scored several big hits on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to a striking visual style tailor-made for the early days of MTV, as well as genuine musical chops that evoked the best players of rockabilly's original heyday.
in the Long Island town of Massapequa, NY, in 1979. At first,
). However, their retro '50s look and sound didn't go over well around Long Island, and in the summer of 1980, the group headed to England, where a rockabilly revival movement was just beginning to emerge.
After one of their gigs in London,
the Stray Cats met producer
Dave Edmunds, well known as a roots rock enthusiast for his work with
Rockpile, and as a solo artist.
Edmunds offered to work with the group, and they entered the studio to record their self-titled debut album, released in England in 1981 on Arista. They were popular right out of the box, scoring three straight hits that year with "Runaway Boys," "Rock This Town," and "Stray Cat Strut." The follow-up,
Gonna Ball, wasn't as well received and, stung by the negative reviews,
the Stray Cats decided to return to the States and make a go of it. They signed with EMI America and in 1982 released their U.S. debut,
Built for Speed, which compiled the highlights from their two British LPs. Helped by extensive airplay on MTV at the height of the anything-goes new wave era, "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" both hit the American Top Ten, over a year after their British chart peaks. As a result,
Built for Speed was a left-field smash, and
the Stray Cats were seen as avatars of retro style. Their second American album,
Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats, appeared in 1983 and produced another Top Ten hit in "(She's) Sexy + 17," as well as a minor Top 40 entry in the doo wop-styled ballad "I Won't Stand in Your Way."
Personality conflicts began to emerge in the ways the individual members handled their newfound success:
Phantom married actress (and former
Rod Stewart paramour) Britt Ekland, while
Setzer made guest appearances with stars like
Bob Dylan and
Stevie Nicks and became the concert guitarist for
Robert Plant's
Honeydrippers side project. In late 1984,
Setzer broke up the band amid much bad blood.
Rocker and
Phantom immediately teamed up with guitarist
Earl Slick and recorded an album as
Phantom, Rocker & Slick, while
Setzer waited a couple of years before releasing his roots rock solo debut,
The Knife Feels Like Justice. By 1986, fences had apparently been mended enough for
the Stray Cats to reconvene in Los Angeles and record the covers-heavy
Rock Therapy, which didn't sell that well. The trio returned to their respective post-
Stray Cats projects, which both released albums that performed disappointingly. In 1989, they reunited once again for the album
Blast Off, which was accompanied by a tour with
Stevie Ray Vaughan. No longer with EMI,
the Cats entered the studio with
Nile Rodgers for the lackluster
Let's Go Faster, issued by Liberation in 1990. 1992's
Dave Edmunds-produced
Choo Choo Hot Fish also attracted little attention, and after another covers album,
Original Cool, the group called it quits again. They have since reunited periodically for live performances.
Setzer, of course, went on to spearhead the '90s swing revival with his
Brian Setzer Orchestra, which performed classic big-band swing and jump blues tunes, as well as
Setzer originals.
–
Steve Huey, Rovi