1983 was a breakthrough year for hard rock/metal in the US, with first Motley Crue then Quiet Riot hitting it big. Quiet Riot, a four-piece fronted by the ever-controversial vocalist Kevin DuBrow, released their third album 'Metal Health' in March of this year. The band had been notable for once featuring guitarist Randy Rhoads, who appeared on their first two albums (released only in Japan) before he and bassist Rudy Sarzo departed for a stint touring with Ozzy Osbourne. That ended abruptly on 19th March 1982 when Rhoads was killed in an aeroplane crash, leaving fans of his innovative playing wondering what might have been. A devastated Sarzo eventually rejoined Quiet Riot alongside new guitar player Carlos Cavazo, as the band (with producer Spencer Proffer) signed to Columbia Records.
The album reached the top spot on the Billboard chart in November 1983, becoming the first 'metal' album to achieve the feat. This was aided by the album's second single, a cover of Slade's 'Cum On Feel The Noize'. Slade's original version had topped the British chart a full ten years earlier, in an era when bands actually had to sell a huge amount of records to do so. However the song was almost unknown in the United States, a territory where Slade had tried and failed to crack several years earlier (although their efforts did not go unnoticed, one band in particular - KISS - cited Slade as a major influence on their look and sound.)
Quiet Riot's cover changed all of that, as the song (belatedly) became a Stateside smash. The story goes that the band, not being particularly fond of the original song, were reluctant to do the cover and only agreed at the instigation of the producer. Their version is a fairly straight rendition of the song, albeit with a cleaner 1980s sound than that of the original, and DuBrow's vocal styling approached that of the dynamic Noddy Holder. Perhaps nobody was more surprised than Quiet Riot themselves when the song rocketed up the US charts, with music video channel MTV (then still a relatively new phenomenon) picking up the promo video for extensive airplay. The band exploded in popularity as a result, and rode the wave of the LA 'hair metal' boom of the period. Meanwhile, the original artists were enjoying a revival themselves in their home country, as the Stateside cover of their ten year old hit helped rekindle interest in Slade and they enjoyed an Indian summer to their own career. They even scored a US hit of their own at last the following year, with the song 'Run Runaway'.
Quiet Riot's popularity was not to last however, as the follow-up album 'Condition Critical' attempted to repeat the winning formula but failed to match its predecessors' sales figures. They tried the same trick again with another Slade cover ('Mama Weer All Crazee Now') which charted briefly, but the band were soon overtaken by newer LA 'hair metal' acts, most notably Ratt. The group stumbled on for a few more years before fizzling out towards the end of the decade, with vocalist Paul Shortino briefly taking over the microphone from DuBrow.
Kevin DuBrow attempted several comebacks in the decades since then, with partial success, but died on 19th November 2007 aged just 52. His old band have toured off and on since, with various line-ups featuring original drummer Frankie Banali. Despite the fact that the group were not keen on the song that made them huge, it launched their career and to this day in the US, many fans
still find it hard to believe that 'Cum On Feel The Noize' was not one of their compositions.
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