Greatest Hits

EMI’s Greatest Hits starts off as any Suzi Quatro collection should, with the stunning one-two punch of “Can the Can” and “48 Crash” followed by the cat-scratch glam boogie of “Daytona Demon” and “Devil Gate Drive.” From there the rest of the disc collects some of Suzi’s best rockers and ballads, providing a wide-angle view of her stellar career. Quatro doesn’t get the credit she deserves for being a female hard rock pioneer; in the U.S. she is seen as Leather Tuscadero from Happy Days first and foremost with her recording career an afterthought at best. That is a shame because Suzi could flat out rock. With the help of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn’s songwriting and production, she created a body of work that is almost equal to Joan Jett’s. Rockers like “The Wild One,” “Your Mama Won’t Like Me,” and “Tear Me Apart” should have been blasting out of transistors and eight-tracks from the beach to the strip all over the U.S.A. Quatro also was a decent songwriter (“Mama’s Boy” is the one Quatro composition featured here) and managed to sing ballads convincingly (the wonderful “Stumblin’ In,” “If You Can’t Give Me Love,” and a surprisingly subtle cover of Steve Harley’s “Make Me Smile [Come Up and See Me]“). The only stumble on this collection is her corny cover of Peggy Lee’s “Fever.” Apart from that, this is one of the better Quatro collections you can get, and you need to have at least one Quatro record in your collection. – Tim Sendra