| "Low Rider" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 US single picture sleeve | ||||
| Single by War | ||||
| from the album Why Can't We Be Friends? | ||||
| B-side | "So" | |||
| Released | 1975 | |||
| Recorded | 1974 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:11 | |||
| Label | United Artists | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | ||||
| War singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| Low Rider on YouTube | ||||
"Low Rider" is a song written by American funk band War and producer Jerry Goldstein, which appeared on their album Why Can't We Be Friends? , released in 1975. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart, peaked at number seven on the Hot 100 singles chart, and number six in Canada (number 69 in the Canadian year-end chart [6] ). The song was also used in the 1978 Cheech and Chong movie “Up In Smoke”, and appeared as track 3 of the associated original sound track album.
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AllMusic says of the song: "the lyric takes the cool, laidback image of the lowrider—the Chicano culture practice of hydraulically hot-rodding classic cars—and using innuendo, extends the image to a lifestyle". A driving bass line by B. B. Dickerson is present almost throughout, along with an alto saxophone and harmonica riff by Charles Miller, who also provides lead vocals and a saxophone solo towards the end that includes a siren-like sound. Lee Oskar doubles the alto sax line on harmonica. [7]
The Beastie Boys sampled "Low Rider" on their song "Slow Ride", from 1986's Licensed to Ill . [8] Three years later, thrash metal band, Exodus covered the song, on their third studio album, Fabulous Disaster . [9] and nearly a decade later, the song was covered by nu metal band Korn on their 1996 studio album Life Is Peachy . [10] Beginning in 1996, "Low Rider" featured for several years on British television in adverts for Marmite, as part of their 'Love it or hate it' campaign. [11] [12] In 1999, Barry White recorded a version on his album Staying Power . "Low Rider" was later used as the theme song for the George Lopez self-titled ABC sitcom, which ran from 2002 to 2007. [13] The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014. [14] bbno$ sampled the song on his 2025 single, "Check".
