Epic
38230
1982
The B'zz released a lone record, the exuberant Get Up, and maintains the distinction of being the only unsigned act ever to appear on American Bandstand. First came the Boyzz, a biker boogie outfit whose Too Wild to Tame gained notoriety helped by energized performances. Keyboardist Anatole Halinkovitch, now Tony Hall, destroyed over fifteen organs in four years. Hall took Dave Angel and Michael Tafoya when he left the Boyzz and formed the B'ZZ with Tom Holland and Steve Riley. Ditching the Godz/Black Oak Arkansas angle, B'zz instead aimed for the chart appeal of Foreigner. Within six months, the quintet amassed a huge song catalog, recruited a strong following and snagged the notorious Bandstand spot. Inking with Epic, the B'zz released the snappy debut Get Up, an AOR dynamite stick igniting with the powerful "Get Up Get Angry (whose accompanying video landed on MTV)" and then plowing straight into one of the miracles of commercial music, "Too Much to Ask For (a play on Too Wild to Tame)." Tremendous knob-twiddler Tom Werman, who performed pop overhauls on Cheap Trick, Off Broadway, and the Producers, transitions the Boyzz' sleazy biker boogie into skinny-tie pop for a true album-rock artifact constantly rumored to be released on CD one sweet day. Hall departed for a solo career, and wound up scoring the entire run of America's Most Wanted. Holland formed a new band under his name, and later worked with Tafoya in the Raw Dogs. Holland has also attempted to reunite the B'zz, while Tafoya plays with a reformed Boyzz. Steve Riley pounded skins for a time with W.A.S.P.
-STONE, Cheap Trash NYC
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