Sound Advice: CD Reviews - Stray Cats (Built For Speed)

CD Review:
After leaving the States for rosier pastures in the U.K., and releasing two albums and garnering some success, the band returned to their homeland and released Built For Speed their debut album domestically.

The band was formed in 1979 on Long Island, N.Y. by Brian Setzer (vocals. guitar). He left his band and joined up with Lee Rocker (Bass) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums) to start The Stray Cats. Never gaining any success in and around New York for their '50s retro sounding rockabilly music, they left and moved to England where a revival of the genre was taking place.

After releasing Stray Cats and Gonna Ball in 1981 to some success, especially their self-titled album that had 3 singles hit the charts. But the lackluster reception of Gonna Ball convinced them to go back home. They signed with EMI and released Built For Speed.

The debut American album could be almost considered a compilation album as it basically re-released the best songs off the two U.K. albums for American consumption. "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" which were both hits in England, struck it big in the U.S. and Canada also on the strength of heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. The sound of rockabilly and the retro look of '50s greasers was a big hit for those not bouncing around to the synth-pop of the day.

Although the band became quite popular, it did not last. Like most '80s bands, they rose quick and fell even faster. Their second domestic release Rant N Rave... had a hit with "She's Sexy (At 17)," my favourite song by the band, even David Edmunds as producer couldn't save the band from the fall.

With Built For Speed and Rant N Rave, you have the best the band produced but with fickle tastes, and the revival of rockabilly being short lived because of it, the best thing that you could say for the Stray Cats was they focused enough attention on the genre that people went back and started listening to the originals by Charlie Feathers et al. As for the band they were short lived and after Rant N Rave people moved on.

Scott D. Brown