AND SMILED AT ME
Come Out and Play
is the fourth
studio album
by American
Heavy Metal band
released by
Atlantic Records
on
November 22, 1985.
The album was
significantly less successful
than its predecessor
Stay Hungry
(1984),
both critically
and commercially,
although it achieved
Gold status by
selling more than
500,000 copies.
Overview
Following the
massive success
of 1984's
Stay Hungry,
which established
Twisted Sister
as one of the world's
top recording acts,
the band was faced
with the question of
whether they should
continue in the same
MTV
and
radio-friendly direction
that brought them
so much success,
or return to their
heavy metal roots.
Come Out and Play
saw them attempt
to do both,
but the approach
ultimately proved
devastatingly unsuccessful
and the album
marked the beginning
of the band's
commercial decline.
The band's decision
to record a cover
of the 1964
Shangri-Las' hit
"Leader of the Pack"
and release it
as the album's
first single
proved very unpopular
with the band's fanbase.
Ultimately, neither
"Leader of the Pack"
nor second single
"Be Chrool To Your Scuel"
featuring guest appearances
from artists such
as
Alice Cooper,
Brian Setzer,
Clarence Clemons
and
Billy Joel
came close
to matching
the success of
"We're Not Gonna Take It"
or
"I Wanna Rock"
from 1984's
Stay Hungry.
The 1986
world tour
in support of
Come Out and Play
was a fiasco,
marked by
low attendance
and ticket sales
so low in some cities
that several shows
were simply canceled.
Longtime drummer
A.J. Pero
left the band
following the tour
in 1986,
contributing to the chaos
that eventually saw
Twisted Sister disband
in 1988.
The music videos for
"Leader of the Pack"
and
"Be Chrool to Your School"
followed the same
comedic formula
that had been so successful
for the band
in the
Stay Hungry era.
The latter single,
featuring a prominent
guest spot by
Dee Snider's
hero
Alice Cooper,
was banned by MTV
on the grounds that
it was offensive.
The band didn't produce
a video for the album's
second and final
US single,
"You Want What We Got".
In 1986
the band released the
Come Out and Play: The Videos
home video on
VHS,
which included four videos
"We're Not Gonna Take It",
"I Wanna Rock",
"Leader of the Pack"
and
"Be Chrool to Your Scuel"
tied together by
scenes of Snider
in a scrapyard
being visited by
troubled teens
seeking advice,
to the tune of the song
"Come Out and Play".
This home video
has never been
re-issued on
DVD.
The intro
to the title track
features an homage
to the 1979
cult classic movie
The Warriors,
in which the
main villain,
Luther, chants
"Warriors, come out to play".
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