Here are five hair metal songs that you probably had no idea were actually covers.
Hair metal wasn’t shy about a lot of things and the genre most definitely wasn’t shy about borrowing a good song from time to time. If it had a strong hook and a killer chorus, there’s a decent chance an ’80s hard rock band could plug a guitar into their Marshall stack and make it their own.
Of course, not all covers are obvious. Most rock fans know bands such as Quiet Riot had help building their career with the success of covers that became major hits (Slade‘s “Cum On Feel The Noize” from 1983’s Metal Health), but plenty of other examples of hair metal bands taking on covers have become so closely associated with the names that have covered them… to the point that where they originated has almost become completely forgotten.
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In some other cases, the covers were modest hits, or didn’t really get any attention at all.
Part of what made hair metal such fertile ground for recording covers and actually having them stand out was due to their ability to completely reinvent a song.
The result of their efforts was often a song that felt brand new to an entirely new generation of listeners.
Here are some of the genre’s best covers.
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Great White, “Once Bitten Twice Shy”
Few covers in this subgenre became as a as unexpectedly successful as Great White‘s “Once Bitten Twice Shy.”
By the late 1980s, Great White had built a reputation on bluesy hard rock and gritty originals in “Rock Me” and “Save Your Love.” So when the band chose to record a song written by Ian Hunter from Mott The Hoople, it wasn’t exactly the most obvious move.
The track originally appeared on Hunter’s 1975 self-titled solo debut. While the song developed a loyal following among classic rock fans, it never came close to becoming a mainstream hit. More than a decade later, Great White saw something in the overlooked composition and gave it a complete makeover.
“Once Bitten Twice Shy” became the biggest hit of Great White’s career, helped name their 1989 album …Twice Shy, and reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100; introducing the band to an audience far beyond the hard rock world. For many listeners, it was their first exposure not only to Great White, but to Ian Hunter’s songwriting.
Great White’s cover completely reshaped the song’s legacy. Unlike some famous covers where fans remain divided between the original and the remake, Great White’s version became the definitive recording for an entire generation of fans.
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Hardline, “Hot Cherie”
If you discovered Hardline‘s Double Eclipse in the early ’90s, there’s a good chance you assumed the album’s biggest hit, “Hot Cherie,” was one of the band’s original songs. After all, it sounds pretty much tailor made for them: a massive chorus, Neal Schon‘s (of Journey) scorching guitar work and a vocal performance from Johnny Gioeli that’s unforgettable.
But surprisingly enough, “Hot Cherie” actually predates Hardline by nearly a decade.
The song was first recorded by singer and drummer Danny Spanos in 1983, years before Hardline even existed. It later appeared in a different form by the Canadian band Streetheart, whose members helped write the track. Despite those earlier recordings, neither version made much of a lasting impact and “Hot Cherie” fell into obscurity.
That all changed in 1992 when Hardline took the bones of the song and turned it into something bigger. Their version of “Hot Cherie” arrived at a strange moment in rock history; hair metal was practically on life support, grunge was taking over, and many melodic hard rock bands were struggling to stay relevant. Yet “Hot Cherie” sounded completely timeless.
The result of Hardline’s take on the song is one of those rare covers that totally ‘eclipses’ (pun very much intended) the original. Mention “Hot Cherie” to any hair metal fan today and odds are they’ll immediately think of Hardline, not Danny Spanos.
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Quiet Riot, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”
Most hard rock fans know that Quiet Riot’s hit “Cum On Feel The Noize” was actually a cover of a Slade song. What far fewer people realize is that one of the band’s other biggest singles came from the exact same source.
Released as the follow-up single from 1983’s Metal Health, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” was originally recorded by Slade over a decade earlier in 1972. At the time, the British glam rock group was one of the biggest bands in the U.K., scoring hit after hit with their intentionally misspelled song titles.
Quiet Riot realized that those songs were practically written for the emerging MTV generation.
Where Slade’s version leaned into the glam rock sound of the early ’70s, Quiet Riot turned everything up to 11. The guitars were heavier and Kevin DuBrow’s larger than life vocals gave the song an energy that fit perfectly alongside the band’s earlier material.
The cover proved that “Cum On Feel The Noize” was not just a fluke; but that Slade knew how to write the songs and Quiet Riot knew how to pick them and give ’em one hell of a makeover. “Mama Weer All Crazee Now,” released on the band’s 1984 release Conditional Critical, became another major hit for Quiet Riot and continued the momentum that the band received from the massive success of Metal Health.
For an entire generation of American fans, Quiet Riot’s versions came first, while Slade’s originals were hidden gems waiting to be uncovered. As a result, some fans are surprised to learn that two of Quiet Riot’s songs weren’t originally theirs at all.
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Tesla, “Little Suzi”
Not every hair metal cover came from a forgotten hard rock song, instead, Tesla gained inspiration from a synth-pop song.
“Little Suzi” from Tesla’s 1986 release Mechanical Resonance is actually not a Tesla original at all. The track was originally released in 1981 by the British trio Ph.D, whose version featured shimmering keyboards and a distinctive early ’80s new wave sound. While the song did find some success overseas, it never became a major hit in the United States.
Unlike many of their Sunset Strip contemporaries, Tesla built the foundation of their sound on a style that was far more stripped down with a blues-based approach. “Little Suzi” was definitely an unusual choice for a cover on paper, but that’s exactly what made the cover work.
Rather than completely reinventing the song, Tesla kept its strong melodic base, replacing the keyboards with crunchy guitars that helped give the synth-pop sound an edge. Jeff Keith’s unmistakable raspy vocal added a layer of grit to “Little Suzi” that wasn’t present in the original.
Tesla’s version of “Little Suzi” became one of their earliest hits, and is usually the only exposure listeners have to the song itself; unfortunately Ph.D’s original recording has pretty much faded into obscurity.
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Mr. Big, “Wild World”
A lot of the cover songs we’ve talked about so far have succeeded due to bands completely reinventing the original, but the same can’t be said for this song covered by Mr. Big.
By the time the band recorded their version of “Wild World” for their 1993 record Bump Ahead, Cat Stevens’ original recording had already been a beloved classic for the better part of 20 years. Released on 1970’s Tea for the Tillerman, “Wild World” showcased Stevens’ gift for melodies and heartfelt storytelling and later on became one of the most defining songs in his catalog.
Mr. Big were coming off the massive success of their biggest hit “To Be With You,” and were best known for combining melodic hooks with the virtuosic playing of Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan. Covering a soft folk-pop staple wasn’t exactly what fans expected, but after the success of the acoustic driven “To Be With You,” it actually made a lot of sense.
Instead of forcing the song into hard rock constraints, the arrangement leaned faithfully into the original. While Mr. Big was always known for the band’s incredible musicianship and technical abilities, their cover of “Wild World” continued to show that sometimes simple is just as great.
For many listeners, especially outside of the United States which is where Mr. Big have garnered some of their biggest audiences, the gamble of covering such a beloved track really paid off. It became one of the band’s biggest international hits and helped reintroduce the song to an entirely new generation.
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