Chart entered : 19 May 1973
Chart peak : 1
Number of hits : 16
Given that Grace Slick, Sonja Kristina and Janis Joplin barely mustered a UK hit between them Suzi is effectively the first female rocker we've seen since Brenda Lee. Unlike Brenda Suzi strapped on a bass guitar and rocked with the boys and so is rightly regarded as an important role model for women in rock.
Susan Quatrocchio was born in Detroit in 1950 of Italian stock on her father's side. She was inspired by Elvis at an early age . She learned a variety of instruments and sometimes played percussion in her father's jazz band the Art Quatro Trio. She has a number of sisters all of whom are musicians themselves.
In May 1964 her older sister Patti formed a band in response to seeing The Beatles and Suzi joined on bass. They called themselves The Pleasure Seekers and started playing Detroit clubs after a few weeks' practice. By 1966 sister Arlene had joined on the organ and they released their first single "Never Thought You'd Leave Me" on the Hideout label. Although there's a Shangri-las influence there it sounds years ahead of its time ,like a forgotten indie band from the John Peel show circa 79/80 and it's a decent song too. Suzi's nifty bassline gets a couple of solo spots to show her prowess.
By 1968 they had a major label deal with Mercury who released their second single "Light Of Love" which has much more of a Motown R & B feel and inevitably picked up some Northern Soul support. It also exposes Suzi's limitations as a singer , sounding like she's struggling to keep up with the pace of the song.
The band then fell out with Mercury and changed their name to Cradle in 1969. Arlene stopped performing and was replaced by another sister, Nancy. Cradle toured heavily including a short tour of Vietnam. In 1970 Mickie Most was persuaded to check them out while over in Detroit with Jeff Beck. He liked Suzi rather than the band and persuaded her to come over to England and be groomed as a star in her own right.
Suzi's first single for RAK came out in July 1972. "Rolling Stone" was written by arranger Phil Dennys and Errol Brown with some uncredited input from Suzi herself. It's a dog's dinner of a single , an underdeveloped song with no real chorus that never gets out of first gear. Bizarrely it got to number one in Portugal but stiffed everywhere else. |Most then agreed to her suggesting a rock makeover with the legendary leather catsuit ( respected musicologist Simon Frith is still haunted by the excited comments he made in a 1974 review about her not wearing underwear beneath it ) and trusted her to recruit backing musicians for an upcoming tour with Thin Lizzy and Slade. She chose three beefy blokes including future husband Len Tuckey who looked like a wrestler and Ramone lookalike Alastair McKenzie on keyboards.
Having acquitted herself well there Most put her with Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who came up with "Can The Can". Here's the Popular take Suzi; a lot of digression in the Comments but the song's covered well enough.
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