THE STRAY CATS
The Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada and the U.S. including “Stray Cat Strut”, “(She’s) Sexy + 17”, “Look at That Cadillac”, “I Won’t Stand in Your Way”, “Bring it Back Again”, and “Rock This Town”, which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the 500 most important songs in the history of rock and roll. (More from Wikipedia)
The term “rockabilly” – the word is an amalgamation of rock and hillbilly (an early term for country music) – was thrilling to me even before I actually knew what it meant. It was one of the earliest forms of rock and roll and the first to be played primarily by white musicians, going all the way back to “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets. The roster of rockabilly stars over the years starts of course with The King, Elvis Presley, along with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and most of the other artists at Sun Records in the 1950’s, plus Wanda Jackson, Eddie Cochran and others. There was also a rockabilly revival in the early 1980’s led by the Blasters and the Stray Cats. To this day, when a band wants a rawer sound, they will incorporate rockabilly into their music.
The 1980’s rockabilly revival was sadly short-lived. The Stray Cats had some MTV hits and put out a few albums, but their front man Brian Setzer drifted away and played with Robert Plant’s retro-rock side project the Honeydrippers in 1984 before transforming himself further to help spur a swing revival with the Brian Setzer Orchestra in the mid-1990’s.
(May 2011)
