Can The Can by Suzi Quatro

Album: Quatro (1973)

Charted: 1 56

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This was Suzi Quatro's first hit; it reached #1 on the UK, Japanese, European and Australian charts. Quatro is an American who joined Mickie Most's RAK label roster, becoming part of the glam rock revolution. Most produced her first single, "Rolling Stone," but it went nowhere, so he asked songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman to write an produce her next single. The result was "Can The Can."
When asked what "Can The Can" means, Nicky Chinn replied: "It means something that is pretty impossible, you can't get one can inside another if they are the same size, so we're saying you can't put your man in the can if he is out there and not willing to commit. The phrase sounded good and we didn't mind if the public didn't get the meaning of it."
Suzi Quatro: "I can hear a record for the first time and know whether it will be a hit. And I knew as soon as we had finished recording that we had a big hit on our hands." (above quotes from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh)
This was the first #1 UK hit for a solo female artist since "Those Were The Days" by Mary Hopkin in 1968.
Quatro never hit it big in her native America, although she did have a memorable role on the TV series Happy Days playing Leather Tuscadero. She landed several more UK hits, including the #1 "Devil Gate Drive," and influenced a generation of female rockers, notably Joan Jett.

Quatro wrote many of her own songs, but they tended to be album cuts, with the Chapman/Chinn team getting the singles. In a Songfacts interview with Quatro, she explained: "I was very boogie-based, very bass-based. And they went away and wrote 'Can the Can.' We had the arrangement where I could write the albums, and they would write the three-minute single - although I did have singles out myself, like 'Mama's Boy.' I didn't learn anything from their songwriting, because I always had my own thing. Whatever I did, I did."

Comments: 1

Todd from Perth Western AustraliaIn 1973 I was 10yrs old. For 50 years I had no idea of what the term "can the can" meant. I had often wondered and puzzled over the term, and regardless of not knowing, have always loved the song and Suzi's energy. Also, I was never able to completely make out all the lyrics Suzi was singing, but now having read through them I realize I didn't really have a clue at all. Very deep and somewhat cryptic lyrics, throws a whole new perspective on the song when I hear it now and love it just as much, even more.

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