The Ballad of Jayne
by L.A. Guns
- 61
- BPM
- F# major
- Key
- 2B
- Camelot
- 46
- Danceability
- 4
- Acousticness
In 1990 "The Ballad of Jayne" reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 25 on the Mainstream Rock chart, a year after L.A. Guns put it out as a power ballad on their 1989 album Cocked & Loaded. Early pressings of the album spelled the title "The Ballad of Jane". In the United Kingdom it did less well, reaching number 53 in 1991, and in 2009 VH1 placed it at number 93 on its list of the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '80s.
The song was said to have been written about the actress and Playmate Jayne Mansfield, though Tracii Guns debunked that.
Guns had started the group in Los Angeles in 1983 with Rob Gardner. It merged with Hollywood Rose to form Guns N' Roses in March 1985, and after a brief tenure there Guns reformed L.A. Guns with a new lineup. Phil Lewis, formerly of Girl, replaced the early singer Paul Black, and Kelly Nickels came over from Faster Pussycat. Steve Riley of W.A.S.P. later took the drum seat, giving what is known as the classic lineup.
The Ballad of Jayne runs at 61 BPM, the tempo of slow ballads, ambient and downtempo. In classical terms it sits in largo territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.93 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 984 ms. It is in F# major, Camelot 2B, which shares its notes with Eb minor and mixes cleanly with B major and Db major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.