Born 1950 in Detroit, into a musical family - her father Art led a jazz band, brother Michael became a composer, and sister Patti was in Fanny, an early-70s flamenco-rock group. Suzi (a bassist and singer) was discovered in Detroit by British pop svengali Mickie Most, and she became grist for the pop production/songwriting mill of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, a rock cartoon dressed in black leather, wailing tunes like "48 Crash", "Can the Can", "Devil Gate Drive", and "The Wild One". Good stuff nonetheless, but some Blondie fans balked at the ascension of Commander Chapman to the producer's chair of their NYC faves (it all worked out fine, though).

All Suzi's successes were in Britain. There were attempts over the years to hype her into Stateside success, most notably her 1977 stint on Happy Days, as Fonzie's friend Leather Tuscadero, sister of Pinky. IIRC, this gave her an opportunity to sing a song or two from the upcoming album, whatever that may have been. It didn't work. But her UK iconic status has remained sufficiently intact over the years, that she could appear in one of Edina's dream sequences on Absolutely Fabulous.

I hope this me too node will be excused, but I have to add to pingouin's wu that the Queen of Devil Gate Drive was also massive in Australia when I was a kid, in the 1970s.

Suzi still makes a triumphant return to .au every year, does the rounds of the talk shows, and belts out her classics to an adoring fanbase at venues such as the Rooty Hill RSL Club.

Suzi has an almost identical Antipodean touring schedule and enduring popularity as her seventies compatriates, The Village People, but that's another node altogether...

She did have one U.S. top-ten hit, though; a duet with Chris Norman, "Stumblin' In", which made the pop charts in the spring of 1979. It's on her 1978 album, If You Knew Suzi. I have it on vinyl; it's actually the first LP I ever purchased.

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