In my ever growing attempt at saving 7″ Singles from sitting all alone in Record Stores craving to spun again a turntable, I have found a couple from the band Quiet Riot that were eager to be adopted by yours truly. I found these two at the great Charlotte Record Store of Noble Records. He is always putting out great stuff and these two are no exception.
The first to discuss was “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” off their album ‘Metal Health’. This time we are going to discuss the other single I found, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” off their follow-up album to ‘Metal Health’ called ‘Condition Critical’. This was one of the singles from that album and it did moderately well but not breaking the Top 40 as it stalled out at #51. I think part of the problem was it was another cover song by the same band they became famous covering with “Cum on Feel the Noize”. Yep, another Slade cover. I think they dipped their pen too much in that inkwell.
My single copy is again nothing special. It is a standard US copy on Pasha label with the B-Side being “Bad Boy” off the same album. I do like the Pasha label with its blue color and the naked man running with a hole in his chest and a flower growing. Strange, but yet interesting.
A-SIDE:
The song “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” was written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade. Quiet Riot stick faithfully to the song and I think that is the downfall. They do rock it out a little and Kevin gives his signature screams and crazy looks in the video. It is a solid cover and they do make it a Quiet Riot song as how could you not with the talents of Kevin on vocals, but really…another Slade cover? You lose points on that for lack of originality. If I want Slade, trust me, I’m going to listen to Slade over Quiet Riot’s versions every time. No offense to QR. I do like them a lot or why else would I have albums and singles in my collection.
B-SIDE:
The B-Side is “Bad Boy” which is a really deep cut on the album. I don’t believe this is the album cut as it is 40+ seconds longer than the album version which is mostly from running out and repeating the chorus over and over a lot. For that, this is a cool edit that didn’t come on the album and that is always a good thing. The song production is a little lacking as the song doesn’t sound full and rich in sound. Kevin’s vocals are great (of course), but music is a little soft although the song has a great guitar solo by Carlos Cavazo. You do here Frankie’s drums and Rudy’s bass but they are too soft in the mix. The song appears to have been released as a single in the UK which I didn’t know that prior to this.
And there you have it. The next single was also found on this same record store trip as these two Quiet Riot singles, but this artist is not quite in the same league as QR. He’s in a league of his own.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
I remember reading in one rock magazine someone asking in a letter, “If I killed Slade, would Quiet Riot die too? So, you’re right, another Slade cover wasn’t the best idea.
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Nope, but if you look at their history, they have never really had a lot of good ideas.
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Quiet Riot covered Slade and it was a hit, so they decided to stick with a formula that worked for them and it backfired? Shocker! This is why I hate covers. However, I do think The Runaways covered “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” much better than Quiet Riot did. Joan did the lead vocals since it was after Cherie left.
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I don’t remember the Runaways cover, I’ll have to go listen to that one.
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Yeah, I wish I could remember how I found it cause I kind of forgot lol.
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Quiet riot is a good band but also an incredible mess, with a weak discography.
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Agreed!
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I have the same single — no stencil. Bought at Records on Wheels in Guelph in 1990.
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You have a great memory. Not too many of my purchases back than do I remember when and where.
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Yup, Bad Boy is a bit weaker, maybe, but still not bad. Also, on that cover, nice shirt bud! The tie in the front is very stylish, and those colours… Man, I’ll bet he still has that one, it’s a classic LOL!
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Pretty horrible clothing for sure!! But that was the time.
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It was so bad.
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Even Frankie looks disappointed in the photo! It’s no secret that their producer loved Slade. He convinced them to cover Cum on feel the noise.
Too many bands start off popular because of a cover, but lack the originals to follow up. I don’t know if Quiet Riot falls into that category, as I don’t have any of their albums beyond Metal Health. Would the band have taken off if Metal Health (bang your head) was the first single?
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The QR guys or DuBrow weren’t really good songwriters to churn out quality original material album after album.
Even though I have the LP I more or less checked out.
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Yeah, the the first 3 albums (sorry, the first 3 albums after the first 2 in Japan) are all I have and care about.
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I have one of those Japan albums as a RR collector
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I’m glad you brought that up about Slade. I thought that was odd also. Yea it worked the first time but just because you could…doesn’t mean you should.
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Exactly, you can only dip your ink in to the well so many times before it gets old.
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