The band’s origins go back to 1972 and a group called Silver Star which was formed as a kind of New Jersey answer to the New York punk rock band The New York Dolls. One of the founding members of Silver Star was Mel Anderson whose brother Al was playing guitar for Bob Marley & The Wailers at the time. John Segall auditioned for the band despite hating the band’s name. Soon after he joined they changed to being called Twisted Sister and Segall started calling himself Jay Jay French. Twisted Sister soon got work playing residencies at New York nightclubs. The first version of the band split in 1974 and they would go through a number of iterations until 1976 when the band’s agent suggested they hire a guy called Danny Snider. Snider would change his first name to Dee and the band took on a heavier sound. Their first single was released in 1979 and was called ‘I’ll Never Grow Up Now!’. In 1983 they tasted their first chart success when ‘I Am (I’m Me)’ cracked the UK and Irish charts going to 18 and 25 respectively. Two further UK/Irish hits followed before 1984’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ became their first US Hot 100 hit when it went to 21. They would manage a total of 3 US Hits and 6 UK hits with ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ being their best peaking effort in the US and ‘I Am (I’m Me)’ being their best showing in the UK.
SA Singles Charts 