Initially influenced by the likes of Elvis Presley and Billie Holliday as she was without a female rock and roll role model, Quatro’s earliest musical excursion came playing in her father’s band The Art Quatro Trio. She later moved on to join her sister’s band The Pleasure Seekers and released the singles “Never Though You’d Leave Me”/ What A Way To Die” in 1966, and “Light of Love” / “Good Kind of Hurt” in 1968. Uninspired by their label's direction for them, the group soon departed Mercury Records and changed their name to Cradle, and began playing the Midwest rock ballroom circuit.
Quatro subsequently signed with RAK Records as a solo artist and moved to England where the label was based. The rock singer’s debut single “Rolling Stone” in 1972, proved popular in Portugal but nowhere else unlike her sophomore single “Can the Can”. Utilising the glam rock proclivity of writers and producers Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, “Can the Can” topped the charts in both the UK and Australia and paved the way for string of hit singles including “48 Crash”, “Devil Gate Drive” and “The Wild One”.
Despite this single success and album successes with “Suzi Quatro” (1973) and “Quatro” (1974) in Europe and Australasia, popularity in the U.S. proved hard to come by. That was until she appeared as Leather Tuscadero in the U.S. sitcom “Happy Days” which coincided with the released of her fifth studio album “If You Knew Suzi” in 1978. The album shot to No. 37 on the Billboard 200, aided by the No. 4 single "Stumblin’ In” featuring Chris Norman.
Quatro released the album “Suzi… And Other Four Letter Words” in 1979, followed by “Rock Hard” in 1980 on Mike Chapman’s label Dreamland Records. The label soon perished however and with the days of glam rock coming to an end with the arrival of the ‘80s, Quatro altered her sound in a new-wave direction with the album “Main Attraction” in 1983.
The singer then pursued an acting career and starred in the West End musical “Annie, Get Your Gun” in 1986, hosted a TV chat show “Gas Street” and became a disc jockey on BBC radio. During this time Quatro released the albums “What Goes Around” in 2003, “Back to the Drive” in 2006, “In the Spotlight” in 2011, and continued her extensive touring the UK, Australia and Japan in support of them. To mark 50 years in rock and roll, Suzi Quatro issued the anniversary box set “The Girl from Detroit City” in 2014.
The stage is black except for the strobe lights flashing over the band members. A trumpet, saxophone, horn, guitar, and drum set accompany Suzi Quatro's bass guitar and vocals. The happy cries from the audience mingle with the drum beat and the hazy lights dance from musician to musician on stage. Suzi Quatro, looking like the rocker she is in black jeans and a black leather vest studded with metal spikes, steps on with her electric bass guitar and simultaneously belts out the lyrics to “Rock Hard” and plays the guitar part. Suzi Quatro has produced an astounding amount of music. Over the course of a forty plus year music career, she has released fifteen studio albums, from Suzi Quatro to In The Spotlight, eleven compilations/non studio albums, and fifty three singles. She has won multiple gold, silver, and bronze Bravo Otto rewards for female singers, and was selected as one of only twelve Queens of British Pop by BBC TV. Quatro's fame stems not only from her epic rock music, but also from the fact that she is the first female bass player to emerge as a leading rock star. This American musician revolutionized the woman's role in rock music. Today, after an extensive career touring the world, this rock goddess still puts on an exceptional show.
ZoeWhittall
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