Released April 27, 1984 Recorded January 1, 1984 Length 3:38 | Format 7" Single Genre Heavy metal | |
B-side "You Can't Stop Rock & Roll" | ||
"We're Not Gonna Take It" is a song by the American band Twisted Sister from their album Stay Hungry. It was first released as a single (with "You Can't Stop Rock & Roll" as the B-side) on April 27, 1984. The Stay Hungry album was released two weeks later, on May 10, 1984. The single reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making it Twisted Sister's only Top 40 single. The song was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs and No. 21 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.
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"We're Not Gonna Take It" was written by vocalist Dee Snider. As influences for the song, he cites the glam rock band Slade and the Christmas carol, "O Come, All Ye Faithful".
Music video
The song is notable for its popular music video directed by Marty Callner, with its emphasis on slapstick comedy. The video begins with a disobedient son (played by Marty's son, Dax Callner) playing Twisted Sister songs in his bedroom while the rest of the family is eating dinner. The father (played by Mark Metcalf) goes to the boy's bedroom and scolds his son for being interested only in his guitar and Twisted Sister music. At the last line of the father's rather overlong speech, he says "What do you want to do with your life?" To which the son replies "I Wanna Rock!" with a voice strikingly similar to that of lead vocalist Dee Snider. The boy then transforms into Snider and the music begins. Snider sings to the other children, who turn into the rest of the band, and they wreak havoc on the family. The father gets the worst of the band's mischief. The end of the song pays tribute to Metcalf's character Doug Niedermeyer from the 1978 film, Animal House (i.e. "Drop and give me 20", "You're all worthless and weak").
Notable cover versions
The song has been covered by various artists including German pop punk band Donots in 2002 (which became a minor hit in Germany, reaching 33 in the Singles Chart). This song was also covered by Powerman 5000 for their tribute album Copies, Clones, and Replicants
Parodies
Legacy
The song was used in the commercials for the 2006 movie Charlotte's Web.
VH-1's series True Spin explains the song as simply an anthem of teen rebellion, but Snider appeared saying that he was happy that long after he's gone, "any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they're gonna stand up and sing We're Not Gonna Take It".
The song was part of the intro for progressive talk host Stephanie Miller until the 2008 election of Barack Obama, when it was replaced by "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves.
The song is the theme song of the American reality comedy television series Betty White's Off Their Rockers.
2012 Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan's camp used the song in their campaign, until Snider asked Ryan not to play it anymore; Snider stated that he does not support Ryan and he planned on voting for Obama.
In the summer of 2015, the song was adopted as the theme song for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The song is played after all his campaign appearances where it is known unofficially as the Trump fight song. Newsweek reports Dee Snider of Twisted Sister gave Trump permission to use the song. Snider later changed his mind saying that he had only allowed Trump to use the songs because the two were friends, but then respectfully asked Trump to stop using the song as he did not agree with many of Trump's stances. Snider did not want people to get the impression that he was endorsing Trump or his campaign.
The song also appears in the episode 6 of season 5 of the TV series "Person of Interest", where it's sung by Harold Finch during a wedding.
The song was used in two TV spots of the 2015 film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
The song was also used in the teaser trailer of the 2016 film, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life.