Stay Hungry (album)

Stay Hungry
Cover photo by Mark Weiss
Studio album by
ReleasedMay 10, 1984 (1984-05-10)
RecordedFebruary–March 1984
Studio
GenreHeavy metal
Length36:58
LabelAtlantic
ProducerTom Werman
Twisted Sister chronology
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll
(1983)
Stay Hungry
(1984)
Come Out and Play
(1985)
Singles from Stay Hungry
  1. "We're Not Gonna Take It"
    Released: May 1984
  2. "I Wanna Rock"
    Released: October 1984
  3. "The Price"
    Released: December 1984
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal7/10[2]
IGN7.5/10[3]
Ultimate Guitar Archive8.9/10[4]

Stay Hungry is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Twisted Sister, released on May 10, 1984, by Atlantic Records.[5] The album contains the band's two signature songs: "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both of which remain a staple of '80s glam metal and rock.[6] According to RIAA certification, Stay Hungry is the band's most successful release by far and their only platinum album. Eventually, the album achieved multi-platinum status in U.S. with sales of more than 3,000,000 certified copies by 1995.[7]

During recording, producer Tom Werman brought some songs by English heavy metal band Saxon for the band to listen to, this led to a conflict with Dee Snider who understood it as Werman wanting the band to replace some of his songs with Saxon covers. Guitarist Jay Jay French also claims the band lost two songs that they wanted on the album due to Werman's influence[8]

Twisted Sister performed the song "Burn in Hell" during a cameo appearance in the 1985 film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The song "Burn in Hell" was covered by black metal band Dimmu Borgir on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. "We're Not Gonna Take It" was also covered by Bif Naked on the Ready to Rumble soundtrack. The two songs that comprise the Horror-Teria segment became the basis of Twisted Sister lead singer Dee Snider's 1998 film Strangeland, in which Captain Howdy was played by Snider himself. The "Captain Howdy" segment of the "Horror-Teria" suite would later be covered by the death metal group Broken Hope on their album Repulsive Conception and in 1999 by the Swedish heavy metal band Morgana Lefay on their Symphony of the Damned, Re-symphonised album.

In 2004, the band re-recorded all nine songs from this album and re-released them under the title Still Hungry.

In 2009, the band played Stay Hungry in its entirety for the first time including songs never played live before, such as "Don't Let Me Down" and "Horror-Teria: Street Justice".

  1. ^ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  2. ^ Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 369. ISBN 978-1894959315.
  3. ^ Kaz, Iaz (10 July 2009). "Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry 25th Anniversary Edition review". IGN. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  4. ^ "Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry 25th Anniversary Edition review". Ultimate Guitar Archive. 6 July 2009. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  5. ^ Ling, Dave (2004-09-15). "Twisted Sister: the improbable story of Stay Hungry". loudersound.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  6. ^ "100 Greatest Hair & Glam Metal Songs". digitaldreamdoor.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  7. ^ "RIAA Searchable Database: search for Twisted Sister". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  8. ^ "Twisted Sister guitarist claims Stay Hungry producer Tom Werman wanted band to record four Saxon covers for the album". thegauntlet.com. Retrieved 2022-06-30.