Keep Your Hands to Yourself
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by the Georgia Satellites | ||||
| from the album Georgia Satellites | ||||
| B-side | "Can't Stand the Pain" | |||
| Released | November 1986[1] | |||
| Studio | Axis Studios and Cheshire Sound Studios (Atlanta, Georgia) | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 3:26 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Songwriter | Dan Baird | |||
| Producer | Jeff Glixman | |||
| The Georgia Satellites singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Video | ||||
| "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" on YouTube | ||||
"Keep Your Hands to Yourself" is the debut single by the American Southern rock group the Georgia Satellites. The song was written by the band's lead singer, Dan Baird, and was released in November 1986. The single reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the week of February 21, 1987. The song was kept from the top spot by Bon Jovi's smash hit "Livin' on a Prayer".
The song is a twelve-bar blues in the key of A major with a moderate tempo of about 112 beats per minute. It follows the chord pattern A-D-A-E-A, with vocals ranging from D4 to A5.[2]
The lyrics tell the story of a woman who refuses to become more intimate with her boyfriend until he marries her. Baird said the song "basically wrote itself" on a bus ride home from his construction job.[3]
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote that the song "rocked as hard as an old Chuck Berry song, as well as being almost as clever."[4] In the book 99 Red Balloons: And 100 All-Time One-Hit Wonders, Brent Mann wrote that "it's just a timeless, kick-out-the-jams rock 'n' roll number. Dan Baird digs into the song's vocals with a no-holds-barred zest straight out of a Texas honky-tonk."[5]
