''Built for Speed'' is a compilation album by American

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

band

Stray Cats Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in ...

, released as the band's first album in the United States in June 1982 by EMI America Records. ''Built for Speed'' is essentially a compilation of 12 tracks taken from the band's first two British album releases: six from ''

'' (February 1981) and five from '' Gonna Ball'' (November 1981), plus the title track, "Built for Speed", which had not previously been released in the United Kingdom. It was the most successful record for the band, earning a platinum

certification Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

from the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

, and with the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s for songs such as " Rock This Town" and " Stray Cat Strut" reaching

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

regular rotation status.

Critical reception

Reviewing ''Built for Speed'' for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said that, despite

Brian Setzer Brian Robert Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with ...

's exotic, modernistic guitar touches, "the mild vocals just ain't

. You know how it is when white boys strive for authenticity— '57 V-8 my ass". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''s David Fricke found Stray Cats' self-production "spiritless" and their original compositions "mostly average", remarking that the band only "gets it dead right" on the tracks produced by Dave Edmunds. In a retrospective review, Mark Deming of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote that the melodies and playing are strong enough to withstand datedness on what is "song-for-song the group's strongest album, despite the cut-and-paste manner in which it was created".

Track listing

* * originally released on

* † originally released on Gonna Ball Note: "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" is often miscredited as having been written by Mike Chapman, who recorded a song of the same name with his band Tangerine Peel. However, Chapman's "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" is a completely different song from the one the Stray Cats recorded; they just happen to share the same title. The Stray Cats' "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" was originally performed by Eddie Cochran, and was written by George Motola and Ricky Page (regardless of what the original ''Built for Speed'' album or other various Stray Cats collections may claim).

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Stray Cats *

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s, lap steel guitar,

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Slim Jim Phantom –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, vocals * Lee Rocker –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

, vocals Production * Dave Edmunds – production * Hein Hoven – production * Stray Cats – production * Wally Traugott – mastering Design * Charles Novick Studios –

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

* Gavin Cochrane – front cover

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

* Francesca – design * Guido Harari – back cover photography * Sheila Rock – back cover photography

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1982 albums Stray Cats albums EMI America Records albums Albums produced by Dave Edmunds