| "Give Blood" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Pete Townshend | ||||
| from the album White City: A Novel | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Recorded | 1985 at Eel Pie Studio, Twickenham; Eel Pie Studio, Soho, London; A.I.R. Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 5:44 | |||
| Label | Atco | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Pete Townshend | |||
| Producer(s) | Chris Thomas | |||
| Pete Townshend singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Give Blood" is a song by Pete Townshend, the guitarist for The Who. The song is the opening track for Townshend's fourth solo album, a concept album titled White City: A Novel, and was released as a single. "Give Blood" features Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. He also appears on another song from the album, "White City Fighting", the music for which was written by Gilmour.
When Townshend was asked about the song he said: [1]
Give Blood was one of the tracks I didn't even play on. I brought in Simon Phillips, Pino Palladino and David Gilmour simply because I wanted to see my three favourite musicians of the time playing on something and, in fact, I didn't have a song for them to work on, and sat down very, very quickly and rifled threw [sic] a box of stuff, said to Dave, "Do one of those kind of ricky-ticky-ricky-ticky things, and I'll shout 'Give Blood!' in the microphone every five minutes and let's see what happens." And that's what happened. Then I constructed the song around what they did.
Cash Box said that the song was "strong paean to world peace." [2]
The single failed to chart in UK or to make the Billboard Hot 100 US Pop Chart, but reached number 5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Charts. [3]
The song was used to encourage blood donation on June 14, 2021 on World Blood Donor Day. [4]
Charts
| Chart (1986) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia ( Kent Music Report) [5] | 77 |
References
- ^ "Coolwalkingsmoothtalking Liner Notes". The Hypertext Who - Bill's Pete Townshend Pages. 2008-08-01. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
- ^ "Single Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. February 8, 1986. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- ^ "Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart". Billboard.
- ^ Matheka, Grace (2021-06-14). "Pete Townshend's 'Give Blood' to be featured in this year's World Blood Donor Day blood drive". HapaKenya. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 312. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.