I Wanna Rock

Not to be confused with I Wanna Rock (Snoop Dogg song).
"I Wanna Rock"
Single by Twisted Sister
from the album Stay Hungry
Released 1984
Format
Genre Heavy metal,[1][2] glam metal[3][4]
Length 3:02
Label Atlantic
Writer(s) Dee Snider
Producer(s) Tom Werman
Certification 2x Platinum (CRIA)[5]
Twisted Sister singles chronology
"We're Not Gonna Take It"
(1984)
"I Wanna Rock"
(1984)
"The Price"
(1985)
Music video
"I Wanna Rock" on YouTube

"I Wanna Rock" is a song written and composed by Dee Snider and performed by his band Twisted Sister. It was released on the 1984 album Stay Hungry. In 2009, it was named the 17th VH1 Greatest Hard Rock Songs by VH1.[6]

Music video

Like the earlier "We're Not Gonna Take It", the video features actor Mark Metcalf, best known as the sadistic Neidermeyer from the movie National Lampoon's "Animal House" released in 1978. Here, he plays a ferocious teacher who harasses a student for drawing the Twisted Sister logo on his notebook, shrieking: "What kind of a man desecrates a defenseless textbook?!? I've got a good mind to slap your fat face!!" (This echoed his line from National Lampoon's "Animal House:" "What kind of man hits a defenseless animal [a misbehaving horse]? I've got a good mind to smash your fat face in!") In conclusion to a rant which begins with that yelled-out question, he shrieks his question from the "We're Not Gonna Take It" video, "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE???" The student answers with the first line of the song, "I WANNA ROCK!!!" Thereupon he and four of his classmates are instantly "transformed into" (actually replaced by) Twisted Sister's five members. After the vicious teacher's repeated attempts to stop his rock-loving students not only fail but also backfire on him, he crawls into the principal's office, only to be confronted by the principal, played by Stephen Furst, a.k.a. Kent "Flounder" Dorfman from National Lampoon's "Animal House." Furst even gets to reprise one of his big lines from the movie: "Oh boy, is this great!" He delivers it as he sprays water from a seltzer bottle at the mean teacher. (In the homecoming-parade climactic sequence of the actual film, Metcalf's Niedermeyer shot out the seltzer bottle just before Furst's Dorfman could do this last.)

Charts performance

Chart (1984–85) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] 43
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[8] 44
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[9] 10
Norway (VG-lista)[10] 5
South Africa (Springbok Radio)[11] 3
US Billboard Hot 100[12] 68
US Billboard Top Tracks[12] 35

Media appearances

"I Wanna Rock" is subject to numerous media appearances, including:

Video games

Other media

Cover versions

References

  1. Popoff, Martin (2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal's Debauched Decade. Voyageur Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-76034-546-7.
  2. Greenblatt, Leah (January 17, 2015). "Tunes from TV commercials". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  3. "Dee Snider Joins Broadway's 'Rock of Ages'". Billboard. Associated Press. October 1, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  4. Riddle, Tree (12 April 2012). "Black Veil Brides Perform 'I Wanna Rock' With Dee Snider at 2012 Revolver Golden Gods". Loudwire. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  5. "Gold/Platinum". Music Canada. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  6. Winistorfer, Andrew (January 5, 2009). "VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs list only slightly less annoying than their hip-hop list". VH1. Prefix Magazine. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  7. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – Chart Positions Pre 1989 Part 3". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  8. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 9636." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  9. "Charts.org.nz – Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  10. "Norwegiancharts.com – Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock". VG-lista. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  11. "South African Rock Lists Website SA Charts 1969 – 1989 Acts (T)". Rock.co.za. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  12. 1 2 "Stay Hungry – Awards". Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  13. Stone, Doug. "Various Artists – Twisted Forever". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 18, 2013.

External links

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