L.A. GUNS: The ballad of Jayne 7″ + The ballad of Jayne (live in California). 1989 Check video

Description

“The Ballad of Jayne” is a 1989 power ballad by American glam metal band L.A. Guns from their 1989 album Cocked & Loaded. The song was said to have been written about Jayne Mansfield. However, beyond being an ode to Jayne Mansfield, the song resonates with anyone that has lost a love or someone special to them. The lyrics recall a “diamond shining bright in the rain,” and seem to be coming from someone that is mournful and nostalgic for days gone by. This is especially apparent with the lyric “time don’t heal a broken gun.” – a play on the band’s name, but nonetheless, a statement of sorrow, heartbreak, and missing something that once was. The song reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990 and number 25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The song was also slightly successful in the United Kingdom, reaching number 53 in 1991.  The song ranked number 93 on VH1‘s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the ’80s in 2009. 

Songfacts®:

• This song is about Jayne Mansfield, a blonde bombshell who was a popular actress and pin-up girl in the ’50s and ’60s. She was often compared to Marilyn Monroe, and also died young. Mansfield was killed in a car accident when she was 34: “Now she’s breakin’ hearts in heaven.”
• Bass player Kelly Nickels and lead singer Phil Lewis wrote this song, although it’s credited to the entire band because they split songwriting credits evenly. Lewis explained to The Morning Call: “When we wrote that song, Kelly was thinking about Jayne Mansfield and I was thinking about every unsuccessful actress that was becoming a waitress and fading into Hollywood.”
• This sensitive ballad is an outlier for the rock band L.A. Guns, but it’s by far their most popular song. Released on their second album, Cocked & Loaded, it was issued as a single after “Rip And Tear,” a song that was much more in form for the band but went nowhere. “The Ballad of Jayne” came at a time when hair metal bands were scoring with power ballads, and it followed that trend, getting a big boost from MTV. The video, shot on the grounds of a mansion of the kind Jayne Mansfield used to live in, did well on the network.
• The band’s guitarist, Tracii Guns, is the “Guns” of Guns N’ Roses – that band formed when L.A. Guns merged with Axl Rose’s band Hollywood Rose. Tracii didn’t stick with Guns N’ Roses though, instead re-forming L.A. Guns. Their first three albums all charted, but in the early ’90s they didn’t sell nearly as well and started going through lineup changes. Eventually, two versions of the band emerged, one led by Tracii Guns, another by Kelly Nickels and drummer Steve Riley.

Charts 

Personnel:
Mick Cripps: guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, keyboards, string arrangements, backing vocals
Tracii Guns: lead guitar, acoustic guitars, slide guitar, backing vocals [also: Bret Michaels, Gilby Clarke, Bang Tango etc.]
Phil Lewis: lead vocals [Girl, Torme, etc.]
Kelly Nickels: bass, backing vocals
Steve Riley: drums, percussion, backing vocals [W.A.S.P., Bang Tango, etc]

A power ballad that is positively beautiful. One of my favorite hair metal ballads of all time, such a well crafted, well written song that t`ill this day i never get tired of listening to it. 5 stars…….

L.A. Guns was one of the more underrated hair bands. They did well and had a couple of platinum albums, but never reached the commercial heights of groups like Poison, Warrant or Motley Crue. Faster songs like “Never Enough” and “Rip And Tear” were reasonably successful, but “The Ballad Of Jayne” was their signature song. The lyrics about a friend who died connect emotionally and the song has a lot of tempo and intensity changes. These days the band has splintered into two separate groups calling themselves L.A. Guns.

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Now shes breakin’ hearts in heaven
Shining bright in the sky
I still hear her voice in the wind
I still think of you in the night

Dedicated to the memory of the erotic and exotic Jayne Mansfield, L.A. Guns cast an acoustic ode to the curvy vixen who died tragically on June 27, 1967, in an auto accident, with “The Ballad of Jayne”. Pulled from the Cocked & Loaded album

The Hollywood heart-breaker, with the platinum blonde mane, starred in the film The Girl Can’t Help It. She also appeared numerous times in Playboy magazine, earning the busty beauty major sex symbol status in the late ’50s and into the ’60s. She was no plain Jayne.

Now it all seems funny
Kind of like a dream
Things ain’t always what they seem
What a shame
What happened to Jayne.

KNOCK IT BACK!

for those that are soooo tragically unaware of a band called LA GuNS and a single titled The BaLLAD of JAyNE…read on…

this is LA GuNS:

{yep, back in the day of big-hair bands and hard-core rock…ahhhh, the good ole days}

and here’s the lead singer, PhiL LewIS…

{we’re totally diggin on his rock ‘n roll style with vintage boots}

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The BaLLAd of JAYNE…a tragically beautiful ode to the iconic JaYNE MAnSFIELD…one of the leading sex symbols of the 1950’s…

JaYNE attended the UniVERSITY of TEXAS… (she was extremely intelligent with a very high IQ, spoke 5 languages, and was an accomplished pianist and violinist) and then moved on to LA to pursue a career in acting. She was a HoLLYWOOD icon…appearing in movies, on BroADWAY, and in PLayBOY.

she built a HuGE palace & painted it PinK…hence, the name the PinK PaLACE

{from a heart-shaped pool to a heart-shaped fireplace…it was over-the-top PiNK glamour!}

there were pink furs in the bathrooms along with PinK shag carpet…

and did we mention the fountain that spurted PinK champagne??

and then…tragedy struck on the side of the road near SLidELL, LouiSIANA…

JaYNE lost her life late that night in a car accident at the age of 34. Her kids  remained safe in the back seat.