Suzi Quatro

RAK, 1973

Suzi Q’s self-titled debut boasts a cover you can’t ignore. Front and centre, hand on hip, provocative, leather-jacketed, androgynous, stands gang-leader Suzi; at her back, vested, brooding, inarguably masculine, Tuckey, Neal and McKenzie.

It arrived into a commercially peaking, all-male glam scene like a hand grenade. A statement of intent. Apart from Chinn and Chapman’s 48 Crash and Primitive Love (plus a trio of barnstorming covers), Suzi Quatro songwriting credits predominate. Its pounding, insistent groove is unmistakable (driving, urgent, seductive), but it’s Quatro’s extraordinary vocal that reshapes rock’n’roll’s future.