In 1983, MTV was still in its infancy stage, but had already shown the power the network possessed when it came to breaking artists – case in point, Duran Duran and Men At Work. But they had yet to break an up-and-coming metal band. That changed that year, due to two bands whose careers ignited thanks in large part to MTV's support: Def Leppard and Quiet Riot.
In my 2025 book, Bang Your Head, Feel the Noize: The Quiet Riot Story, all eras of the band are explained: the Randy Rhoads years, the massive success of Metal Health, and all the way to the group's current lineup. But also, an emphasis on MTV's role in breaking the band in '83, thanks to two videos, "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel The Noize." Here is an excerpt that tells the story behind the former clip.
Interestingly, the first song to get its own music video was not the tune that would be issued as the album's first single (and had "surefire hit" written all over it), "Cum On Feel The Noize," but rather, the title track – which would not be issued as a single until much later in the year.In my 2025 book, Bang Your Head, Feel the Noize: The Quiet Riot Story, all eras of the band are explained: the Randy Rhoads years, the massive success of Metal Health, and all the way to the group's current lineup. But also, an emphasis on MTV's role in breaking the band in '83, thanks to two videos, "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel The Noize." Here is an excerpt that tells the story behind the former clip.
Directed by Mark Rezyka (who had previously worked on clips by Cheap Trick, Heart, and Lindsey Buckingham, among others), the video for the album's anthemic title track begins with a live recreation of the Metal Health album cover image. After being molested by hands wearing rubber kitchen dishwashing gloves and escaping a padded cell, the metal mask-sporting "patient" winds up escaping through a mysteriously-lit door to a concert stage, which then leads to the viewer discovering that – surprise, surprise – the chap was none other than QR singer Kevin DuBrow in disguise!
Lakeland, Florida, October 16, 1983: Carlos Cavazo, Frankie Banali, Kevin Dubrow and Rudy Sarzo of Quiet Riot backstage before opening for Iron Maiden. Photo by Christopher Lee Helton.A performance of the song ensues in front of an audience of rabid headbangers (some of which are sporting the same Metal Health mask as DuBrow in the beginning), before we find out that many other "metal mad" patients have escaped, and have left the hospital employees unconscious on the floor of the hospital hallway (I don't think you could pay me enough money to lay down on the floor of a hospital hallway... yuck). And am I the only bugger who thought it was possibly Howie Mandel spotted at the 4:19 part of the video when I was a more impressionable, slightly more dimwitted young man?
"You know the scene where Kevin drops from the sky? Kevin was not crazy about heights, so he had to be up there strapped into this harness, and he refused to do it until I did it as the guinea pig! And me, I was always one for a party – 'Strap me in! Strap me in'!"
"There were four masks that were used in the video shoot. One of them was the one that gets ripped off of Kevin's face and Kevin throws it out in the audience. That one got destroyed with the people in the audience trying to get their hands on it. One was burned as part of the video, another one has been missing since 1983 so I seriously doubt that one exists. And then I have the last remaining one in my archives. That one was featured when the Grammy Museum did Gods of Metal. They featured and displayed that, and one of Kevin's stage suits."
QR bassist Rudy Sarzo also once shared with me his memories of the now-classic "Metal Health" clip. "The 'Metal Health' video was pretty interesting. It was filmed at the CalArts School. It's a school that was started by Walt Disney, in Valencia, California. It's 1983, and think of the students there, who are today's major filmmakers. Probably people running the studios. The whole set was built by the students at CalArts. I haven't had the opportunity to look back to see who the alumni was. As a matter of fact, when I'm finished with this conversation, I'm going to Google it."
Cover photo by Richard Galbraith"So there's the stage, and where the audience is sitting is actual bleachers that are hydraulic, and you can make them look however you want, different levels. So we just kept shifting everybody around. If you needed a side shot, it's the same people, but on the side of us, behind us, in front of us, wherever. There wasn't really that much time in the budget to get too fancy or think it over. All the extras that you see chasing Kevin [dressed as the gentleman from the Metal Health album cover] down the hallway were all CalArts students."
"They were definitely a visual band to watch perform," stand-up comedian and metal fan Don Jamieson added, concerning QR and their '80s era videos. "Everybody in that band was really kind of a showman – you had Carlos [Cavazo] the hot guitar player with the blonde feathered-back hair, Kevin the crazy wildman out front, Rudy licking his bass, and Frankie with the big giant hair back there behind the drums, just beating at them. So, not only the storylines in their videos, but also, them as performers I think lent themselves to a visual medium."
Although issued as the video from the album, it was not until after "Noize" became a smash hit that Pasha Records wisely decided that the song should finally be issued as a single – which occurred sometime in November of '83 (the exact date has been lost in the mists of time). And on February 11, 1984, it would reach its peak position of #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
February 4, 2025
Order Bang Your Head, Feel the Noize: The Quiet Riot Story on Amazon.
Further Reading:
The Two Biggest Led Zeppelin Clones of the '80s
Riki Rachtman's 10 Best Metal Videos of the '90s
Fact or Fiction: Early Days of MTV Edition
Van Halen in Photos, 1979-1982
Interview with Stephen Pearcy of Ratt
More Song Writing
