TWISTED SISTER – The Best of the Atlantic Years (2016 Atlantic)
Nobody likes buying the same thing twice, so Twisted Sister have ensured this “greatest hits” album is vastly different from their other stand-by, 1992’s Big Cuts & Nasty Cuts. That album boasted a side of live B-sides, now collected as Live at the Marquee. As such, it only had 10 studio tracks, whereas this new compilation has 17 plus a previously unreleased bonus.
The repeated songs are the obvious ones:
- “I’ll Never Grow Up, Now!”
- “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll”
- “I Am (I’m Me)”
- “The Kids Are Back”
- “I Wanna Rock”
- “We’re Not Gonna Take It”
- “The Price”
That leaves a whole lotta songs, including a few singles, that you’ll find here but not on Big Hits. Notably though, that means this compilation doesn’t have “Shoot ‘Em Down”, “Under the Blade”, or “Bad Boys of Rock ‘N’ Roll”.
What makes this compilation a little more special is that the tracks go almost chronologically, and don’t skimp out on songs from Come Out and Play, or Love Is for Suckers. Founding guitarist Jay Jay French mentioned in the liner notes that Suckers was supposed to be a Snider solo album, but we do get two songs.
Opening with Twisted’s first Atlantic album Under the Blade, we are treated to the 1985 remixes of “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)”, “I’ll Never Grow Up, Now!” and “Sin After Sin”. It’s a nice one-two-three punch, with “I’ll Never Grow Up, Now!” being a bubble gum punk sandwich, stuck between two heavy metal hard hitters. It’s actually a nice change of pace, getting the echo-laden remixes this time.
The heavy metal assault continues with what might be my favourite Twisted song of all time: “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll”.
“Like a charging bull, it’s a juggernaut,With steam at full, never to be caught,Incarnate power, roaring from the sky,While others cower, rock ain’t gonna die.”
The slow intro, the chugging riff, the pounding drums of the late great A.J. Pero (my favourite member as a kid) and the roar of Dee Snider made this the perfect heavy metal song to entice a young teenager back in the 80s. “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll” is part of a trio included from the same-titled album, joined by melodic metal masterpieces “I Am (I’m Me)” and “The Kids Are Back”. When Twisted went all melodic, they drew upon classic influences, but combined with the heavy guitars, they almost sound like precursors to pop-punk. In many regards, Twisted Sister were ahead of their time. It’s a simple recipe: Guitars chug, bass joins them, drums throw in some catchy fills, and Dee Snider delivers the hooks with the band on backing vocals. Simple, but difficult to master.
The largest clutch of songs obviously comes from Stay Hungry, with six. The three big singles are the obvious ones, but also thrown in are the classic deep cuts “Burn In Hell”, “The Beast” and “S.M.F.” In these songs, you get the heavier side of “Stay Hungry”, minus the title track itself. People who don’t actually know Twisted Sister might be surprised how heavy Stay Hungry could get once you ventured outside the safe singles. “Burn in Hell” is an exersize in intensity that deserves every listen you can give it. Perhaps the oft-forgotten “The Beast” is the most welcome here, as a true red-blooded slow burner metal monster.
Despite the quality of the lesser-heard Stay Hungry songs, one remains the pinnacle of Twisted Sister’s finest moments: “The Price”. Twisted probably took guff from the press and the doubters for attempting a ballad, but “The Price” puts the “power” in power ballad. Notably, A.J.’s drums are far busier and heavier that you expect from the average paltry power ballad. Dee Snider demonstrates his expert-level versatility here on the high notes, rendering this song very hard to sing note for note today.
This album wastes no opportunity. Come Out and Play is finally given a fair shake. The dark ugly duckling of the Twisted discography is represented by the title track, “Leader of the Pack”, “The Fire Still Burns” and the forgotten sing-along “You Want What We Got”. They didn’t skimp out here, and you get the full length version of “Come Out and Play”, including the Warriors homage of “Twisted Sister, come out and play!” Pero’s final album, and his drumming on this track is as blazing fast as it got for Twisted Sister. “Leader of the Pack” is campy fun, but it really had to be included, being an integral part of Twisted’s early history and eventual failure (at least according to Jay Jay in the liner notes). “The Fire Still Burns” has an intense flame indeed, though did Dieter Dierks’ production do it any favours? Of note: “You Want What We Got” is not the album version. It is longer at 4:21, and contains an outro with Dee Snider talking, and dropping a deleted expletive! This version is not credited as being unique, and it’s currently unknown where it originated.
Love Is For Suckers is often neglected. The Beau Hill-produced album was written to be Dee’s solo debut, and included members of other bands from the Hill camp, such as Fiona, Winger and Kix. Reb Beach played lead guitar, which led to a sudden change in sound, away from the heavy metal of Twisted Sister’s roots, and more towards what was popular at the time: the subgenre they call “hair metal” today. Joey “Seven” Franco replaced A.J., and was so nicknamed as he was the band’s seventh drummer. Franco also followed Dee into his solo band the following year. “Hot Love” was the single, which should have been a hit, while “Love Is For Suckers” was the only cover the band ever recorded without playing live first.
The final song is the bonus track, “Born to be Wild”, the Steppenwolf cover that they have indeed played live (going back to 1976, but more recently on Live At Wacken: The Reunion). This new studio version was recorded in 2005 and produced by Mark “The Animal” Mendoza. It was used prior to this release in a reality TV series called Knievel’s Wild Ride. It’s tremendous fun, with Twisted Sister ripping into it with their usual reckless abandon. Mendoza’s bass is delightfully bass, but Dee Snider really lets loose at the end.
This set, being limited to the Atlantic years, gratefully doesn’t include anything from Still Hungry or Twisted Christmas. That’s fine and dandy; they would unbalance this release. The Best of the Atlantic Years is the best single Twisted Sister compilation on the market.
5/5 stars
I have to get this! I wouldn’t be the Twisted Sister fan I claim to be if I don’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
p.s. “You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll” is my favourite TS song too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The video is so good! It struck me as so heavy, coming from the little TV speaker.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Two exclusive tracks! You won’t believe that I found this at Toys R Us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a surprise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have yet to go to Toys R Us without buying music I needed and can’t find elsewhere. Great music section, if completely unorganized.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds good, Mike.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
LikeLiked by 1 person
It definitely is Henry, this was found at the Toys R Us store!
LikeLike
I have a few Twisted albums on vinyl, but need to expand the collection a little more. I’ll keep an eye out for this one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is such a good buy. Not only does it give you a really good sampling of the Atlantic years, but you also get the two rare tracks. It’s a win/win. Plus, I found this at the Toys R Us store.
LikeLike
Surprised anything from Love is for Suckers made it. Hot Love is pretty catchy though. Funny that Dee would later mock Winger when he worked with Reb Beach and Kip Winger on that album.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dee has a pretty big mouth. I follow him on Twitter and he’s always opinionated when he really doesn’t have to.
One of the reasons I bought this was for the inclusion of Love is For Suckers material!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No Wake Up the Sleeping Giant!
LikeLiked by 1 person
He did play it live on his SMF Live CD, so I’m not too fussed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re an SMF, but the Prince SMF. Sexy mother fucker.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And if you think we’re sick, then sick is what we’ll be!
Prince though, yeah I dig him too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now that you’ve been inundated with Purple Rain!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A good thing indeed! He sounds awesome at the cottage. My next new discovery is ELP. Peter got me to buy Brain Salad Surgery for another episode.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sliding into middle age gracefully. Next is Steely Dan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now that’s a band I don’t wanna get into just because I always thought Walter Becker looked goofy. Please don’t let it happen. ELP at least has the HR Giger thing going for it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Steely Dan was named after a dildo if that helps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That I knew, but know it doesn’t help. It’s the hairline. It’s always been the hairline.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not just any dildo, a dildo from William S. Burrough’s Naked Lunch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tempting, but I still have to pass on the dildo band. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad these guys are more than just “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Too bad they never released more material post 1990s (not including the Christmas album).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nah, it’s good that stuff is not on here. No Christmas crap on this! And the only other stuff they did was a couple covers and a song called 30.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not that they needed to have latter material on this greatest hits set, but I’m just saying it would’ve been nice if they had more songs to choose from rather than relying on their classics when performing live.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you mean that you wish Twisted Sister recorded a new studio album post 1987, I agree with you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that’s exactly what I meant to say!
LikeLike
I have Big Hits and Stay Hungry. All I want from this band is You Can’t Stop Rock in Roll. Hard to find on vinyl.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And that’s their best one too. So many great songs, such as Like A Knife in the Back. Big Hits was cool for the live portion!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds like a killer release! My first Sister CD was Big Hits and Nasty Cuts. Picture it: it was the Spring of 2005, I was at our local music store “CD Plus”, and they had two Twisted Sister CDs – Stay Hungry and Big Hits and Nasty Cuts. I stood there for several minutes, both CDs in hand, debating on which one I should get. Obviously, I knew the hits from Hungry, and was curious about the whole album, but Big Hits seemed to offer more for my money, so I went with that one, and what an introduction it was! The live stuff especially blew me away. It was here that I found out how explicit Twisted Sister shows were, and I was all for it.
Reading you review for The Atlantic Years though, while it does lack in the live department, I will say that the track listing seems better, and I’m happy to see that Come Out and Play and Love is for Suckers get the proper attention. I guess I’ll have to track this one down, lol!
LikeLiked by 1 person
See here’s the thing about that live stuff. Now that Live at the Marquee is available, there’s no need for the partial live set on Big Hits. It’s obsolete now. I give them credit for releasing so much rare live stuff on that disc, but now, it’s just a partial live release. The full thing is what you really want! https://mikeladano.com/2020/10/26/review-twisted-sister-live-at-the-marquee-2011/
LikeLike