B-side "Chippin' Away" Recorded 1983 Label MCA Records | Released June 1984 Genre Rock, hard rock | |
Length 5:02 (album)
4:14 (7" single) | ||
"Sister Christian" is a power ballad by the American hard rock band Night Ranger. It was released in June 1984 as the second single from their album Midnight Madness. It was ranked number 32 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. It was written and sung by the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, for his sister. It was the band's biggest hit, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and staying on the charts for 24 weeks.
Contents
- Origin and meaning
- Differences between album version and 7 single version
- Music video
- Other versions
- In popular culture
- References
It also reached number-one in Canada. The song was also featured in Friday the 13th, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Saints Row 2, Parks and Recreation, The Goldbergs, American Dad!, Boogie Nights, Rock Band 3 and Superstar.
Origin and meaning
The song is about Keagy's little sister, Christy. Keagy wrote the song at his apartment, near Divisadero and California streets in San Francisco, after he had just returned from a visit to his hometown of Eugene, Oregon. He had been struck at how fast his teenaged sister, 10 years younger than he was, was growing up.
"After we started playing it a lot, Jack turned to me and said, 'What exactly are you saying?'" Keagy recalled. "He thought the words were Sister Christian, instead of Sister Christy, so it just stuck."
The lyric, "You're motoring. What's your price for flight? In finding Mr. Right?" is the subject of much debate. The band stated in a VH-1 Behind the Music interview that the term "motoring" was synonymous with the term "cruising."
Differences between album version and 7" single version
On the single version, part of the second chorus is omitted. More specifically, the words "You've got him in your sight. And driving through the night," are omitted from the single version. The third chorus is repeated once on the album version, but not on the single.
Music video
The music video (which uses the shorter single version) was filmed in San Rafael High School.
Other versions
A newly recorded acoustic version of the song was produced for the band's ninth album, Hole in the Sun. A medley at the beginning of the movie Rock of Ages starts with a cover of this song.
Glee covered the song in its Season Four premiere episode, "The New Rachel". It was sung by junior student Brody Weston (portrayed by Dean Geyer) in the co-ed bathrooms of NYADA. Foster Farms covered the song with singing chickens. Jensen Ackles covered the song at VegasCon 2015 Salute to Supernatural Las Vegas 2015, with the band Louden Swain, and Rob Benedict.
In popular culture
On ESPN's NFL Primetime, Chris Berman called former running back Bob Christian Bob "Sister" Christian. In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the song was played on Emotion 98.3, which was one of the radio stations in the game.
In an episode of Parks and Recreation from 2014, Yo La Tengo dressed as Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight and performed "Sister Christian" as the 'Bobby Knight Rangers'. The song appears multiple times in American Dad!, and prominently in a key scene in Boogie Nights.