Suzi Quatro (born 3 June 1950, Detroit) is an American glam rock singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. She was the first female bass player to become a major rock star, breaking a barrier to women’s participation in rock music. In the 1970s Quatro scored a string of hit singles that found greater success in European and Australian territories than in her homeland. Following a recurring role as bass player Leather Tuscadero on the popular American sitcom Happy Days, her duet “Stumblin’ In” with Chris Norman reached number 4 in the USA in 1979. Quatro released her self-titled debut album in 1973. Since then, she has released fifteen studio albums, ten compilation albums, and one live album. Her solo hits include “Can the Can”, “48 Crash”, “Daytona Demon”, “Devil Gate Drive”, and “Your Mamma Won’t Like Me”. (More from Wikipedia)
If Goldie and the Gingerbreads were the first all-woman rock band to be signed to a major label, and Fanny was #3, who was the second? That would be the Pleasure Seekers, which was Suzi Quatro’s first band In her memoir Unzipped, Suzi said that she and her sisters searched through the dictionary for a name for their band. They found the word “hedonist” and took their name for one of the definitions for that word, “pleasure seeker”.
The Pleasure Seekers were formed by Patti Quatro and were basically a Quatro family project: Bandmembers in their initial incarnation were Patti Quatro (guitar), Suzi Quatro (vocals and bass guitar), Nancy Ball (drums), Mary Lou Ball (guitar), and Diane Baker (piano). Baker’s father was in the jazz band led by Art Quatro, who was the father of the Quatro sisters. Diane Baker was later replaced on piano by another sister, Arlene Quatro; while Nan Ball left the band in late 1965 and was replaced on drums by Darline Arnone.
The first single by the Pleasure Seekers came out in 1964 on Hideout Records – which was associated with a popular Detroit nightclub called the Hideout – and is truly remarkable. At that time, Suzi Quatro was only 15, and Patti Quatro was 17. I first heard the excellent “A” side, “Never Thought You’d Leave Me” – one of my all-time favorite 1960’s songs by anyone – on Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 6, and it has been anthologized several more times. At an earlier time or in another context, the Pleasure Seekers might have been a “girl group”, with strong harmony vocals. But they are a band, not a vocal group, and this gives the song a completely different sound.
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I didn’t hear the “B” side, “What a Way to Die” until I picked up a retrospective of the Hideout Records label, called Friday at the Hideout. The theme of this song is incredible: The singer seems intent on drinking herself to death with beer (however unlikely that would be in practice). At a later date, the Pleasure Seekers were signed to Mercury Records and released a second single in 1968, “Light of Love” b/w “Good Kind of Hurt”.
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Suzi Quatro was signed by Mickie Most to RAK Records in 1971 and moved to England, where she embarked on a successful solo career. She is the first female bass guitarist to become a rock star. Her albums presented Suzi Quatro alternately as confrontational – Your Mamma Won’t Like Me – and girl-next-door cute – If you Knew Suzi . . . . Suzi Quatro is probably best known to American audiences for her role as Leather Tuscadero on the TV series Happy Days; the character was the younger sister of Fonzie’s girlfriend, Pinky Tuscadero. On occasion, Suzi Quatro gave a musical performance on the TV show.
