Shows: 1026
Earliest: Mar 23, 1973
Latest: Jan 26, 2023
[
WikiPedia] Twisted Sister was an American heavy metal band formed in 1972 in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based on Long Island, New York. Their best-known songs include "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both of which were associated with music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humor. Besides their music, the band is equally remembered for their hairstyles and wearing of female clothing and make-up, leading to a categorization as "glam metal"; lead vocalist Dee Snider considers the term to be "inappropriate".
Twisted Sister evolved from a band named Silver Star, and experienced several membership changes before settling on the classic lineup of Jay Jay French (guitars), Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda (guitars), Dee Snider (lead vocals), Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (bass), and A. J. Pero (drums) in 1982. It was this lineup which recorded the band's first four albums. Twisted Sister's first two albums, Under the Blade (1982) and You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll (1983), were critically well-received and earned the band underground popularity. The band achieved mainstream success with their third album, Stay Hungry (1984), and its single "We're Not Gonna Take It", which was their only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next two albums, Come Out and Play (1985) and Love Is for Suckers (1987), did not match the success of Stay Hungry, and Twisted Sister disbanded in 1988.
In the late 1990s, the band briefly reunited before more-permanently reforming in 2003. They released two more albums, Still Hungry (2004), a re-recording of their third album, and a Christmas album, A Twisted Christmas (2006). Following Pero's death in 2015, the band embarked on a farewell tour and subsequently separated again after completing the tour in 2016.
Twisted Sister was ranked at No. 73 on VH1's list of "100 greatest artists of hard rock".
