Filed under: Pleasure Seeking in the 60’s | Tags: all female rock bands, all girl-groups, Arlene Quatro, Bangles, Blood Orgy of the Leather Girls, Cradle, Darline Arnone, Detroit rock 'n roll, Diane Baker, Eileen Biddlingmeier, Fanny, Hideout Records, Leo Fenn, Mary Lou Ball, Mercury Records, Nancy Ball, Nancy Quatro, Patti Quatro, Runaways!, Sherilynn Fenn, Suzi Quatro, the Go-Gos, The Hideout, The Pleasure Seekers, Upbeat Show, USO Vietnam Shows, WEWS Channel 5
Don’t you just love those mini-skirts and go-go boots? The all girl band featured above isn’t the Runaways, the Go-Gos or the Bangles, the band pictured above is The Pleasure Seekers, formed in 1964 in Detroit, Michigan by 17-year-old Patti Quatro and her 15-year-old sister Suzi Quatro. They gained a reputation during the 1960’s as perhaps the best all-female garage rock band.
The band started out at a teen club called The Hideout and soon after were touring the Midwest and eventually even USO shows to Vietnam in 1967. Their first single, on the local Hideout label, was Never Thought You’d Leave Me. The flipside, What A Way To Die, was spotlighted in the cult drive-in film Blood Orgy of the Leather Girls.
They were also the first all-girl rock band to sign to a national label. Mercury Records inked the band in 1968 and they immediately released the single, Light Of Love that was aired nationally. The flipside was Good Kind of Hurt. I remember we had it in our 45 collection not long after it came out.
Another early recollection I have of the band is seeing them on the Upbeat TV show based in Cleveland, OH on WEWS Channel 5. After seeing them it finally hit me, Hey! Girls can rock n roll and play guitar too! What a novel concept!
The original line-up included Suzi Quatro (bass & vocals), Patti Quatro (guitar), Nancy Ball (drums) and Mary Lou Ball (guitar), and Diane Baker (keyboards). Eventually Arlene Quatro came on as keyboardist through 1969. (Of note, Arlene married manager Leo Fenn and their daughter is actress Sherilynn Fenn.) Other replacements included sister Nancy Quatro, Darline Arnone on drums and vocals and Eileen Biddlingmeier on rhythm guitar.
By 1970 they adapted the name Cradle and went with a much harder sound. Soon after Suzi left for England and a solo career and Patti went to California (in ’74) to join the all-female rock band Fanny.
By while they never achieved national superstardom, they rocked the house, with attitude, throughout the Midwest and the east coast during the freewheelin’ sixties and helped pave the road for other all-female bands to come along and be taken seriously as hard rockers.
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Hi doc:
Comment by Patti Quatro February 9, 2010 @ 7:02 pmenjoyed the piece……
our era rocked!!!!!!!!! Detroit was an explosion of music and groups at that time.
The Quatro sisters are releasing very soon, a CD of all the original quatro music,
never before released…..We are doing an anthology back to the beginning. Cradle CD is first up, then Pleasure Seekers. Stay tuned for release dates on
our sites….FB, Myspace, Reverbnation.
ROCK ON!!!!
Patti Quatro