Rebel Yell
by Billy Idol
- 166
- BPM
- B minor
- Key
- 10A
- Camelot
- 53
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
"Rebel Yell" stalled at first. Billy Idol's song came out in January 1984 as the lead single from the album of the same name, on Chrysalis Records, and reached only No. 62 in the UK and No. 46 in the US. A re-issue in 1985 did far better and peaked at no. 6 in the UK. That version carried a live B-side recorded at the Hollywood Palladium in March 1984.
The idea came from a night when Idol went to an event where Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones were passing around a bottle of Rebel Yell bourbon. He did not know the brand but liked the name, and he told the audience at a VH1 Storytellers performance that he decided to write the song. Guitarist Steve Stevens co-wrote it. The opening sounds like electric guitar mixed with electronic keyboard, but Stevens played it on guitar alone. He meant it to sound that way. He said he was inspired by the acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke.
The song earned Idol his first Grammy nomination, for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Worthing FC adopted it as an official anthem. Idol went to secondary school in the town. One of the club's nicknames is the Rebels.
Rebel Yell runs at 166 BPM, the tempo of footwork, gabber and fast metal. In classical terms it sits in vivace territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.45 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 361 ms. It is in B minor, Camelot 10A, which shares its notes with D major and mixes cleanly with E minor and F# minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.