"Cradle of Love" | ||||
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Single by Billy Idol | ||||
from the album Charmed Life | ||||
B-side | "311 Man" | |||
Released | May 5, 1990 | |||
Format | 7", 12" | |||
Recorded | 1989 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 4:39 | |||
Label | Chrysalis | |||
Writer(s) | Billy Idol, David Werner | |||
Producer(s) | Keith Forsey | |||
Billy Idol singles chronology | ||||
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"Cradle of Love" is a rock song written by Billy Idol and David Werner for Idol's 1990 fourth studio album Charmed Life. The song is the album's sixth track, and was released as its first single. The song became one of Idol's biggest hits in the United States, where it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but stalled at No. 34 in Idol's native UK Single Chart. It was also Idol's first, and (so far) only No. 1 hit on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S.
"Cradle of Love" is a rock song composed in common time and in the key of Bb major.
The song title is based on the saying "robbing the cradle."
The video, directed by David Fincher, features footage of Idol singing in large frames throughout an apartment. The director made the decision to film Idol from the waist up as he was unable to walk from a motorcycle accident that had happened in February 1990. It also features Betsy Lynn George as a teenager who tries to seduce a modest and mild mannered businessman played by Joshua Townshend-Zellner. The film makes use of clips from The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, but as Andrew Dice Clay (who played Fairlane) had been banned from MTV, he is not shown in any of the clips. The video was a huge hit and was placed in heavy rotation on MTV. Idol and George recreated the opening of the video for the 1991 American Music Awards. An alternate version of the video does not feature the movie's footage, instead depicting a man playing the guitar as heard in the track.
At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, the video was nominated for Best Male Video and Best Special Effects and won the award for Best Video from a Film.