Twisted Sister "Come Out and Play"

Come Out and Play is the fourth album by the American heavy metal band Twisted Sister, released by Atlantic Records on November 9, 1985. It was less successful than its predecessor Stay Hungry (1984) both critically and commercially.

After the success of Stay Hungry, Twisted Sister were faced with the question whether they should continue in a more pop-oriented direction or return to their early heavy metal roots. They tried to do a bit of both, but the approach proved unsuccessful since Come Out and Play marked the start of the band's decline. According to an interview with lead singer and songwriter Dee Snider, found in the CD sleeve of Club Daze 1: The Studio Sessions, The Shangri-Las cover "Leader of the Pack," which was first included on Ruff Cuts (1982) (an early E.P. mostly unknown to those outside the core fan base), was intended to boost the band's popularity while keeping old fans pleased. Eventually neither that nor "Be Chrool To Your Scuel", featuring such musical guests as Alice Cooper, Brian Setzer and Billy Joel among many others, received the reaction that the band and their record label were expecting.

Although the album sold more than 500,000 copies, earning it Gold status, the supporting tour was a fiasco, with cancelled dates and low attendances. Drummer A.J. Pero left the band after the tour ended in 1986, contributing to the chaos which eventually led to band's breakup after the release of Love Is For Suckers in late 1987.

From a musical viewpoint, the album was not a huge departure from Stay Hungry, despite a little more commercial sounding production by Scorpions producer, Dieter Dierks.

The music videos for "Leader of the Pack" and "Be Chrool to Your School" followed the comedic nature of band's earlier videos, but the latter, featuring Alice Cooper, was banned by MTV on the grounds that it was too offensive. There was no video made for the album's final single, "You Want What We Got".

In 1986 the band released the Come Out and Play: The Videos home video on VHS, which included four videos ("We're Not Gonna Take It", "I Wanna Rock", "Leader of the Pack" and "Be Chrool to Your Scuel") tied together by scenes of Dee Snider in a metal scrapyard being visited by kids and others questionables in need of advice to their problems, to the tune of "Come Out and Play". This home video has not since been issued on DVD.

The album was re-released by Spitfire Records in 1999 along with all the other albums of the band, except Stay Hungry.

The title track featured Dee Snider clicking bottles together saying "Twisted Sister, come out and play" several times in the beginning, a reference to the 1979 cult classic movie The Warriors, when the main villain, Luther, chants "Warriors, come out to play" while clicking bottles together as well.

Track listing

All tracks written by Dee Snider, except "Leader of the Pack" by Ellie Greenwich, Shadow Morton, Jeff Barry.

Side one

1. "Come Out and Play" 4:51
2. "Leader of the Pack" (The Shangri-Las cover) 3:48
3. "You Want What We Got" 3:45
4. "I Believe in Rock 'n' Roll" 4:03
5. "The Fire Still Burns" 3:34

Side two

1. "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" (featuring Alice Cooper) 3:53
2. "I Believe in You" 5:23
3. "Out on the Streets" 4:27
4. "Lookin' Out for #1" 3:07
5. "Kill or Be Killed" 2:47

Cassette and CD versions bonus track

1. "King of the Fools" 6:26

The special edition features the sewer lid on the cover popping up to reveal a cut out of Dee Snider. LP housed inside thick dust sleeve with lyrics and photos of band members on the flip side. Some copies contain a 8x11" double-sided merchandise sheet promoting their world tour gear and the video for "Come Out And Play".

The song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" is a parody of the Beach Boys' song, "Be True To Your School", though the music is unique. It also featured Alice Cooper (also on vocals), Billy Joel on piano, Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats on guitar and Clarence Clemons of the E-Street Band on saxophone. The video was banned from MTV, as it was deemed too violently anti-school.

Music videos were made for the songs "Leader of the Pack" and "Be Chrool to Your Scuel".

Recording information:

Recorded at Record Plant, Los Angeles, California.

Mastered at Masterdisk, New York.