“We’re Not Gonna Take It” was the lead single taken from the LP Stay Hungry by American Rock band Twisted Sister the single was released in May 1984.

The single reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making it Twisted Sister’s only Top 40 single. It is the band’s highest-selling single in the United States, having been certified Gold on June 3, 2009, for sales of over 500,000 units. The song was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80’s Songs and No. 21 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.

In 1985, it received criticism when the Parents Music Resource Center included the song on its “Filthy Fifteen” list for alleged violent lyrical content, allegations that were repudiated by lead singer Dee Snider.

MUSIC VIDEO:

The music video was directed by Marty Callner with an emphasis on slapstick comedy. The video begins with a disobedient son, played by Callner’s son, Dax, playing Twisted Sister songs in his bedroom while the rest of the family is eating dinner. The father, “Douglas C.”, played by Mark Metcalf as a character similar to his Douglas C. Niedermeyer from the 1978 film Animal House, goes to the boy’s room and scolds him for being interested only in his guitar and Twisted Sister.

At the end of the speech, he screams “What do you want to do with your life?”, to which the son replies “I Wanna Rock!”. He strums his guitar and the sound blasts the father out of a nearby window. The boy transforms into Dee Snider, and the music begins. Snider sings to the other children, who turn into the rest of the band, and they wreak havoc on the family.

The father gets the worst of the band’s mischief, as he repeatedly tries and fails to get back at the band members, getting knocked out of more windows and even a wall. Still, even after a series of the father’s failed retaliations, his wife happens by to awkwardly recover him, such as throwing a bucket of water onto him, dropping a first aid kit onto him, and even spraying his face with a hose.

“I Wanna Rock” is a song written and composed by Dee Snider and performed by his band Twisted Sister. It was released as the second single from their 1984 album Stay Hungry. The record reached No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

MUSIC VIDEO

Like the earlier “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, the video features actor Mark Metcalf, best known as the abusive ROTC leader Douglas C. Neidermeyer from the movie National 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 from Animal 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.

Notes:

This U.S. 12″ promo includes the introductions from the music videos for both tracks.

SIDE A:

We’re Not Gonna Take It (Video Intro Edit) 6:31

SIDE B:

I Wanna Rock (Video Intro Edit) 4:31

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