Stray Cats - Stray Cats (1981)

Artist:  Stray Cats
Title:  Stray Cats
Release:  1981
Format:  LP
Label:  Ariola Records
Catalog#  203295

Stray Cats is the first album from the rockabilly band Stray Cats. It was released in the UK and was very successful, with hits such as “Runaway Boys,” “Stray Cat Strut,” and “Rock This Town.”
Stray Cats debut album came hot on the heels of the two hit singles “Runaway Boys” and “Rock This Town,” both energy filled rockabilly songs that hearkened back to the 1950s era of pure rock & roll with an updated, clean ’80s sound highlighted by the prominent double bass playing of Lee Rocker and drumming of Slim Jim Phantom. The Stray Cats had more depth than pure rockabilly, as shown on the out and out rock & roll tracks “Fishnet Stockings,” “Double Talkin Baby,” and “Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie” (a facsimile of “Summertime Blues”), and the sleazy third single “Stray Cat Strut,” perfectly evocative of a night out on the tiles. “Storm the Embassy,” a song about the Iranian hostage situation than ran throughout 1980, would not have sounded out of place performed by the Clash, and “Ubangi Stomp” bore more than a passing resemblance to another musical craze of the early ’80s: ska as performed by Madness or any of the 2 Tone stable of acts.
This album has never been released in the United States. Six of the songs from it, including the hits “Stray Cat Strut” and “Rock This Town”, were issued on the band’s first American album “Built for Speed”.


Side one
1.  Runaway Boys  (2:59)
2.  Fishnet Stockings  (2:24)
3.  Ubangi Stomp  (3:10)
4.  Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie  (2:17)
5.  Storm The Embassy  (4:06)
6.  Rock This Town  (3:24)

Side two
1.  Rumble In Brighton  (3:11)
2.  Stray Cat Strut  (3:14)
3.  Crawl Up And Die  (3:11)
4.  Double Talkin’ Baby  (3:02)
5.  My One Desire  (2:55)
6.  Wild Saxaphone  (3:00)

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