Songoftheday 9/5/16 - You didn't know what rock and roll was until you met my drummer on a grey tour bus...

"Once Bitten, Twice Shy" - Great White
from the album Twice Shy (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in The Top-40: 14

Today's song of the day comes from the American rock band Great White, who came together initially under the name Dante Fox in the late 70s. With lead singer Jack Russell and guitarist Mark Kendall, the group ended up straddling the line between the blues rock of bands like Georgia Satellites and the Black Crowes and glam metal acts like Poison and Whitesnake, but at first they were a straight up metal act, and while they had a large local following in Southern California, it took a while for some major success. Their self-titled first album spawned a minor rock radio hit with "Stick It" in 1984 (#56). After a second record stiffed (it would eventually be reissued to a little more notice), the band switched to Capitol Records, and as their sound evolved to a more nuanced blues-infused path, they found their breakthrough on their Once Bitten set, which scored a pair of top-10 rock radio hits with "Rock Me" (#9 rock, #60 pop) and the power-ballad "Save Your Love" (#9 rock, #57 pop) that helped them sell over a million copies of the album.

In 1989, the group put out their fourth studio release Twice Shy, anchored and named for their cover of a song originally written and made popular by Mott The Hoople's Ian Hunter for his first album away from that act. While it wasn't a pop hit in the States, the single went to #14 in his native Britain and #29 in Australia...

Great White took the barroom attitude of Hunter's version and like Motley Crue's "Smokin' In The Boys Room" cut in some more immature crassness to appeal to the young'uns...

Great White's take on "Once Bitten Twice Shy" became the band's biggest pop hit, reaching the top-5 on the American pop chart in August of 1989. The song also climbed to #6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart.

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In 1980, teen idol Shaun Cassidy attempted to change his image with a cover produced by Todd Rundgren, but fell flat, though it's an intriguing listen (like a car wreck)...

...and finally, here's the band on MTV's Unplugged show...

Up tomorrow: A dance-pop singer approves.