Mötley Crüe are celebrating their first song to surpass one billion streams on Spotify. “Kickstart My Heart” has entered the platform’s Billions Club, and the band marked the achievement with an October 1 message thanking the listeners who helped it reach that number.
“This one’s for YOU!!” the band wrote in the announcement.
The song appeared on Dr. Feelgood, Mötley Crüe’s fifth studio album, in 1989. Recorded with producer Bob Rock, the album followed the band’s efforts to get sober and introduced a more demanding approach to their studio work. But “Kickstart My Heart” began with an idea Nikki Sixx was initially reluctant to share.
Sixx told Entertainment Weekly in 2015 that he was working on it at home with an acoustic guitar and handwritten lyrics when the band’s former manager took an interest. Sixx dismissed its potential, but the manager encouraged him to play it for his bandmates. Once they heard it, the song developed quickly. In a later Classic Rock interview, Sixx described its beginnings as a punk idea.
Turning those ideas into Dr. Feelgood required considerable patience in the studio. Mick Mars told Guitar World in 2009 that Rock would stop him during guitar takes over tiny differences in his playing, including the way his pick struck a string. Mars found that precision frustrating at times, but credited the producer with teaching him more about shaping his guitar sound through different amplifiers and cabinets. He recalled recording roughly five rhythm guitar parts per song, with additional details layered around them.
Despite his reservations about the process, Mars acknowledged the result. “In the end it worked,” he said.
“Kickstart My Heart” subsequently earned a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards. Its Spotify audience has since outgrown that of every other song in the band’s catalog. In Kworb’s September 30 streaming tally, it stood at approximately 1.026 billion plays, followed by “Girls, Girls, Girls” at about 405 million and “Home Sweet Home” at roughly 338 million.
