TWISTED SISTER Recording Brand New Song For 'Stay Hungry' 25th-Anniversary Re-Release

TWISTED SISTER is planning a 25th-anniversary re-release of its classic 1984 album "Stay Hungry" featuring loads of bonus material, including one brand new track that the band is set to record later this month. "There's gonna be two discs — it's gonna be the original album remastered, and it's gonna have all the outtakes, including about 15 songs that we never finished; all two verses and a chorus," guitarist Jay Jay French revealed during an October 10, 2008 appearance on Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM. "In much the same way that everybody's throwing the kitchen sink in these historical records — we're gonna have that — plus we're gonna have a brand new song that we're recording in two weeks."

Back in 2004, TWISTED SISTER released "Still Hungry" — a re-recorded and expanded version of "Stay Hungry". "Still Hungry" — which was produced by Mark Mendoza, a longtime producer/engineer in addition to his bass guitar duties with TWISTED SISTER — gave the New York-based band a chance to make "Stay Hungry" the way it was first envisioned. "Stay Hungry" sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, but it didn't sound the way TWISTED SISTER wanted it to sound.

"'Still Hungry' is 'Stay Hungry - The Way It Ought to Be'," Jay Jay French stated at the time. "It has an ultra-heavy sound, which is the way we wanted 'Stay Hungry' in the first place. But at that time rock records had a thin, very midrange kind of sound and so 'Stay Hungry' was recorded very lightly. We battled Atlantic Records and producer Tom Werman about it, but we lost.

"These re-recordings are faithful to the original arrangements but they sound much heavier," he continued. "There are an additional seven tracks included — obscure songs from our club days but never officially recorded then. On two of these songs, 'Never Say Never' and 'Blastin' Fast & Loud', we used the original drum tracks that A.J. [Pero] recorded. These songs were meant to be included on 'Stay Hungry' but were never finished. 'Heroes Are Hard to Find' was on the soundtrack of Dee's [Snider's] movie 'Strangeland'."

Six of the seven bonus tracks on "Still Hungry" previously appeared, mostly in raw form, on archival TWISTED SISTER albums. Demos of "Come Back" and "Rock N Roll Saviors" were included on the 1999 Spitfire Records collection "Club Daze Volume I: The Studio Sessions". The completed 2001 studio recordings of "Never Say Never" and "Blastin' Fast & Loud" (with Pero's original 1984 drum tracks) kicked off 2001's Spitfire release "Club Daze Volume II: Live in the Bars", which also featured vintage live versions of "You Know I Cry", "Plastic Money" and "Come Back" (one of just a few songs to appear on both "Club Daze" volumes).

Italian news blog Musica Metal uploaded video footage (see below) of TWISTED SISTER performing the song "The Price" (which originally appeared on the "Stay Hungry" album) at the first edition of the Rock Of Ages festival, which was held on September 13, 2008 in Milan, Italy.