"Werewolves Of London" is a rock song performed by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. It was composed by Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel and was included on "Excitable Boy" (1978), Zevon's third solo album. The track featured FLEETWOOD MACs Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on drums and bass respectively. The single was released by Asylum Records.
The song began as a joke by Phil Everly (of THE EVERLY BROTHERS) to Zevon in 1975, over two years before the recording sessions for "Excitable Boy". Everly had watched a television broadcast of the 1935 film Werewolf Of London and "suggested to Zevon that he adapt the title for a song and dance craze." Zevon, Marinell and Wachtel played with the idea and wrote the song in about 15 minutes, all contributing lyrics that were transcribed by Zevon's then-wife Crystal. However, none of them took the song seriously. Soon after, Zevon's friend Jackson Browne saw the lyrics and thought "Werewolves Of London" had potential and began performing the song during his own live concerts. Backed by Bob Neuwirth and Guam, T Bone Burnett also performed the song (with alternate or partially improvised lyrics mentioning stars from classical Hollywood cinema, Jimmy Hoffa, Marilyn Chambers and Linda Lovelace) on the first leg of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour in the autumn of 1975. "Excitable Boy" and "Werewolves of London" were considered for but not included on Zevon's self-titled second album in 1976.
According to Wachtel, "Werewolves of London" was "the hardest song to get down in the studio I've ever worked on." However, Wachtel "laid down his solo in one take." They tried at least seven different configurations of musicians in the recording studio before being satisfied with McVie and Fleetwood's contributions. The protracted studio time and musicians' fees led to the song eating up most of the album's budget.
The song's lyrics "He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook‘s / Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein" refer to Lee Ho Fook, a Chinese restaurant on 15 Gerrard Street in the West End of London. Egon Ronay's Dunlop Guide for 1974 discussed the restaurant and said it served Cantonese cuisine.
Over Zevon's objections, Elektra Records chose "Werewolves of London" as the album's first single (he preferred "Johnny Strikes Up the Band" or "Tenderness on the Block").
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