In the early 1980s, Dee Snider, the frontman of an unknown East Coast glam-metal band named Twisted Sister, wrote the chorus for a hard rock anthem that he knew was destined to become a “monster”. Although it took Snider three years to perfect its chug-aboogie arrangement, We’re Not Gonna Take It did indeed become an irresistible, fistin-the-air anthem, despite numerous obstacles standing in its way. In the hands of a less determined mob than Twisted Sister it never would have happened.
The saga of how Twisted Sister hooked up with Atlantic Records, a label that had turned them down on numerous occasions, has been recounted many times. Their premier bête noire at Atlantic, Doug Morris (the MD who had slammed the group as “the worst piece of shit in the world”), hired Tom Werman to produce a make-or-break third album (which became Stay Hungry).
