- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Suzi Quatro wouldn’t have a hit in the U.S. until the release of her fifth album, If You Knew Suzi . . . . “Stumblin’ In” was a #4 hit single, a duet with Chris Norman.
Suzi Quatro – If You Knew Suzi . . . (1978): Detroit-born Suzi Quatro is the first female bassist rock star and was a bandmember in an early all-female rock band when she was just 15. Called the Pleasure Seekers, over time the band also featured her sisters Patti Quatro, Arlene Quatro, and Nancy Quatro. The Pleasure Seekers later morphed into Cradle, with yet another member of the family, Michael Quatro serving as their manager. British rock promoter Mickey Most saw Cradle in concert and was impressed enough to sign Suzi Quatro as a solo artist in 1971. In 1977, Suzi Quatro began making several appearances on the American sitcom Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, the sister of Fonzie’s girlfriend; occasionally, Quatro would also perform on the show.
Mickey Most had the prolific British songwriting team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman write songs for Suzi Quatro, leading to the hit song “Can the Can”, a #1 hit in both Britain and Australia. Other fine songs written by Chinn/Chapman became hits for Suzi Quatro in the U.K. and Australia, including “48 Crash”, “Devil Gate Drive”, and “The Wild One”; although Suzi Quatro wouldn’t have a hit in her home country until the release of her fifth album, If You Knew Suzi . . . . The album rose to #37 on the Billboard album charts; and “Stumblin’ In” (yet another Chinn/Chapman song) was a #4 hit single; the song is a duet by Suzi Quatro with Chris Norman, the lead singer of the British rock band Smokie. Besides “Stumblin’ In”, the album features two other classic Chapman/Chinn songs, “The Race Is On” and the hit “If You Can’t Give Me Love”. Three of the songs on If You Knew Suzi . . . were co-written by Suzi Quatro and her husband, guitarist Len Tuckey, who had been a member of the English rock band the Nashville Teens that had a hit song with “Tobacco Road” in 1964 (U.K. Top 10, U.S. Top 20). Suzi Quatro also performs convincing covers on If You Knew Suzi . . . of the Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting”, Tom Petty’s “Breakdown”, and Rick Derringer’s “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo”.