| "Ripple" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Grateful Dead | ||||
| from the album American Beauty | ||||
| A-side | "Truckin'" | |||
| Released | November 1, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | September 1970 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 4:09 [1] | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jerry Garcia Robert Hunter [1] | |||
| Producer(s) | Grateful Dead Steve Barncard | |||
| Grateful Dead singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Ripple" is the sixth song on the Grateful Dead album American Beauty . It was released as the B-side to the single "Truckin' ". [2]
Robert Hunter wrote the lyrics in 1970 in London on the same afternoon he wrote those to "Brokedown Palace" and "To Lay Me Down" (reputedly drinking half a bottle of retsina in the process). [3] Jerry Garcia wrote the music to accompany Hunter's lyrics, [3] and the song debuted August 18, 1970 at Fillmore West in San Francisco.
"Ripple" has a similar melody to the gospel hymn "Because He Lives," which was published a year later. [4] Both songs are similar to "Any Dream Will Do" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , which was first performed in 1968, and recorded in 1969. [5] [6]
A number of essays have been written analyzing and annotating this song. [3]
The 1985 drama film Mask , with Cher and Eric Stoltz, features this song. [7]
The song is played during the last scene of the television series Freaks and Geeks .[ citation needed ]
In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 334 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
