Twisted Sister
Love Is For Suckers
1987
Heavy Metal Glam Metal
USA
01.Wake Up (The Sleeping Giant)
02.Hot Love
03.Love Is for Suckers
04.I'm so Hot for You
05.Tonight
06.Me And the Boys
07.One Bad Habit
08.I Want This Night to Last Forever
09.You Are All That I Need
10.Yeah Right!
Twisted Sister is an American rock band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands. The band is generally categorized as glam metal for their earlier work, although the band does not consider themselves to be so.
Although the band was formed by guitarist Jay Jay French in December 1972, all of their songs were written by Dee Snider from 1976 onward. Snider remarked to Johnny Carson that the proposed name for the band was "This" but was rejected for fear of fans saying "This sucks". He describes Twisted Sister as "Slade meets Sex Pistols". Twisted Sister's most well-known hits include "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both popularized in the USA by regular airplay on MTV in the 1980s. Many of the band's songs explore themes of parent vs. child conflicts and criticisms of the educational system.
Twisted Sister was formed in December 1972 by guitarist Jay Jay French under the name Silverstar. In February 1973 Silverstar changed its name to Twisted Sister. In 1975, Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda, a former high school friend of French, joined as co-lead singer and second guitarist. He had previously recorded with a New York City band called SPV. Kevin John Grace replaced Mel "Starr" Anderson on drums. Bass guitarist Kenny Neill (Kenneth Harrisson-Neill) completed the lineup. The band followed a glam rock direction, influenced by David Bowie, Slade, Mott the Hoople, Humble Pie, and New York Dolls. It played at local clubs without much success until 1976.
In early 1976, Snider joined the band as lead vocalist and principal songwriter. After replacing drummer Grace with Tony Petri, the group took a heavier musical direction, influenced by Motörhead, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper, but without abandoning its glam image.
Although glam was out of fashion in those days, Snider's phenomenal abilities as frontman propelled the band to considerable local success. It broke attendance records at large halls in the Tri-State Region and its growing fan base began to take the name "S.M.F.F.O.T.S.", for Sick Motherfucking Friends Of Twisted Sister, later shortened to "S.M.F." for "Sick Mother Fuckers." In March 1979, the British music magazine, NME reported that Twisted Sister had sold out the 3,000 capacity New York Palladium for a March 16 show without a recording contract or radio airplay. The Palladium concert program included a sticker which was stapled to the inside cover, and the band ran an ad in Billboard following the show. Tickets to the concert were $3.50. No record label was interested in signing the band, so in 1979 it released the single "I'll Never Grow Up Now" / "Under the Blade" on their own label, Twisted Sister Records, followed in 1980 by "Bad Boys (Of Rock & Roll)" / "Lady's Boy". Eddie Kramer produced both singles. The singles were distributed through independent record stores such as the old Zig Zag Records in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, NY.
In this period, the group's membership changed. On October 31, 1978, Neill left the band, the band's roadie and friend, Mark "The Animal" Mendoza, formerly bassist for The Dictators, replaced him. In December 1980, Petri also left for the Plasmatics and was replaced briefly by Ritchie Teeter. Teeter, also formerly of The Dictators, was replaced in that band by Mel Anderson. In April 1981, Teeter was replaced by "Fast" Joey Brighton, who was in turn replaced by A.J. Pero from Cities, another unsigned band with local fame.
This lineup (Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Eddie Ojeda, Mark Mendoza and A.J. Pero) recorded four studio albums and performed numerous live shows around the world.
Love Is for Suckers is the fifth album by the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. According to the Live At Wacken DVD, the material was originally meant to be a solo album by Twisted Sister's lead singer, Dee Snider, but Twisted Sister's record company pushed for it to be released by the band. It was released by Atlantic Records on August 13, 1987. This would be their final studio album, as all albums during their break-up have been compilations or live albums. The tour for the album ended in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 10, 1987. Two days later, on October 12, 1987, vocalist Dee Snider announced his departure from the band.
Dee Snider has stated that he likes many of songs on the album, vocally. However he feels that if they play any of them live, then it may bring back bad memories for the band.
No songs from this album appeared on the band's 1992 greatest hits album Big Hits and Nasty Cuts.
