"Swingtown" is a 1977 hit song by the

Steve Miller Band The Steve Miller Band is an American rock music, rock band formed in 1966 in San Francisco, California. The band is led by Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles t ...

. It was their third and final single release from their ''

Book of Dreams ''Book of Dreams'' is the tenth studio album by Steve Miller Band. The album was released in May 1977 on Capitol Records in the United States, Canada and Japan and by Mercury Records in Europe. Three singles were released from the album in 1977 w ...

'' album, and became the second biggest hit from the LP. "Swingtown" reached on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and spent two weeks at on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Hot 100. It also peaked at on the Canadian pop chart.

Reception

'' said that it "centers around an infectious drum/bass

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Use in media

In late 1978 and 1979, Ford used an edit from the instrumental sections of the song in its television ads for the '79 Ford Mustang. "Swingtown" appears in the soundtrack of the 1994 film ''

My Girl 2 ''My Girl 2'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film starring Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anna Chlumsky and Austin O'Brien. A sequel to '' My Girl'' (1991), its plot follows a now-teenaged Vada Sultenfuss, who travels from her home in suburban Pen ...

''. "Swingtown" is used in the 2000 episode entitled " D-Girl" from the second season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series, ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

''. "Swingtown" is a popular song sung by students at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

-Madison, especially at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

football games at

Camp Randall Stadium Camp Randall Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin. It has been the home of the Wisconsin Badgers football team in rudimentary form since 1895 ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. The Wisconsin Marching Band plays it and the students sing the "O-OOOOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O" part of the song ending it with the word "sucks" to refer to section "O" of the student section, the "sucks" is chanted by other student sections especially section P, this is usually followed by a chant of "fuck you, eat shit" by student sections O and P. Despite the song being popular among the students, several attempts to have the song banned by the UW staff and the Chancellor have been attempted due to the controversial "fuck you, eat shit" chant, but the banning of the song has so far proven to be unsuccessful. Steve Miller, himself a graduate of the

and vocalist of the

guest conducted the song with The Wisconsin Marching Band. It appears in promotions for the 2022 The Players golf tournament.

Inspiration for Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"

Guitarist

Greg Leon Gregory Jay Leon (born May 19th, 1958) is a Los Angeles hard rock guitarist notable for his stints in Quiet Riot, Dokken and what was an early incarnation of Motley Crue. He was also in a band called Suite 19 with Gary Holland, who was later replac ...

, who initially took

Randy Rhoads Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo alb ...

' place in

Quiet Riot Quiet Riot is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni. The original lineup featured Rhoads and Garni with lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow and drummer Drew F ...

, claims that the iconic verse riff to

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

's "

Crazy Train "Crazy Train" is the debut solo single by English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and was released in 1980 from his debut album as a solo artist, ''Blizzard of Ozz'' (1980). A live version of the song recorded in 1981 from the album ''Trib ...

" came about when he and Rhoads were messing around with "Swingtown". “We were hanging out, and I showed him the riff to Steve Miller’s "Swingtown". I said: "Look what happens when you speed this riff up". We messed around, and the next thing I know he took it to a whole other level and end up writing the "Crazy Train" riff.”

References

External links

Lyrics of this song
* 1977 songs 1977 singles Capitol Records singles Steve Miller Band songs Songs about dancing Fictional populated places {{1970s-rock-song-stub