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"Ace of Spades" is a song by the heavy metal band Motörhead. According to the Ace of Spades Songfacts, Lemmy claims he wrote this song in the back of a transit van travelling at 90mph.
Initially released as a 7" vinyl single on October 27, 1980 as a preview to the album Ace of Spades and autumn tour, Bronze Records also released a 12" vinyl pressing in special 'Christmas' picture sleeves, limited to 50,000 copies. The picture of the band in Santa outfits used on the cover was taken while the band were on tour at the Aylesbury Fair. In November the song reached #15 in the UK Singles Chart.The song is considered to be the definitive Motörhead anthem, and "put a choke on the English music charts and proved to all that a band could succeed without sacrificing its blunt power and speed".
Bronze also issued German and Spanish 7" vinyl versions which had a different sleeves, as well as a Japanese import, with a colour picture insert with song lyrics in English and Japanese. One sided test pressings (not mis-presses, used in the trade) escaped the pressing plant and are on the market.
For the lyrics, Lemmy said he "used gambling metaphors, mostly cards and dice - when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm more into the one-arm bandits actually, but you can't really sing about spinning fruit, and the wheels coming down".
On September 6, 1980 Lemmy was interviewed by Graham Neil on BBC Radio 1's Rock On Saturday show, "Bomber", "Ace of Spades" and "Love Me Like a Reptile" were played. The following month, on October 6 and October 20, the band played the song on BBC TV show Top of the Pops.
In 1988 another recording of the song was released - Ace of Spades (live) - and later withdrawn.
In September 1993 WGAF Records re-released the original 1980s track on CD-single, cassette single, 12" vinyl picture sleeve and picture disc versions, the song was covered with "Louie Louie", "Dirty Love", and "Ace of Spades (The CCN Remix)", and although the band were not too pleased with the CCN Remix version, this single reached #23 in the UK charts.
The song ranked in at #10 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at #27 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
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