Guns N' Roses & Sir Elton John

"November Rain"  (Mtv Awards 1992)

...is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, written by lead singer Axl Rose and released as a single in June 1992. It appears on the album Use Your Illusion I. The music video for this song was also released in 1992, and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. It features a sweeping orchestral backing and is one of Guns N' Roses' longest songs.

"November Rain" reached #3 in the Billboard Singles Charts.

The song is composed in the key of C major aside from the coda, which is in C minor, but due to guitars, basses and piano being tuned a half step down, the song sounds like being in the keys of B major and B minor.

At 8:57 seconds, it is the second-longest song on that album, the longest being the 10:16 "Coma".

Its distinct symphonic overtone owes to a sweeping string arrangement, orchestrated by Rose.^[1][2]:318 Most live performances during the Use Your Illusion tour lacked the orchestral backing of the song (the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards being the best-known exception).

It is the longest song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.^[3] The song peaked at #3 on the chart, becoming the band's sixth and last Top 10 hit, and eighth Top 40 hit. On the radio, "November Rain" is sometimes played in a shortened version of approximately six minutes, but many classic rock stations continue to play the full version. At around seven minutes in, the song fades and then builds into a two-minute coda featuring lead guitar by lead guitarist Slash, accompanied by vocal chants. This song is listed at number six in the The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos list by Guitar World.^[4]

"November Rain" was voted #1 on the Rock 1000 2006, an annual countdown of the top 1,000 rock songs by New Zealand radio listeners. It was voted #2 on the Rock 1000 2007, being beaten out by "Back In Black" by AC/DC.^[5] The song was placed at #140 on Pitchfork Media's Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.^[6] The song's solo is also ranked #6 on Guitar World's "The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos" list in 2008.^[7]

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