I Wanna Rock

"I Wanna Rock"
Single by Twisted Sister
from the album Stay Hungry
Released	1984
Format	CD single 7" 12"
Genre	Heavy metal,[1][2] glam metal[3][4]
Length	3:02
Label	Atlantic
Writer(s)	Dee Snider
Producer(s)	Tom Werman
Certification	2x Platinum (CRIA)[5]
Twisted Sister singles chronology
"We're Not Gonna Take It" (1984) "I Wanna Rock" (1985) "The Price" (1985)
Music video "I Wanna Rock" on YouTube

"I Wanna Rock" is a song written and composed by Dee Snider and performed by his band Twisted Sister. It was released on the 1984 album Stay Hungry. In 2009, it was named the 17th VH1 Greatest Hard Rock Songs by VH1.^[6]

Music video

Like the earlier "We're Not Gonna Take It", the video features actor Mark Metcalf, best known as the sadistic Neidermeyer from the movie National Lampoon's "Animal House" released in 1978. Here, he plays a ferocious teacher who harasses a student for drawing the Twisted Sister logo on his notebook, shrieking: "What kind of a man desecrates a defenseless textbook?!? I've got a good mind to slap your fat face!!" (This echoed his line from National Lampoon's "Animal House:" "What kind of man hits a defenseless animal [a misbehaving horse]? I've got a good mind to smash your fat face in!") In conclusion to a rant which begins with that yelled-out question, he shrieks his question from the "We're Not Gonna Take It" video, "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE???" The student answers with the first line of the song, "I WANNA ROCK!!!" Thereupon he and four of his classmates are instantly "transformed into" (actually replaced by) Twisted Sister's five members. After the vicious teacher's repeated attempts to stop his rock-loving students not only fail but also backfire on him, he crawls into the principal's office, only to be confronted by the principal, played by Stephen Furst, aka Kent "Flounder" Dorfman from National Lampoon's "Animal House." Furst even gets to reprise one of his big lines from the movie: "Oh boy, is this great!" He delivers it as he sprays water from a seltzer bottle at the mean teacher. (In the homecoming-parade climactic sequence of the actual film, Metcalf's Niedermeyer shot out the seltzer bottle just before Furst's Dorfman could do this last.)

Charts performance

Chart (1984–85)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[7]	43
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[8]	44
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[9]	10
Norway (VG-lista)[10]	5
South Africa (Springbok Radio)[11]	3
US Billboard Hot 100[12]	68
US Billboard Top Tracks[12]	35

Media appearances

"I Wanna Rock" is subject to numerous media appearances, including:

Video games

• "I Wanna Rock" was used as the title song for the 2003 game Will Rock.
• It was used as a soundtrack for 2008's Burnout Paradise, as well as 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
• Twisted Sister re-recorded the entire Stay Hungry album as Still Hungry, released in 2004. The re-recorded version of I Wanna Rock appears as a playable track in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, whereas the original 1984 version appeared as a playable track on Guitar Hero Smash Hits.
• The song also appears in the soundtrack of the game Freestyle MetalX.

Other media

• The song is New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira's entry music.
• Its music video appears in an episode of Beavis and Butt-head.
• The characters sang along to the song, playing on the radio of the bus, in the 2000 movie Road Trip.
• Mackdawg productions used the song as the intro of their 2001 snowboard movie called The Resistance, featuring the forum team.
• It was also heard in the films The Rocker and Zootopia.
• The song was featured on both the Broadway musical Rock of Ages and its subsequent movie adaptation.
• The song was satirized in the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

Cover versions

• Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French made a political song supporting Barack Obama titled "I Want Barack," to the tune of the song.
• New Jersey singer-songwriter Christian Beach recorded a bluegrass version of "I Wanna Rock" for the 2008 album Hair Apparent – The Main Man Records Tribute to Hair Bands.^[13]
• This song is covered by alternative rock band Lit in Twisted Forever, a tribute album to Twisted Sister.^[14] This version was later included as a soundtrack for the baseball game Triple Play 2002.
• American record producer Tom Rothrock, with actor Jim Wise, recorded a version of the song titled "Goofy Goober Rock" for the climax of the 2004 film The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

References

1. Popoff, Martin (2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal's Debauched Decade. Voyageur Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-76034-546-7.
2. Greenblatt, Leah (January 17, 2015). "Tunes from TV commercials". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
3. "Dee Snider Joins Broadway's 'Rock of Ages'". Billboard. Associated Press. October 1, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
4. Riddle, Tree (12 April 2012). "Black Veil Brides Perform 'I Wanna Rock' With Dee Snider at 2012 Revolver Golden Gods". Loudwire. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
5. "Gold/Platinum". Music Canada. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
6. Winistorfer, Andrew (January 5, 2009). "VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs list only slightly less annoying than their hip-hop list". VH1. Prefix Magazine. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
7. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – Chart Positions Pre 1989 Part 3". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
8. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 9636." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
9. "Charts.org.nz – Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
10. "Norwegiancharts.com – Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock". VG-lista. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
11. "South African Rock Lists Website SA Charts 1969 – 1989 Acts (T)". Rock.co.za. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
12. "Stay Hungry – Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
13. "Various Artists – Hair Apparent: The Main Man Records Tribute to Hair Bands". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
14. Stone, Doug. "Various Artists – Twisted Forever". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 18, 2013.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics