After the success of their self-titled E.P., Ratt signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and that deal brought us the incredible debut album ‘Out of the Cellar’. On March 27th, 1984, the album was released and thanks to MTV, the band became a huge sensation. And here we are over 40 years later with an Anniversary Edition of the album that even gives us one previously unreleased track. Now, it isn’t on the album if you got the vinyl per se but is with the CD version. The vinyl version instead received a 7″ Single with that song included which is called “Reach For The Sky” and if that sounds familiar, the band actually used it as an album title years later.
The band’s line-up was unchanged from the E.P, consisting of the following members:
- Stephen Pearcy – vocals
- Robbin Crosby – lead guitar
- Warren DeMartini – lead guitar
- Juan Croucier – bass
- Bobby Blotzer – drums
With the incredible dual guitar combo of Crosby & DeMartini and the bluesy, raspiness of Pearcy’s vocals, the band had an arsenal of great songs that took them to the pinnacle of rock and selling millions and millions of records. It also didn’t hurt that they looked the part which was crucial for the MTV world that was exploding on the scene at the time.
Take that and add a beautiful woman on the cover your album and there was denying this band. Tawny Kitaen graced the cover of the debut album as she was the then girlfriend of Robin Crosby. She also graced the cover of their E.P. but that was just her beautiful legs. This time, you got the whole package. For those that didn’t know, Tawny is the video vixen that was dancing on the pair of Jaguars in the Whitesnake videos in the late 80’s when she was dating David Coverdale. With these new version, we get a new cover…sort of…this time is a lenticular cover with Tawny on it which sees the background change from the yellow fiery cover to a blue tinged background. And throw the music on a red & black splatter vinyl and it is one sweet package.
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