Slade

Listen for free or download any Slade track for just 12 cents per song!

Slade was a British band that formed back in the late 1960's and dominated the UK charts in the early 1970's (they sold more singles in the UK than any other band from the decade). Slade is often described as one of the original glam bands of the 1970's, and their music has been both covered by and influential to bands like Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Poison, Def Leppard, Twisted Sister, Cheap Trick, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and many more.

Slade started out as a band called 'N Betweens. After releasing a few singles, the band was picked up by Fontana Records and asked to change their name. They chose "Ambrose Slade" after hearing a record executive's secretary call her shoes "Ambrose" and her purse "Slade". Sure you had to be there, but hey...The band's first release in 1969, Beginnings, was a failure. In 1970, they shortened the name of the band to Slade and released Play It Loud, which also did not do well initially. However, the band released the cover single "Get Down and Get With It" in 1971, and finally Slade was in the top 20 on the UK charts. By this time, the band was entrenched in the glam rock scene of the 1970's. They grew their hair long and began dressing crazy. Other songs you may remember from the 70's, that drove the English teacher's crazy, include "Coz I Luv You", "Look Wot You Dun", "Take Me Bak 'Ome", "Mama Wer all Crazee Now" (covered by Quiet Riot in the 80's), "Gudbuy t' Jane" (covered by Britny Fox in the 80's), "Cum on Feel the Noize" (also covered by Quiet Riot in the 80's), "Skweeze Me Pleaze Me", "My Friend Stan", "The Bangin' Man", "Far Far Away", "Merry Xmas Everybody", and "Thanks for the Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam).

By the mid 1970's, Slade was losing popularity fast, so they decided to move to the USA where they released new material and toured with Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. This ended up not being a successful move for Slade, so they moved back to the USA, where subsequent 70's releases were often banned due to sexual and/or drug related inferences. Things continued spiraling down here for Slade, until the Blizzard of Oz tour in 1980. Slade performance was good enough to garner them a new contract. They decided to hone their heavy rock sound, and released the hit song "We'll Bring the House Down". Slade continued their heavy metal bent, and the hit single "Run Run Away" was released in 1984 and peaked at number 20.

Throughout the rest of the 1980's, Slade continued producing new music. Although they met with some success, it was nothing like the early 1970's. The band technically split in 1991 as different members pursued different careers, but a form of Slade did continue on sans some key members (and there were some reunion tours from time to time). At the time of this writing, the Slade Discography was as follows:

Listen for free or download any Slade track for just 12 cents per song!