Burnin' for You

"Burnin' for You"
Single by Blue Öyster Cult
from the album Fire of Unknown Origin
Released	July 1981
Format	7" single
Recorded	1981
Genre	Hard rock
Length	3:45 (single edit) 4:29 (album version)
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Donald Roeser, Richard Meltzer
Producer(s)	Martin Birch
Blue Öyster Cult singles chronology
"In Thee" (1979) "Burnin' for You" (1981) "Joan Crawford" (1983)

"Burnin' for You" is a hit song by American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, from their Platinum Fire of Unknown Origin album, released in 1981.

It hit #1 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart, and the single spent three weeks in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was aided by a popular early MTV music video.^[1] The song, like BOC's other hit songs "Godzilla" and "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", was sung by guitarist Buck Dharma, who also co-wrote the song.

The song was on the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum list of deemed "lyrically questionable" songs after 9/11.

Covers

• Lisa Marie Presley covered this song on her 2005 album Now What.
• Iced Earth did a cover of this song and "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", another Blue Öyster Cult song, on their tribute album Tribute to the Gods.^[2]
• Shiny Toy Guns covered this song for the television commercial for the 2010 Lincoln MKS.
• Mike Watt covered this song on the compilation Guilt by Association Vol. 1. It is a compilation album released September 4, 2007 by Engine Room Recordings. It features indie rock artists covering well-known pop and R&B songs.^[3]

Chart positions

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Canada (RPM)[4]	47
US Billboard Hot 100	40
US Billboard Rock Tracks	1
UK Singles Chart	76

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 69.
2. allmusic Tribute to the Gods > Overview
3. Guilt by Association Vol. 1
4. Canadian peak