Ratt's history kinda reads like a parallel of Dokkens, After Juan Croucier left Dokken to join Ratt, the similarities career wise are pretty interesting. They both hit mainstream success during the same time frame, they both had major divisions between the guitarist and singer, they both tried to pull off reunions but could never keep it together. Ratt, like Dokken put out a great reunion album much like Dokken with Dysfunctional, albeit MANY years later and could have made some headway if they could have stayed together for a bit longer.
Ratt began all the way back in 1976 as Mickey Ratt playin the Hollywood/LA circuit and even made a demo in 1980 (I'm sure few exist today but somebody I'm sure has one) Dr Rock/Drivin on E which they gave out at their shows. Jake E Lee and most of the members of Rough Cutt passed through Mickey Ratt, before they shortened their name to Ratt in 1981. Warren Dimartini joined in 1982, shortly after Bobby Blotzer and Juan Croucier would join and cement their classic line up. The RATT EP was released in 1983 and got them off the ground. Out of the Cellar would come out in 1984 and catapult them all over MTV, the rock and metal mags, and going multi Platinum. Next up was Invasion Of Your Privacy in 1985 which kept the band at the top with more big hits, heavy MTV and music mag exposure and again went multi platinum. Dancing Undercover was released in 1986 ( I personally love this record) but the sound was changing, a little more dancy and commercial/polished in spots, but a little heavier and faster in others. Dancing Undercover would be their third straight platinum record (again ,like Dokken). Reach for the Sky released in 1988 did reach platinum (four a fourth straight run) and there are some damn good tracks on that one, but the heyday had about run it's course after that as the personality conflicts within the band began to arise and the 89 summer tour with Kix, Warrant and Britney Fox was mostly scraped due to lack of ticket sales as the grunge effect was starting to kick in. Detonator was released in 1990 and sold modestly but only had a few minor hits and Robbin Crosby's situation was worsening and following that tour he would never perform with Ratt again and sadly he passed away in 2002. In 1991 Ratt was featured in the first round of the MTV Unplugged series and released the compilation Ratt N Roll 81-91. In 1992 Pearcy and Dimartini would both split and thus was the end of RATT's classic lineup.
In 1997 a new Ratt emerged, and the band released a compilation Collage, which consisted of B sides/ out takes and old re-worked Mickey Ratt songs. This lineup was Pearcy/Dimartini/Blotzer and Robbie Crane. The band released a self titled Ratt album in 1999 (which would be their last recording until 2008's Infestation reunion), after which Pearcy split again in 2000. What followed was two versions of Ratt running around, lots of legal action, injunctions and lawsuits and all that shit that Rock N Roll aint supposed to be . Ratt reformed and toured from 2007-2009 and released a damn good album with Infestation in 2010 but was unable to keep it together for long after and the band again imploded in the midst of what could have been a serious and successful comeback. After some time away they tried it again from 2012-2014 with some tour dates and working on new material but it all went by the wayside and Pearcy left (so he says) for good.
Can't anybody just get along. Jesus!
Anyway, Some great times and great music from this band to be enjoyed for sure! Like these:
Round and Round (classic MTV video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4Your in Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1sFCszjBocNever use Love (Mickey Ratt w/ Jake E Lee) cool!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqG_9YpCmQBack for more (album version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzhNTPnGingI want a woman: (album version) Great song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuLpUW9EEXUCool Shit here, unplugged intro of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well leading into CCR's Born on the Bayou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQojvth2D4
