Suzi Quatro
Suzi is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2. As a child in 1950s Detroit she absorbed rock 'n' roll from the radio and her older siblings' record collections. She remains passionate about the music from the golden era of the fifties and sixties with all its energy, innocence and romance.
Selected releases
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Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll Series
You just can't beat this series for track selection, sound quality and visual presentation. If you think I'm cheating by picking all of the series as one choice, I'll single out the first volume because it includes one of my all-time favourites -'My True Story' by the Jive Five.
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Everly Brothers
The wonderful harmony sound that you get when singers are family members - it's in the blood!
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Little Richard
Exploding with excitement, energy and total commitment, the tracks still sound wild today!
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Teenage Crush
This album (and Volumes 2, 3 and 4!) is so romantic. It includes 'The Way You Look Tonight' by the Lettermen (guys, if she's been saying 'No' all night, then put this on and she'll say 'Yes'!)
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Early Girls
There are some great originals of British invasion hits - 'Do Wah Diddy' (the Exciters), 'You're No Good' (Betty Everett), 'I'm Into Something Good' (Earl Jean), plus the weird and wonderful 'Angel Baby' by Rosie & The Originals.
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Land of 1000 Dances
Growing up with American Bandstand on TV, you picked up on all the latest dance crazes. I still do some of them after all, 'The Shag (Is Totally Cool)' (track 7).
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Dion
What a voice! He's a great singer and sexy too. He just had that indefinable 'it' and still has 'it'.
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Etta James
In Rockin' With Suzi Q a few years ago, we had an 'Original Girl Power' slot and Etta, of course, was in there. Listen to 'W-O-M-A-N' and you'll know why!
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Otis Redding
When I was nicknamed 'Suzi Soul' in the 60s, Otis was my hero. He still is. This album includes the fascinating early takes of '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay'.
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Art Rupe (currently unavailable)
Art Rupe founded the Specialty label that brought us so much wonderful music from gospel to rock 'n' roll. This album includes an audio documentary made exclusively for Ace by the creative team behind my Radio 2 programmes - researcher Pete Frame and producer Kevin Howlett. (Gee, it's hard to type with your right arm twisted behind your back!)
