White Wedding (song)

In a 2025 interview, Idol said the song was inspired by his pregnant sister's wedding, often called a "shotgun wedding".^[5]

In the US, "White Wedding" peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart on 27 November 1982,^[6] then reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 July 1983 after it was re-issued.^[7] In the UK, it reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart upon its re-release there on 1 July 1985, when it was re-issued to promote the Vital Idol remix album.^[8]

Upon its release, Gavin Martin of the NME was negative in his review, calling it "hopelessly cobbled together" with a "jerky syn-drum, Billy trying to sound aggressive about marriage, and the whole thing thrown off balance with a raunchy Stones guitar riff hammering away in the background".^[9] In the US, Cash Box described it as "a powerful entry" whose "ominous guitar intro" and "accusatory tone" command attention.^[10]

The music video, featuring Idol attending a goth wedding, is one of his best-known. The bride is played by Perri Lister, Idol's real-life girlfriend at the time. She is also one of the three dancers clad in black leather, who slap their buttocks in time with the clap track in the song as they shimmy downwards near the end. "That's the kind of thing they love in England", says Idol.^[11]

In one scene, Idol forces a wedding ring made of barbed wire onto Lister's finger and cuts her knuckle. Lister insisted that her knuckle actually be cut in order for the scene to appear more realistic.^[11] MTV initially removed this scene from the video.^[12] Also controversial were the apparent Nazi salutes made by the crowd toward the couple. Director David Mallet says he was merely "playing with the power of crowd imagery" when he had the extras reach toward the bride and did not realize how it looked until after it was filmed.^[11]

Murderdolls reached number 24 on the UK Singles chart in 2003 with their cover of "White Wedding."^[13]