Mötley Crüe, "Home Sweet Home"

19 Days to Find a Home



Mötley Crüe is a great pop band. Yes, they're silly, and soft when compared to their biggest rivals (Metallica and Guns N' Roses among them), but they've got an undeniable knack for hooks and melodies. If you ever thought George Michael or Billy Idol needed louder guitars, girl do I have a band for you.

"Home Sweet Home" was greeted by longtime fans as a sellout in 1985. A sappy piano ballad must've felt like a slap in a face to kids who bought Shout at the Devil for the pentagram on the cover. But 30 years later, it sounds like a coup to catapult these roughnecks into the mainstream, changing the joke and slipping the yoke. Nikki Sixx is smarter than he gets any credit for being (Theatre of Pain, the album which hosts "Home Sweet Home", takes its name from Antonin Artaud), and I'm still dazzled by the massive trick he pulled by getting a song by the guys in The Dirt to be covered by Carrie Underwood for an American Idol theme. Of course her version had to cut Mick Mars' solo--maybe Mötley Crüe are too rough to write pop songs, after all.