Quiet Riot - Cum on Feel the Noize

There’s a fairly interesting history behind this week’s selection, that can be boiled down to an age old argument when it comes to rock and metal – the USA vs the UK.

Way back in 1972, famed harbingers of Christmas and so-English-sounding-it-hurts-a-bit rockers Slade released Cum on Feel the Noize, a jaunty rock bop that has teenagers giggling about the name to this day. It’s a fun tale about telling naysayers to sit on a stick, to put it in more indelicate terms, and it’s without doubt a classic song that needs little in the way of introduction. Tootle on forward another ten years and Los Angeles-based heavy metallers Quiet Riot (who formed ten years prior with Randy Rhoads as guitarist - yes, THAT Randy Rhoads) released their own version of the hit to much acclaim in the States, where the original Slade version didn’t really have much of an impact.

So, what made the Quiet Riot version more popular? A lot of it comes down to timing, I imagine – the heavy metal heyday was well underway and this, if nothing else, was a good song played in a much more heavy metal style than the folksy-leanings of the original. Punchier guitars and riffs and a driving bassline gave the track a much more active rock feel that sent the song into the stratosphere in terms of popularity. Granted, it’s pretty much the same vocals with a different accent, but we can all agree the guitar did most of the heavy lifting anyway.

Which made it of little surprise that Metal Health, the album the song was released on, turned out to be a fairly one hit wonder affair, with the popularity of this very song the driving force behind it. They had a few other tracks that tickled the underbelly of the popular consciousness in the following years, of which only one more of those was another Slade cover. Well, it worked the first time, didn’t it? And the Quiet Riot one comes up first when you Google the song, too, which has got to sting a little.

Never mind, Slade. At least you’ve got the whole Masters of Christmas thing going for you, eh?

We couldn't embed the original music video for this one, as YouTube has age restricted it .. probably because it has a naughty word in the title. Anyway if you want to see it, you can check it out here.