| "I Wanna Rock" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byTwisted Sister | ||||
| from the albumStay Hungry | ||||
| Released | October 1984[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:00 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Dee Snider | |||
| Producer(s) | Tom Werman | |||
| Twisted Sister singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "I Wanna Rock" onYouTube | ||||
"I Wanna Rock" is a song written and composed byDee Snider and performed by his bandTwisted Sister. It was released on the 1984 albumStay Hungry.
Cash Box called the song "an exercise in hard rocking" that doesn't break new ground but "does what it does well."[6]Billboard said that Twisted Sister "strip down their stadium-sized sound to a minimum of power chords and slogan lyrics."[7]
In 2009, "I Wanna Rock" was named the17th-Greatest Hard Rock Song byVH1.[8]
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Like the earlier "We're Not Gonna Take It", the video features actorMark Metcalf, best known as the abusiveROTC leader Douglas C. Neidermeyer from the movieNational Lampoon's Animal House.
In the video, he plays a teacher with a similar personality to Neidermeyer, who harasses a student for drawing the Twisted Sister logo on one of his textbooks. He chastises the student by shouting, "What kind of a man desecrates a defenseless textbook?! I've got a good mind to slap your fat face!", which echoes a line fromAnimal House ("What kind of man hits a defenseless animal [a misbehaving horse]? I've got a good mind to smash your fat face in!").
Metcalf's character reprises his question from the "We're Not Gonna Take It" video, "What do you want to do with your life?!" This provides a lead-in for the track, as the student answers with the first line of the song, "I wanna rock!", after which he and four of his classmates are instantly transformed into Twisted Sister's five members.
The abusive teacher's repeated attempts to stop his rock-loving students not only fail; they also backfire on him. He crawls into the school principal's office, only to be confronted by the principal, played byStephen Furst, who played Kent "Flounder" Dorfman inAnimal House, opposite Metcalf. Furst's character, who suddenly approves Twisted Sister and its music, reprises one of his lines from the movie, "Oh boy, is this great!", before he sprays water from a seltzer bottle at the teacher, who collapses in defeat.
"Goofy Goober Rock", a cover of the song with modified lyrics, was performed inThe SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) by voice actorJim Wise and musicianTom Rothrock.
Dee Snider explained the experience of licensing the song for SpongeBob by saying, "Are you kidding me? This is my music. This is my art. How much? They paid me a lot of money. It's called Goofy Goober Rock. God bless 'SpongeBob SquarePants.'"[9]
The song was released on the albumThe SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music from the Movie and More....Nerdist ranked "Goofy Goober Rock" as the fourth-best song from the SpongeBob series.[10]
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Argentina[11] | 4 |
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[12] | 43 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[13] | 44 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14] | 10 |
| Norway (VG-lista)[15] | 5 |
| South Africa (Springbok Radio)[16] | 3 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[17] | 10 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[18] | 93 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[19] | 68 |
| USMainstream Rock (Billboard)[20] | 35 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[21] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
