I Wanna Be Your Dog

The song was issued as the band's debut single and appears on The Stooges. Its riff uses three chords, G, F sharp and E, played continuously apart from two brief four-bar bridges. John Cale, the producer, played a single-note piano riff and added sleigh bells. Tangari of Pitchfork noted the piano and sleigh bell in a grinding rock arrangement, and the then-controversial refrain. At an early show at the Grande Ballroom, Ron Asheton's guitar neck came off during the song.

Rolling Stone ranked it 438 among the 500 greatest songs in 2004, and 314 in 2021. Pitchfork put it at 16 on its list of the greatest songs of the 1960s. It appears in 208 of the 246 logged setlists with songs for Iggy and the Stooges.

Covers

Sid Vicious sang it on Sid Sings in 1979. Sonic Youth recorded it on Confusion Is Sex in 1983, and the Spanish band Las Vulpes did it the same year with Spanish lyrics. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts covered it on Up Your Alley in 1988. Slayer recorded it as I'm Gonna Be Your God in 1996. R.E.M. played it with Patti Smith when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.