Our Love Is Alive

Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro : Stumblin' In

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On November 5, 1978 the Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro duet, "Stumblin ' In", entered the U.K. charts at #71. The song, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn,  would peak at UK#41 but in the United States it would hit #4 on both the Billboard charts and the adult contemporary charts. In Canada it would peak at #1.

On the making of her only U.S. hit with Smokie's lead singer, Quatro remembers:

We were with the same record label ( RSO)and shared the same producer, so we all knew each other. One night while in Germany, we were all at a VIP after awards party. There was a house band there and I dragged Chris Norman up to sing. Mike Chapman liked the way we looked and sounded together. He then went back to his hotel and wrote "Stumblin' In" that same night. The next day he brought in the chorus. Since we were already recording an album ( If You Knew Suzi...) at the time, Chris and I put down the demo and my band played on the record--and the rest us history.

40 Year Itch : Let Your Train Get On My Tracks

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   For her third album, Your Mamma Won't Like Me!, Suzi Quatro, Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn brought in horn sections, back up singers Sue and Sonny ( who had sung with Joe Cocker on "With a Little Help From My friends), and a new attitude. 

   "We had never played so well," wrote Quatro in her autobiography Unzipped. "And the band really cooked--funky as funky can be."

   The band enjoyed playing "I Bit Off More Than I Can Chew" so much, they let the tapes roll for ten minutes. The public wasn't so taken. This would be her last charting single, peaking at only #54, until 1977.

  Did Thom Bell hear this single? Sounds like he borrowed the bass sound Suzi played for The Spinners's "Rubberband Man".

UK Top 10 December 7, 1974

1. David Essex : Gonna Make You a Star

2. Barry White : You're The First the Last, My Everything

3. Gary Glitter : Oh Yes! You're Beautiful

4. Rubettes : Juke Box Jive

5. Queen : Killer Queen

6. Bachman-Turner Overdrive : You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

7. Suzi Quatro : The Wild One

8. Eddie Holman : Hey There Lonely Girl

9. The Peppers : Pepper Box

10. Chi-Lites : Too Good To Be Forgotten

40 Year Itch: Suzi Q Tours the US of A

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On April 12, 1974 Suzi Quatro opened her US Tour at the Michigan Palace in front of her parents in her hometown of Detroit. She had already become a UK Glam sensation with three #1 hits--none of which did much business in the US. Still, Suzi and her band of Brits had a great time with, as she related in her autobiography Unzipped..."the endless TV Stations, the hamburger and hot dog stands, the malls, the guitar shops ( even better, the pawn shops where (we ) picked up loads of cheap guitars, the streets of Detroit, Sunset Strip, the huge expressways." 

      At one of her final shows, at the Whiskey in LA, Iggy Pop joined Suzi onstage.Problem was he was wasted, so we had to have security "escort" him off. Sorry Iggy, no offence. But if you're gonna get on my stage you'd better be "together", you know what I mean?

    

  Next stop: Australia where Suzi was such  huge star she couldn't go outside without being surrounded by screaming fans.

   Suzi would finally find fame in the US as Leather Tuscadero on the hit TV show Happy Days and with "Stumblin' In" her Top  5 1978 hit with Chris Norman whose band Smokie also failed to otherwise find a US audience.

40 Year Itch: Glitter Wrap Up

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   By 1974, Marc Bolan was a has been. It happened quickly. At one moment he was the biggest star in Britain. But by 1974, he was overweight, often drunk or coked-out, and living in California. Although the new album featured a new Top 20 single in "Teenage Dream", Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow was a half-assed, lifeless mess. There are forays into funk, some copy cat versions of his old T.Rex sounds and quite a few dire lines about life as a former teen idol. The highlight for me is "Change".

After leaving David Bowie's band, the great glam rocking guitarist Mick Ronson released his first solo album, Slaughter on 10th Avenue, in February of 1974. The album features a cover of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" and the instrumental title track with Aladdin Sane pianist Mike Garson on the ivories, his sister Margaret's backing vocals, and one stunning song that outdoes anything Bowie put out in 1974: "Only After Dark". The album reached Top 10 in the UK.

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Detroit native Suzi Quatro hit #1 in the UK for two weeks in February, 1974 with "Devil Gate Drive", another Chinn Chapman tune produced by Mickie Most that failed to find an audience in the US.The #7 UK single "The Wild One"  would be her last big hit until the end of the decade.

 Four years later, she'd play the tune as "Leather Tuscadero" on ABC's Happy Days. And while the Fonz would look on with appreciation, the rest of us cringed to see Erin Moran dancing back up.

40 Year Itch : Birth of a Glam Queen

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She hasn't owned a dress in years

-Offical Suzi Quatro Bio

    In 1973 Detroit native Suzi Quatrocchio became a household name in the UK--as Suzi Quatro --thanks to a string of huge hits written by the songwriting powerhouses Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. "Can the Can", a two-million seller topped the UK charts in June of 1973. "48 Crash" peaked at #3 in the UK consolidating her position as a big new--if somewhat androgynous, bass playing--star. ( She was quoted in a German magazine saying "Before long, I'll be a guy").  Next came "Daytona Demon" which stalled at #14.

The 1973 debut album Can the Can is a bit of a chore to get through. Chinn-Chapman found a sound for Quatro and they never let up on it . So expect a lot of pounding drums and guitars and a lot of high pitched yowling from Suzi.

   In 1974 Suzi tried to repeat her UK /Australian fame by touring the US where she opened for Alice Cooper. She achieved a few minor US hits with "Can the Can" and "All Shook Up" ( which led to Elvis inviting Suzi to Graceland. She declined.)

Unfortunately, while courting the US, Suzi lost her UK fans. She'd gain fame again as Leather Tuscadero on the hit TV show Happy Days and with her 1979 #4 hit "Stumblin In", recorded as a duet with Chris Norman of Smokie.

   Though a footnote in the history of US rock and roll, Suzi inspired a host of female rockers, most notably Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde, The Runaways, L7, The Donnas ...and the list goes on.

40 Year Itch : The UK Top 10 August 11, 1973

UK Top 10 August 11, 1973

Gary Glitter has the top UK hit for four straight weeks. Lennie Peters ( who had the misfortune to be blinded in both eyes in two separate incidents) and Dianne Lee had already hit #1 with "Welcome Home" in May but apparently the song had staying power. At #3 is Mungo Jerry with a re-write of the Jacques Dutronc hit "Et moi, Et Moi Et Moi". And yes, I owe Suzy Quatro a write-up. Later this month.

1. Gary Glitter: I'm the Leader of the Gang ( I Am)


2. Peters and Lee "Welcome Home"



3. Mungo Jerry "Alright Alright Alright"



Jacques Dutronc "Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi"


4. Osmonds "Going Home"
5. David Bowie "Life on Mars"
6. Suzy Quatro "48 Crash"



7. Carpenters "Yesterday Once More"
8. Al Martino "Spanish Eyes"

9. Diana Ross "Touch Me in the Morning"
10. Blue Mink "Randy"

Six Degrees of Separation: Jack Bruce to Suzi Quatro

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1. In 1971 ex-Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce records his proggy solo album Harmony Row with session guitarist Chris Spedding adding tasteful licks on tunes like "The Consul At Sunset".




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2. Chris Spedding establishes himself as one of the first guitar heroes of the punk rock era with his 1975 UK #14 hit "Motor Bikin'", produced by the famed Mickie Most.





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3.Two years later Mickie Most produces the 1979 UK #2 Racey hit "Some Girls" written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, whose "Chinnichap" brand of music created a series of 70's hits for artists including Sweet, Mud and Smokie.





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4. Apparently not above getting really baked before a TV appearance, Smokie had a five year hit-making stretch with the help of Chapman and Chinn. The 1977 single "Lay Back in The Arms of Someone" hit #1 on the European charts, thanks in part to Chris Norman's Rod Stewart-ish vocals.




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5. In 1978 Chris Norman joins Suzi Quatro on another Chapman and Chinn song called "Stumblin' In". The song peaked at #4 on the US charts and appeared on the album If You Knew Suzi.




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6.UK Pop Music fans did know Detroit's Suzi Quatro by then. Not so much in the US. Suzi scored a string of Chapman Chinn hits in the UK including the #3 hit "48 Crash" from her 1973 debut album.

#17 Wizzard "See My Baby Jive" 1973

Every band needs a bass player who can take the stage in rollerskates.
Roy Wood formed Wizzard after The Move broke up and followed his muse into Phil Spector-ish Wall of Sound pop. "See My Baby Jive" hit #1 in the UK and Ireland but did nothing in the US.

They certainly made glam fun. Roy's war paint and crazy hair lit up TV screens in close-ups. But in the wide shots audiences might see a pantomine horse, costumed gorillas and angels on rollerskates.

"See My Baby Jive" held the top of the UK charts for an entire month before Suzi Quatro's "Can the Can" kicked it aside.




ABBA has said the song inspired the sound of "Waterloo". Still trying to figure out why "See My Baby Jive" didn't jive with American audiences.

See My Baby Jive