Songoftheday 9/4/12 - Well my baby & me went out late Saturday night, I had my hair pomped tight my baby just looked so right...

Stray Cats - "Rock This Town"
from the album Built For Speed (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (five weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the American rockabilly trio Stray Cats. who came together in Long Island in the start of the 80's, but you could swear they sound like they're from the start of the 60s. Heading to England as its retro style of music was quite in mode, Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, and Slim Jim Phantom made quite a stir, with a debut LP produced by Dave Edmunds that gave them two top-ten hits in the UK, "Runaway Boys" and "Rock This Town".

The Cats made it back to the States with exposure from the 1982 Rolling Stones Tour, and Built For Speed, which contained about a half dozen songs from each of their British albums, was released in the summer of 1982. "Rock This Town" was their first hit in American, and the Setzer-written rocker made it into the top-10...

For being so familiar-sounding, and so classic, it was unlike anything on radio at that time, and the rollicking song not only peaked in the top-5 on the rock radio chart, it even made the dance club play chart in and double-sided 12" with "Runaway Boys". The Built For Speed album, which is an awesome listen, peaked at #2, and was one of the biggest LPs of the year.

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During his interjob break, late night TV host Conan O'Brien found time to pump up the song in 2010...

Up tomorrow: The one-time queen of rock with a future toothpaste commerical.