Peak
36
Weeks
13
Score
1,186
Chart Year
1983
The music video, featuring Idol attending a goth wedding, is one of his best-known. The bride is played by Perri Lister, Idol's real-life girlfriend at the time. She is also one of the three dancers clad in black leather, who slap their buttocks in time with the clap track in the song as they shimmy downwards near the end. "That's the kind of thing they love in England", says Idol.[5] In one scene, Idol forces a wedding ring made of barbed wire onto Lister's finger and cuts her knuckle. Lister insisted that her knuckle actually be cut in order for the scene to appear more realistic.[5] MTV initially removed this scene from the video.[6] Also controversial were the apparent Nazi salutes made by the crowd toward the couple. Director David Mallet says he was merely "playing with the power of crowd imagery" when he had the extras reach toward the bride and did not realize how it looked until after it was filmed.[5] The MTV-edited version of the video is included on the DVD portion of The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself CD/DVD package.
Despite rumors to the contrary, this song is not about Idol's actual little sister. "Little sister" is slang for girlfriend. He is singing about a woman/girl he loves marrying someone else while he still loves her. Idol did have a sister who was getting married, but on an episode of VH1 Storytellers, he explained that his sister's wedding simply gave him the idea for the song. Like many of Idol's compositions, he started with the title and wrote the song from there. >> The video for this song help launch Billy Idol to stardom. It was directed by David Mallet, who had worked with Queen and David Bowie. Idol had little cash, so Mallet cut him a break on his fee. The concept was a "nightmare wedding," with a Goth guy (Idol) marrying a normal girl, with some vampire imagery thrown in. The bride was played by Perri Lister, who was Billy's girlfriend. The resulting video contained some of the most indelible images seen on MTV, including the barbed-wire wedding ring, the motorcycle crashing through the church window, and the dancers slapping their own butts in time to the music. Mallet said of Idol in the book I Want My MTV: "In those days, he was the greatest looker and mover since Elvis. Before 'White Wedding,' nobody would have admitted that was even possible. One look at that video and they got him." A key element to this song is the quick little guitar riff that starts it. Idol and his guitarist, Steve Stevens, liked to have a distinctive guitar part to open the songs - they thought of it like a flag harkening its arrival. This is a very anti-marriage song, yet many people have it played at their weddings simply because it mentions a wedding. "White Wedding" was used in the movie The Wedding Singer. After getting dumped at the altar, Adam Sandler tells his friends to "turn this crap off" after the video comes on. Idol later appears in the movie as himself. He helps get Sandler together with Drew Barrymore. Report this ad In the UK, this did not become a hit until 1985, when it was released there for the third time. When Billy Idol arrived in New York to record his self-titled debut album, he knew he needed more songs than he'd brought with him from London. Producer Keith Forsey sat Idol in the mixing room with a semi-acoustic guitar and a drum machine, and told him to come up with some ideas. Then he walked away and left him alone. Inspiration came suddenly. "I looked at the blank page in front of me, instinctively picked up the pen and without thinking I wrote two words, White Wedding," Idol recalled in his Dancing With Myself memoir. "I searched for my favorite key on the guitar, and started making chords to create music with a spaghetti western-like vibe. It seemed like the right way to start a song." Twenty minutes later, he'd written "White Wedding." The metal band In This Moment turned this into "Black Wedding" for their 2017 album Ritual. Rob Halford of Judas Priests guests on the track, singing it as a duet with Maria Brink of In This Moment. They performed the song with a macabre wedding theme to open the Loudwire Music Awards in 2017. Herman's Hermits recorded this for the 2002 album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. Cevin Soling, who put the album together, told Songfacts why he chose this song for Herman's Hermits: "They have that very sweet, innocent persona. And you think of Herman's Hermits, you think that the cute, adorable Peter Noone fronting this very sweet, innocent thing. And then you've got Billy Idol who's kind of the antithesis of that. A friend of mine got to play the song for Billy Idol on the air, and she was interviewing him, so she played the Herman's Hermits 'White Wedding' for Billy Idol. I think he just said the word, 'Frightening.'"
Hey little sister, what have you done? Hey little sister, who's the only one? Hey little sister, who's your Superman? Hey little sister, who's the one you want? Hey little sister, shotgun It's a nice day to start again It's a nice day for a white wedding It's a nice day to start again Hey little sister, who is it you're with? Hey little sister, what's your vice and wish? Hey little sister, shotgun, oh yeah Hey little sister, who's your Superman? Hey little sister, shotgun It's a nice day to start again It's a nice day for a white wedding It's a nice day to start again Pick it up Take me back home, yeah Hey little sister, what have you done? Hey little sister, who's the only one? I've been away for so long (so long) I've been away for so long (so long) I let you go for so long It's a nice day to start again, come on It's a nice day for a white wedding It's a nice day to start again There is nothin' fair in this world, girl There is nothin' safe in this world And there's nothin' sure in this world And there's nothin' pure in this world Look for something left in this world Start again, come on It's a nice day for a white wedding It's a nice day to start again It's a nice day to start again It's a nice day to start again
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 21, 1983 | 71 | 55 |
| 2 | May 28, 1983 | 60 | 66 |
| 3 | Jun 4, 1983 | 51 | 75 |
| 4 | Jun 11, 1983 | 48 | 78 |
| 5 | Jun 18, 1983 | 42 | 84 |
| 6 | Jun 25, 1983 | 38 | 88 |
| 7 | Jul 2, 1983 | 36 | 90 |
| 8 | Jul 9, 1983 | 36 | 90 |
| 9 | Jul 16, 1983 | 41 | 85 |
| 10 | Jul 23, 1983 | 55 | 71 |
| 11 | Jul 30, 1983 | 65 | 61 |
| 12 | Aug 6, 1983 | 74 | 52 |
| 13 | Aug 13, 1983 | 80 | 46 |