on YouTube for both the 1980s and '90s according to a new report. Helping the band achieve this feat was the clip for the smash power ballad "November Rain," which recently surpassed a staggering one billion views on the video-sharing website.
As reported by Forbes, "November Rain" - which can be viewed above - is the first video from the '90s to reach this milestone. It it also the first video that was created before the YouTube era to hit this mark. The song, which came out 26 years ago, saw nearly 560,000 views every day in 2017 and appears to be gaining views as time goes on. The track originally appeared on the band's Use Your Illusion I LP which came out in 1991. It was released as a single in February of 1992 and has since gone on to become one of the group's signature songs.
GNR's hold on YouTube is further strengthened as they also have the most views of any video from the 1980s in "Sweet Child O' Mine," which has 692 million looks. The only clips close to "November Rain" in the '90s are The Cranberries' “Zombie” with 739 million views and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with 727 million.
Late last month saw Guns N' Roses release a previously unreleased, stripped-down piano version of "November Rain" that was recorded in 1986. The Sound City Session take of track comes from the band's new Appetite for Destruction reissue.
The reunited Guns will spend parts this month on tour in Europe, while an Asian leg of the "Not in This Lifetime" tour is slated for November. See all of their remaining tour stops here.
Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction: The Story of Rock's Most Dangerous Album
See "November Rain" in Every Guns N' Roses Song Ranked