Songoftheday 1/14/16 - I went to a party last Saturday night, I didn't get laid I got in a fight it ain't no big thing...

"Kiss Me Deadly" - Lita Ford
from the album Lita (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's song of the day comes from rock goddess Lita Ford, who was born in London but moved to the U.S. with her family as a child. She didn't take long, though, to leave her childhood behind, joining the all-girl rock band the Runaways at the age of 16. The band, a pre-fab creation of "rocker chicks" became an iconic part of the punk movement in the 70s, and in the meantime scored a #1 hit in Japan with "Cherry Bomb". The Runaways disintegrated by the end of the decade, and by 1982 bandmate Joan Jett far surpassed the success of the group with her seven-week #1 hit "I Love Rock & Roll". Meanwhile, Lita released her first solo album Out For Blood in 1983. The following year, her sophomore effort Dancin' On The Edge landed her a minor rock hit in the U.S. with "Gotta Let Go", while the title track got a nomination for a Grammy in 1985. After another record produced by then-fiance Tommy Iommi of Black Sabbath that got shelved when their relationship fell apart, it took four years for her to re-emerge. This time with another Black Sabbath connection, manager Sharon Osbourne, Lita came back with Lita, a shiny-brite heavy metal album in the mode of Poison and Motley Crue, and the first single, "Kiss Me Deadly", written by Mick Smiley, told you which way she was going from its opening lines. Produced by Pat Benatar's go-to Mike Chapman, her song was a shot across the bow to the misogynistic heavy metal scene...

"Kiss Me Deadly" became Lita's first top-40 pop hit in June of 1988, while also making it to #40 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, the single went to #19 in Canada, #21 in New Zealand, and snuck into the British chart at the base position of #75.

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Here's Lita on Dutch TV promoting the song in 1988...

...and lastly live on tour...

Up tomorrow: A "positive" soul singer is around for all times.