Kicks

"Kicks" is a song composed by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, best known as a 1966 hit for American rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders. Mann and Weill wrote the song for the Animals, but the band's lead singer Eric Burdon turned it down. Instead, Paul Revere & the Raiders recorded and released it as a single in 1966. The single was a number one hit in Canada, and reached number four in the United States. "Kicks" was included on the band's fifth album, Midnight Ride, released in May 1966. A live version of the song was recorded on the band's 1996 Greatest Hits Live compilation album. Considered one of the earliest anti-drug songs, "Kicks" was composed and released during an era in which pro-hippie, pro-experimentation, and other counterculture themes were gaining popularity on U.S. FM radio stations. The song's message was consequently perceived as outdated by the emerging youth counterculture, as popular artists ranging from the Beatles to Jefferson Airplane had written songs whose themes sharply contrasted that of "Kicks." However, the song has received generally positive reviews by music critics in the decades since its release. In 2004, "Kicks" was ranked number 400 on Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Background and composition After the Animals had chart success with the 1965 single "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," producer Terry Melcher asked the song's writers, Mann and Weil, to compose a similar song for Paul Revere & the Raiders. The result was "Kicks", a song originally offered to the Animals, but turned down by lead singer Eric Burdon. Mann and Weil wrote the song as a warning to a friend about the dangers of drug use. In the song, a narrator pleads with a girl that drug use causes addiction and that soft drugs can lead to the use of hard drugs, though the lyrics never explicitly mention any of those things; ultimately the lyrics conclude that her real problem is psychological ("you'll never run away from you") and that there is "another way" to face the trials of life.