How popular was Suzi Quatro in the US?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by AFOS, Feb 10, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. george nadara

    george nadara Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    1975. My university dormitory had one public hall phone on the first floor. Somebody told me I had a call. It was an Arista Records promo man from New York City. I marvel to this day about how he tracked me down, how he obtained the dormitory phone number. I worked as the program and music director for the campus radio station. One of my jobs was to send playlists to the record companies. The staff at Arista Records noticed that this little university station was playing records by Suzi Quatro, one of their acts currently on tour opening for Alice Cooper, a coveted spot guaranteeing widespread exposure. The promo man wanted me to pick up Quatro at the local airport when she arrived to play at the nearby coliseum, bring her to the college and interview her at the radio station. In other words, Arista, which had just started under the guidance of Clive Davis, was working diligently to break Quatro to a larger American audience.

    I abstained from any involvement.
     
    Mylene likes this.
  2. Scopitone

    Scopitone Caught the last train for the coast

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Great story!

    Why abstain, though? At the very least even if you didn't like her music, she was super-cute in those days and might have been interesting to talk to.
     
    longaway, junk and DavidFell like this.
  3. milankey

    milankey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, Ohio, USA
    Since Happy Days tv show is a part of this thread I almost thought you meant Joanie Loves Chachi and not Joan Jett.
     
    Scopitone likes this.
  4. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    I don't think that's it. Her image wasn't Pat Boone, it was Mary Weiss. I think it's part of a larger trend, where the split of singles oriented AM Top 40 went soft in the 70s, and FM, AOR abandoned pop for prog, blues based hard rock or country-rock. In England, with the BBC calling the shots, punchy but poppy bands still reigned, in the form of glam and power pop. In America such groups were considered too bubblegum for FM, but were too noisy for the top reaches of AM.

    I've made this argument before in either a Badfinger or Big Star thread. Why did David Bowie not have a hit in America from 1969-1975? Why did it take Quiet Riot and a decade to introduce us to Slade? Why was Beth KISS' biggest hit? Why is T-Rex a one hit wonder? Why weren't Suzi Quatro or the Runaways successful in their home country? It's all the same answer.

    Heart, Bonnie Raitt and Grace Slick played the kind of rock that AOR stations wanted, and they are all in the Hall of Fame. KISS and Alice Cooper got past this divide on the strength of their live shows. As to whether program directors or public tastes are the prime driver here, I can't say, but I think the phenomenon is real.
     
    walkabout and ConnieGuitar like this.
  5. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    This sums it up. To most people in the US, she didn't exist before she got a part on Happy Days and became a one hit wonder with the song Stumblin In.
     
  6. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I dunno...Her brother Michael was more a pop/proggy kind of guy.
     
  7. Grohlfan

    Grohlfan Dan

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    He's not in this clip but props to Andy Scott of Sweet who has been backing her on stage recently. A fine guitarist from that Glam era! The Sweet rocked.
     
    jon9091 likes this.
  8. I seem to recall the title track from her album Rock Hard getting a bit of FM airplay when it came out, but besides that and "Stumblin' In"...nada.
     
  9. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Wasn't that song used in Robert Stigwood's epic punk film Times Square?
     
  10. Indeed it was, and to date that's the only Suzi Q I have in my collection, via the soundtrack album. I was thinking about picking up the Rock Hard album, but as a preadolescent at the time I only had so much money for records...
     
  11. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I don't know about US, they have weird taste. :hide:. But I like her quite a bit. Have all her albums on CDs. Recent 7Ts reissues sound decent. Someone mentioned a box here?
     
  12. ConnieGuitar

    ConnieGuitar Here in my balloon...

    formu_la likes this.
  13. My father was working for a funeral home in Dallas, Texas at the time, and the funeral home used to rent out limos. Well, they contacted the funeral home, and my father drove around Suzi + Alice Cooper and band.

    I met them all, actually...but I was only a one-year old (maybe a little older), so I don't remember. :)
     
    walkabout and mestreech like this.
  14. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Only knew her from Happy Days and she was easily my least favorite character on the show. I even liked Al better. OK Chachi was close and the shark gave her a run for her money.
     
  15. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
  16. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Not much of a fan of the first two but don't mind "She's In Love With You". Generally prefer her rock songs - her last hits in Australia were the already mentioned "Rock Hard" and "Lipstick"
     
    Bobby Morrow and Scopitone like this.
  17. Scopitone

    Scopitone Caught the last train for the coast

    Location:
    Denver, CO

    Never seen this one. Thanks! :cheers:
     
  18. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    You're welcome!
     
  19. Scopitone

    Scopitone Caught the last train for the coast

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Youtube made me a Suzi playlist. I have seen some of these videos, but by no means all of them.
     
  20. blackdograilroad

    blackdograilroad Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon, UK
    ........this is the one that broke her in England............great song still................


     
    jon9091 likes this.
  21. fitzysbuna

    fitzysbuna Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    in Australia she was a massive star ! she came here regularly! she now on her final tour down here which is a bit sad but she has had a fantastic career ! Joan Jett was rip off artist ! my fav song was rock hard !

    not sure why there is two different versions of this clip one with effects the other like this
     
  22. BeatlesObsessive

    BeatlesObsessive The Earl of Sandwich Ness

    oh yeah... I was 10 also... and a big Leather Tuscadero fan. VCR's were just hitting the market then and were 1200 bucks or more so of course what you saw on tv you SAW and then it was just a memory. I don't remember any of the songs she did though I liked her performances. It sounded very genre. And I'd argue that Suzi Quatro on Happy Days wasn't too EARLY ... but for the style of music much too late... at least 5 years too late. The Joan Jett similarity only makes this more true as I Love Rock 'N Roll is the "novelty single" that worked and was a huge hit and basically obscured Joan Jett as a rock and roll presence for several years where she was doing music that was pretty contemporary and deserving of more recognition. I seem to remember another Suzi Quatro appearance on one of the late night shows. Either it was an American show like Rock Concert or when NBC was running Kenny Everett show reruns around 1980... a song with a chorus that kept mentioning YOUR LIPSTICK .. i'm sure y'all know what this song is in Suzi's catalogue. I saw her performance vid for this song more than once during the summer during that era.

    Why wasn't she bigger? Why didn't the Bay City Rollers last longer? The scenes were different.. by the late 70s American rock and roll had regional scenes but nationally it was foreigner and boston and anything with lots of echo and glam sounds had BETTER be an ELO single or some guy from Nashville pulling a Buddy Holly or it was genre or an import! I guess the rise of Chrissie Hynde a few years later shows that someone from the English scene could have broken through but Chrissie was able to sidle in alongside New Wave and the gloss of classic British rock and pop... if the Pretenders first record was ALL sweaty punk workouts or glam stomps WITHOUT the literary sensitive songwriting and 12 string reflections it might have gone undernoticed too!
     
  23. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    Has this ever been put on CD?



    Darryl
     
  24. BeatlesObsessive

    BeatlesObsessive The Earl of Sandwich Ness

    Have to agree.. in terms of having a tough rock and roll image I think she was right there. Though she seemed, like Joan Jett, way too low key as a person to out shout the sort of woman rock star characterization like say Pat Benatar. By that point women rockers were Stevie Nicks, Linda Rondstadt, Nicolette Larson, Ann Wilson, or Olivia Newton John... mature, poetic, sort of like Doris Days or Julie London torch singers fronting blues or Americana bands. Open dysfunction of the Janis Joplin kind wouldn't have been acceptable at that point from a career perspective.

    You draw the years perfectly.. it was 1969 to 1975 you had various crunchy organic music scenes. In 1972 you could still have the Hollies or the Moody Blues still sort of rocking.. after that it was The Air That I Breathe and well produced sounds. And American rock and roll was what you saw on the cover of We're An American Band... punchy punky and spunky was what you could read about in creem magazine or see in clubs in the big city.. the mainstream was stadium blasters working their own variations of funk-rock, rock country, funk country, and countyfunkitan!!! Don't forget Alice Cooper after his huge crazed rock extravaganzas doing soft rock like You & Me, Only Women Bleed, etc.
     
  25. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I'm not sure I follow. Bowie had Space Oddity, Changes, Young Americans, Fame (which was a #1)....plus a few that hit around 60 on the Top 100.
     
    Say It Right and Ron P. like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine