"Clint Eastwood" | |||||||||||||||||||
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Single by Gorillaz featuring Del the Funky Homosapien | |||||||||||||||||||
from the album Gorillaz | |||||||||||||||||||
B-side | "Dracula" | ||||||||||||||||||
Released | 5 March 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Label | Parlophone | ||||||||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Damon Albarn | ||||||||||||||||||
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Gorillaz singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||
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"Clint Eastwood" is a song by British virtual band Gorillaz, released as the first single from their self-titled debut album in March 2001. The song is named after the actor of the same name due to its similarity to the theme music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The song is a mix of electronic music, dub, hip hop and rock. The verses are rapped by Del the Funky Homosapien, portrayed as a blue phantom in the video, while the chorus is sung by 2D (voiced by Damon Albarn). It peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and number 57 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single has sold 480,000 copies in the UK according to the Official Charts Company. Rolling Stone ranked it number 38 on its 100 best songs of the 2000s. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 141 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". The magazine also ranked it at number 347 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time".
Demo versions of "Clint Eastwood" were originally recorded by Damon Albarn on a four-track using a drum machine and guitar. A re-recording similar to these demos were recorded into Logic for use as a backing track. The strings featured in the song are from a string machine, the Solina String Ensemble. According to engineer, Jason Cox, "Damon gave us the OK to set fire to it on stage, but we said 'No, you can't set fire to that! It's a classic!'", and it ended up being used on the song as well as some other tracks on the album. The drums are provided by a drum machine and the main instrument used in the song is the melodica, which Albarn used to make the basic track as well.