I Wanna Rock

The title explains the whole meaning of this song: Dee Snider wants to rock. The song tapped into the psyche of kids who felt besieged by pressure from parents and teachers to conform to societies norms and behave themselves.

This song was used at the end of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. The "I Wanna Rock!" part was replaced with "I'm a Goofy Goober!," which was a club both Spongebob and Patrick belonged to. The background chants of "ROCK!" were left in tact. The Spongebob version was called "Goofy Goober Rock."

Twisted Sister is sometimes considered a one-hit-wonder with We're Not Gonna Take It, but even thought this song didn't chart, it has held up well and was ranked #20 on VH1's list of the 40 Greatest Metal Song of All Time. (thanks, Bert - Pueblo, NM, for all above)

The music video features Mark Metcalf, who starred in the first Twisted Sister video, "We're Not Gonna Take It." Once again, he is seen yelling at a kid in an extended scene before the song starts, with the kid giving the same retort - "I wanna rock!" (which Dee Snider came up with) - to Metcalf's question, "What do you want to do with your life."

Metcalf played Neidermeyer in the movie Animal House, and he reprised his role here, basically recreating a famous scene where he yells at a hapless student named Flounder. The actor who played Flounder, Stephen Furst, also played his character, showing up at the end of the video to blast Neidermeyer with seltzer.

Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French rerecorded a new version of this song in 2008 "I Want Barack" in honor of the US presidential candidate Barack Obama. The song is credited to "Jay Jay French and Friends," and features Paulie Z. from the band Z02 on lead vocals. French said of Obama: "He has excited so many people. He has given sincere hope to people who have been out of the arena for years."