Round and Round - Ratt

SD/LA’s Ratt was a transitional 80s metal band, self identified as “glam” metal. They were transitional musically between the early 80s harder metal of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden (actually in retrospect, a lot of this material doesn’t sound so hard today) and the like (by whom they were surely heavily influenced) and the full-on hair metal glammers of the late 80s and 90s. I mention them here because of a single song, their best known, “Round and Round” (1984) which stands out. The rest of their material that I’ve heard is pedestrian stuff. Hundreds of bands were playing this sound in garages and small bars all over the place. But “Round and Round” provides evidence that somebody in that band (if they indeed wrote the song; nothing on their Wikipedia pages indicates who wrote it) could write songs. There are unconventional chord changes in both the intro/chorus (an A flat augmented E flat major to a G flat augmented D flat major to a B major) and verse (E flat major to G flat major), providing for possibly the most unique hooks in any metal song that I’ve heard.

The video stars Milton Bearle and is pretty funny.