"We're Not Gonna Take It" is a song by the American band Twisted Sister from their album Stay Hungry. It was first released as a single on April 27, 1984. The Stay Hungry album was released two weeks later, on May 10, 1984. The single reached No. 21 on the BillboardHot 100 singles chart, making it Twisted Sister's only Top 40 single. The song was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs and No. 20 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s. The single has been certificated gold in US since 1984, selling more than 500,000 copies. "We're Not Gonna Take It" was written by vocalist Dee Snider. As influences for the song, he cites the glam rock band Slade and the Christmas carol "O Come, All Ye Faithful". The end of the song uses lines from character Douglas C. Niedermeyer in the film Animal House. Mark Metcalf, who played Niedermeyer, stars in the video.
Music video
The music video was directed by Marty Callner with an emphasis on slapstick comedy. The video begins with a disobedient son playing Twisted Sister songs in his bedroom while the rest of the family is eating dinner. The father, "Douglas C.", goes to the boy's room and scolds him for being interested only in his guitar and Twisted Sister. At the end of the speech, he screams "What do you want to do with your life?", to which the son replies "I Wanna Rock!" He strums his guitar and the sound blasts the father out of a nearby window. The boy transforms into Dee Snider, and the music begins. Snider sings to the other children, who turn into the rest of the band, and they wreak havoc on the family. The father gets the worst of the band's mischief, as he repeatedly tries and fails to get back at the band members.
Covers
The song has been covered by various artists including German pop punk bandDonots in 2002. It was also covered by Bif Naked for the film Ready To Rumble which also became David Arquette's entrance theme while he appeared on WCW programing, and by Powerman 5000 for their tribute albumCopies, Clones, and Replicants.
Ballad
In 2016, Dee Snider gave magician Criss Angel the rights to use the song as an "anthem" for his HELP charity. "Dee and I have known each other since the 1990s and he was a strong proponent of mine for years. We are both from Long Island, or as we like to think of it, 'Strong Island,' and his record publishing company gave me the rights to the song and it is our anthem for gratis." Snider appeared in a video of a stripped down acoustic version for the charity, recorded in the desert outside Las Vegas and featuring children in hospital and a young woman shaving her head to symbolize fighting cancer.
Legacy
's series True Spin explains the song as simply an anthem of teen rebellion, but Snider appeared saying that he was happy that long after he's gone, "any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they're gonna stand up and sing We're Not Gonna Take It".
Parodies
American singer "Weird Al" Yankovic included version of the song in his "Hooked on Polkas" medley from Dare to Be Stupid.
American ska punk band Reel Big Fish used the melody to the song as part of their song "Everybody's Drunk" with lyrics altered to be: "We're all gonna get drunk! We're all gonna get drunk! Oh wait we're already drunk!"
In 1999, the US rock band Lit parodied the opening scene in their video for "Zip-Lock".
In a Primavera commercial in Spain, there was a parody named "Huevos con Aceite" with the lyrics: Huevos con aceite, oh no, ya no queremos, ahora con Primavera, desayunarán. Twisted Sister has sung "Huevos con Aceite" when giving concerts in Spanish-speaking regions.
ApologetiX, a Christian parody band, released the song "We're Not Going To Canaan" on their 2014 release Loaded 45's.
Spanish heavy metal bnd Gigatrón released a version of this song with different Spanish lyrics titled "Heavy hasta la muerte", as a parody of being a true metal fan.
In politics
2012 Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan's camp used the song in their campaign, until Snider asked Ryan not to play it anymore; Snider stated that he does not support Ryan and he planned on voting for Obama. In the summer of 2015, the song was adopted as the theme song for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The song is played after all his campaign appearances where it is known unofficially as the Trump fight song. Newsweek reports Dee Snider of Twisted Sister gave Trump permission to use the song. Snider later changed his mind, saying that he had only allowed Trump to use the song because the two were friends, but then respectfully asked Trump to stop using it as he did not agree with many of Trump's stances. Snider did not want people to get the impression that he was endorsing Trump or his campaign. During the 2018 teachers' strikes in the United States, the song was used as a rallying cry by teachers striking in Oklahoma and Arizona. In Australia, the United Australia Party altered the lyrics to "Australia ain't gonna cop it" in a national TV campaign ahead of the 2019 elections. Twisted Sister condemned the unauthorized use of the song. Clive Palmer disputes Twisted Sister's claim that they have any copyright over the portion of the song used in the advertisements, as he composed the lyrics and the melody was derived from "O Come, All Ye Faithful".
On television
Episode 6 of season 5 of the TV series Person of Interest. It is sung by Harold Finch during a wedding.
Young Sheldon episode 15 called "Dolomite, Apple Slices, and a Mystery Woman"
Chuck, in the episode "Chuck Versus the First Kill". The song plays in the background of a battle between Fulcrum agents and the Sarah/Jill duo.
We're Not Gonna Take It is the theme song of the American reality comedy series Betty White's Off Their Rockers."
The Regular Show episode "Karaoke Video" features lead characters Mordecai and Rigby singing We're Not Gonna Take It at a karaoke bar.
In a commercial for Comcast's Xfinity service, the song is parodied as "You're Not Gonna Watch It". At the end of the commercial, Snider is shown joking, "I used to like that song."
Other uses
It was used in the films Gung Ho, Corky Romano, Max Keeble's Big Move, and Ready Player One. A cover version plays during the credits of the 2017 video game .
