Rolling Stone

Album: The Suzi Quatro Story - Golden Hits (1972)
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Songfacts®:

  • Suzi Quatro was in a Detroit band called The Pleasure Seekers with three of her sisters when the British producer Mickie Most made her an offer to come to England. In 1971, she did just that, joining Most's RAK label. Her first single was "Rolling Stone," written by Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate and the arranger Phil Dennys. The song tells Quatro's story, how she hit the road at 16 with her band and travelled all over the world. With lines like, "Don't tell me what to do," it established a theme for Quatro, who cultivated an image as an independent-minded rocker not afraid to buck convention.

    The song flopped, but Quatro's next single, "Can The Can," rose to #1 in the UK, where she became one of the biggest stars of the '70s.
  • Mickie Most produced this track. For Quatro's next releases, he handed the reins to the team of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who wrote and produced her biggest hits.
  • The title comes from the proverb "a rolling stone gathers no moss," the same saying that Muddy Waters used in his song "Rollin' Stone," which provided the name for a certain British rock band.

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