 Start with a tablespoon of Kiss, stir in a teaspoon of Cheap Trick, and add a dash of Aerosmith, and you get STARZ! This anthology is a fine introduction to this oft-overlooked band. |
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Play Cherry Baby Play X-Ray Spex Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1. She's Just a Fallen Angel 2. Boys in Action 3. Detroit Girls 4. Live Wire 5. Pull the Plug 6. Cherry Baby 7. All Night Long 8. Rock Six Times 9. Sing It Shout It 10. Subway Terror 11. Violation 12. X-Ray Spex 13. Waitin' on You 14. Hold on to the Night 15. She 16. (Any Way That You Want It) I'll Be There 17. So Young So Bad 18. Coliseum Rock  |
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| Starz was formed out of the ashes of an early 1970s pop music band, Looking Glass, which had the #1 hit single "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" in the summer of 1972.
After the official breakup of Looking Glass, two of the remaining members (Peter Sweval and Jeff Grob) formed Starz as a heavy metal band. They was signed to Capitol Records in 1976. The original line-up included vocalist Michael Lee Smith (brother of Rex Smith, vocalist for REX, and later a popular actor), Richie Ranno (formerly with Stories) on guitar, Brendan Harkin on guitar, with Peter Sweval (also known as Piet Sweval) on bass, and Joe X. Dube (also known as Jeff Grob) on drums. Their major hit single was "Cherry Baby" in the spring of 1977, from the album Violation. Although they had several other songs chart in the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100. Most fans consider Violation their best album and compare it stylistically to Kiss or Aerosmith (In fact, Kiss' manager, Bill Aucoin, was also the manager for Starz). Their third album, Attention Shoppers!, is more in the vein of power pop than heavy metal, featuring a Cheap Trick influence in songs like "X-Ray Spex." Brendan Harkin and Peter Sweval left the band prior to the final album, Coliseum Rock, replaced by Bobby Messano on guitar and Orville Davis on bass. |