Speed is the fifth studio album by the Remington Steelers and the last to feature Ringo Starr as the drummer. He left to further his solo music career shortly after The Speedy Tour wrapped up.
Background
Vanilla Ice was allegedly impressed by the Remington Steelers and their performance of "Under Pressure" by Queen and asked Rupert Grint to cover his song "Ice Ice Baby", a move that left Brian May impressed by the success of the song despite "Ice Ice Baby" being released as the B-side to the "Loser" single. Soon, they were commissioned by Monkey Punch to cover the theme from his hit manga-turned-anime Lupin III, which they did. They performed the cover live during The Speedy Tour. Green Day asked them to cover two more of their songs, "Basket Case" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", and "Weird Al" Yankovic proceeded to commission them to cover his song "Nature Trail to Hell". All three songs were recorded in February of 2004. The album became an instant success upon release, and it was certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA. When interviewed about the inclusion of "Nature Trail to Hell", Rupert asked, "Does it come with an in-your-face feel?" He then added, "It's basically a trailer for a non-existant motion picture that's supposedly due out on Christmas in 1984. Weird Al is as funny as ever with that song, even going as far as to claim that such a gory film is 'good clean family fun'. I liked that." Emma Watson had this to say about "Ice Ice Baby": "We had finished Tour de America in Los Angeles, and Vanilla Ice just approached us and asked us to cover his song, which practically takes the bass riff from a song we performed during the tour, 'Under Pressure' by Queen featuring David Bowie, and we accepted, which proves even now to be a more ironic move than Oscar Wilde appearing on the wrong quotes page (a feat accomplished many times by Yoda). Basically, listening to both songs back to back creeps me out a bit."
Artwork
"My God, the driver's croaked! Looks like it's up to me to save innocent lives..."
The front cover displayed Rupert Grint trying to defuse a bomb while Emma Watson was behind the wheel of a bus. The liner notes format is the same as with the Remington Steelers' previous albums, with the quote of the album being "You know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby; you're gonna die!" The interior artwork featured the band on a bus, with Rupert trying to defuse a bomb that will go off unless Emma can keep the bus's speed above 50 MPH. The aforementioned liner notes quote confirmed "Welcome to the Jungle" as one of the tracks on The Guns N Roses 20th Anniversary Album.
Track listing
Side R
Side S
Personnel
Songs
Rupert Grint - lead vocals (2-9), keyboard programming (9), percussion (6), lead guitar (6), rhythm guitar (1, 7), and acoustic guitar (4)
Emma Watson - lead guitar (1-3), backing vocals (6-8), synths (5, 8), percussion (6), lead guitar (7), and rhythm guitar (6)
Daniel Radcliffe - backing vocals (6-8), bass (1-10), and percussion (6)
Ringo Starr - backing vocals (6, 8), drums (1-3, 5, 7, 8), drum programming (9, 10), and percussion (6)
Marilyn Manson - rap (5), evil laughter (5, 8)
Kerrigan Mahan - lead vocals (10)
Production
Moby - producer
Emma Watson - mixer
Steve Thompson - mixer
George Marino - mastering
Victor Deyglio - assistant engineer
Micajah Ryan - assistant engineer
Andy Udoff - assistant engineer
Jeff Poe - assistant engineer
Jack Lue - photography
Greg Freeman - photography
