If there’s a normal path that most bands take between record companies and Hollywood, odds are it looks nothing like the one traveled by SUE SAAD AND THE NEXT. Consider that the band had only an album (their self-titled 1980 LP) to their name; then consider that their music has featured — and featured prominently — in some of the most beloved cult movie classics of the 1980s, with one former member even going so far as to launch a decades-long writing partnership with independent filmmaker Albert Pyun.
Typically, one album doesn’t equate to songs across a half-dozen films, but that just speaks to the kind of career the band left behind.
That’s it, mixing power pop, new wave and radio-friendly rock and roll (no synths here) in the Pat Benatar style, the “Sue Saad and The Next” LP sold well, however after that the band was destined to write / record songs for ’80s movie soundtracks.
Already some tracks from this album were chosen for the movie “Roadie”, and next year the record company asked Sue and the guys compose the main theme for the film ‘Looker’ (1981), a synth-heavy track with that era magic. More songs for other cult movies like ‘Radioactive Dreams’ (1984), Vicious Lips (1986) followed.
As requested, here’s “Sue Saad and The Next” CD reissue including most of these soundtrack songs as bonus tracks, and we added a couple more as plotn08 extras.
”Sue Saad and The Next” offer up polished guitar rock that shoots for the same mainstream space that Pat Benatar, Quarterflash, and Rick Springfield would shortly occupy. The band keeps things rocking and don’t bother with ballads. Its only real new wave / pop moment in “Young Girl”.
It gets by on Sue Saad’s belting vocal style (a cross between Joan Jett and Patty Smyth) and the fine, car radio-ready choruses of “Gimme Love / Gimme Pain” and “Prisoner”.
With a dynamic sound and a steady stream of gigs in California, it wasn’t long before someone in Hollywood took notice of the group. Sue Saad and The Next made their soundtrack debut in ‘Roadie’, a 1980 comedy starring Meat Loaf (and featuring Deborah Harry) as a long-suffering roadie for a traveling rock band. “I think it was Richard who told us that [director Alan Rudolph] really liked our music and wanted to introduce us to him,” Saad said. “He gave us an idea of what it was that he was looking for. I think we went home that day and came up with a piece.”
The ‘Roadie’ soundtrack represented prime real estate for the band. While the movie itself was something of a mixed bag, it did feature onscreen performances from an impressive mix of artists playing versions of themselves, including Alice Cooper, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., and Blondie.
Sue Saad and the Next’s blend of old-school songwriting and New Wave sound fit Roadie like a glove.
The band got its next movie credit courtesy of an old friend. Michael Towers, who had previously performed with The Next members, had co-written several tracks for Michael Crichton’s ‘Looker’ and recommended Sue Saad and the Next for the soundtrack. This gave them their first theme song, “Looker,” the synth-heavy track that plays over the film’s opening credits. Saad’s strong vocals add an undercurrent of darkness to an otherwise catchy piece of pop-rock.
Sue Saad and the Next were only supposed to provide a single song to the ‘Radioactive Dreams’ movie soundtrack, but Saad recognized an opportunity. “I thought, well, I haven’t heard a theme song for Radioactive Dreams,” Saad remembered thinking during the shoot, “and I asked the director- Do you have any more music that you need to be written? And he said, Oh yeah. And I said, Do you have a theme song? He said no. And I said, Well, I’d like to give it a shot.”
Saad took a copy of the script home and sketched out early versions of both “Radioactive Dreams” and “Save Me”. It would only take the group a few hours to record versions of each. The band ended up with four songs on the soundtrack.
The following year, director Albert Pyun demonstrated his prolific approach to filmmaking with ‘Vicious Lips’, another genre-heavy film that blends science-fiction and fantasy. In it, the titular all-girl rock band is handed their big break when the biggest nightclub in the universe is suddenly short an opening act.
If the ‘Vicious Lips’ can successfully travel from one end of the galaxy to the other, they’ll be able to claim the spot and effectively make their musical career. As a movie, ‘Vicious Lips’ is undeniably a mess, but a film about a badass female rock group needs songs from a badass female vocalist, and Pyun again gave Sue Saad and the Next the reins.
They recorded the song “Save Me”, also included into this reissue.
‘Vicious Lips’ would be the final showcase for Sue Saad and The Next. Shortly afterward, the members chose to go in different directions. Riparetti moved into full-time film composition, kicking off a three-decade partnership with Pyun that began with 1988’s Alien From L.A. and continues to this day.
”Sue Saad and The Next” is a very cool ’80s album, with good, fun songs, entertaining choruses and a strong guitar work. Seems the original tapes of the recording were lost, so this Renaissance Records reissue is taken from vinyl LP, but sound quality is good – at least much better than the terrible digital download version. And this CD adds an additional bonus track.
As extra, we added the other 2 tracks Sue Saad and The Next recorded for Radioactive Dreams soundtrack: the AORish ‘She’s a Fire’, and the pumping ‘When Lightning Strikes’ plenty of Simmons drums.
This 2013 CD pressing of is sold-out, but Renaissance recently re-released the album – same audio source – adding some live tracks.
Pure ’80s stuff. Highly Recommended
Tracklist :
01 Gimme Love / Gimme Pain
02 It`s Gotcha
03 Prisoner
04 Young Girl
05 I I Me Me
06 Your Lips-Hands-Kiss-Love
07 I Want Him
08 Cold Night Rain
09 Won`t Give Up
10 Danger Love
2013 Re-Issue Bonus Tracks
11 Save Me
12 Radioactive Dreams
13 Looker
14 Guilty Pleasures
Sue Saad & The Next – Sue Saad & The Next 1980 (2013 Re-issue) Renaissance Records CD version, MP3+FLAC
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