The most contentious behind-the-scenes issue on Bad Dreams was not one of its grisly death scenes, but the seemingly minor question of which song would play over the end credits. Writer-director Andrew Fleming wanted a live version of “Burning House of Love” by the punk band X, believing its raw, ominous sound suited the film’s cult-suicide imagery and bleak supernatural atmosphere. Ralph Sall, a 20th Century Fox executive, pushed instead for “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” performed by the then little-known Guns N’ Roses. Fleming considered the suggestion less thematically appropriate, but Sall argued that the song could be licensed for almost nothing and might become a hit. Fleming later recalled on the DVD commentary that Fox obtained it for “about five cents”—an extraordinarily cheap deal in retrospect, since the song became a major hit only weeks after the film’s release on April 8, 1988.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The 1988 End-Credits Battle That Put Guns N’ Roses on Bad Dreams
Bad Dreams / 1980s
The most contentious behind-the-scenes issue on Bad Dreams was not one of its grisly death scenes, but the seemingly minor question of which song would play over the end credits. Writer-director Andrew Fleming wanted a live version of “Burning House of Love” by the punk band X, believing its raw, ominous sound suited the film’s cult-suicide imagery and bleak supernatural atmosphere. Ralph Sall, a 20th Century Fox executive, pushed instead for “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” performed by the then little-known Guns N’ Roses. Fleming considered the suggestion less thematically appropriate, but Sall argued that the song could be licensed for almost nothing and might become a hit. Fleming later recalled on the DVD commentary that Fox obtained it for “about five cents”—an extraordinarily cheap deal in retrospect, since the song became a major hit only weeks after the film’s release on April 8, 1988.
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