‘Hot in the City’ is a song by Billy Idol, released as the lead single from his 1982 self-titled debut album. It charted at No. 23 in the US and No. 58 in the UK. A remix of the song was released in 1987 and reached No. 13 in the UK.
After fronting the English punk-rock band Generation X, ’80s icon Billy Idol moved to New York in 1981 and began dancing with himself in pursuit of solo stardom. And it was his first summer of baking in the Big Apple that would inspire this breakout solo hit. “New York just had this great energy because anything went, you know?” Idol, 67, told The Post. “And it fired me up … just living through this kind of really humid, hot summer. It was totally different to a summer in England. But also, yeah, I felt like I was hot — you know, sexually hot — as well. I’m living in the clubs and meeting girls that way and sleeping with them and carrying on that rock and roll existence.”
There are two versions of the video. The first version (1982) starts off with a girl walking into a record store. She picks up a Billy Idol record and the song starts to play. The video features scenes from New York City, interspersed with stock footage of nuclear bomb tests. The second version (1987) depicted Idol's girlfriend Perri Lister bound to a cross; it was banned by MTV.
Although the released version of the song has Idol shouting "New York!", other versions of the song were recorded for various radio stations, including ones for such cities as "Amarillo", "Boston", "Minneapolis", "New Haven", "Philly", "Chattanooga", and "Sioux Falls", or none at all with a repeated synthesiser stab instead. The song, with a remixed synthesizer intro, was used as the introduction for Booker, the TV series spin-off of 21 Jump Street. It is also featured in the 1988 hit film Big, starring Tom Hanks.
Label – Chrysalis
Songwriter – Billy Idol
Producer – Keith Forsey
SONG LYRICS
[Intro](Stranger, stranger, stranger, stranger)
[Verse 1]
It's hot here at night, lonely, black and quiet
On a hot summer night
Don't be afraid of the world we made
On a hot summer night
‘Cause when a long-legged lovely walks by
Yeah, you can see the look in her eye
Then you know that it's
[Chorus]
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
(Stranger, stranger)
[Verse 2]
For all the dreams and schemes
People are as they seem
On a hot summer night
Don't be no fun, don't forget you're young
On a hot summer night
A sometime someone you're not
Don't wait to see what you've got
‘Cause you know that you're
[Chorus]
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight (All right)
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
Rowrah!
[Bridge]
We'll walk until my feet drop
I'm a train when I'm hateful
Yeah, lay right down now
And ride until your head breaks
I'm a-walkin' till my brain pops
I will move with the beat now
I'm a chain ‘round an A-bomb
I'm a ribbon in the heat now
New York!
[Chorus]
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight
Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight