Suzi Quatro's 10 top songs, ranked

25 November 2025, 12:41

American glam rock singer and bassist Suzi Quatro in 1975. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Picture: Getty

By Thomas Edward

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She's rock 'n' roll's pocket rocket.

Whilst Suzi Quatro might have been diminutive in stature, her uncompromising ambition to rock hard outweighed many of her male contemporaries.

Frequently leather-clad, always seen with a bass guitar slung over her shoulder, Suzi became one of the greatest names in the glam rock era.

In her native America, she is most known for her recurring role as rebellious rock chick Leather Tuscadero in iconic sitcom Happy Days.

Throughout the rest of the world however, Quatro was a celebrated rock 'n roller, scoring a series of hits across the UK, Australia and Europe.

A figurehead of female representation in a male-dominated music industry, Suzi was a pioneer, and still is.

She might have not achieved the hallowed status of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (yet), Quatro has sold over 50 million records worldwide.

Still donning the leathers to this day, Suzi's still rocking out on stage – that said, we've ranked her ten greatest hits.

Daytona Demon

Suzi Quatro - Daytona Demon (1973)

Rock 'n' roll is often associated with fast women, fast living, and fast cars, right?
Well, Suzi put her own spin on the aforementioned with her 1973 hit 'Daytona Demon', referencing the iconic motorsports resort where NASCAR operates out of.
Equated her lover to fast car, 'Daytona Demon' is thought to be a revision of Freddy Cannon's 'Tallahassee Lassie' with a female perspective.
A huge hard rock hit for Suzi, the song peaked in the top 3 of music charts throughout Europe and Australia.
Glycerine Queen

GLYCERINE QUEEN　Suzi Quatro (グリセリン・クイーン／スージー・クアトロ)　1973

Suzi Quatro certainly didn't climb her way to the top by being cruel. But the story behind 1973 hit 'Glycerine Queen' might sound like there were some casualties along the way.
In her autobiography, Unzipped, Quatro wrote: "We were at a gig in Manchester when there was a knock on the dressing room door and in walked this transvestite wanting an autograph."
Around that time her band members would grease themselves with glycerine before they went to rock out on stage to give them an otherworldly shine.
Quatro's lead guitarist and future husband Len Tuckey replied to the fan: "'Oi, mate, do you want a drink?" This individual said he would, so Tuckey poured some glycerine into a pint glass, and "he drank it straight down without stopping."
Cat Size

Cat Size (2017 Remaster)

No, this throaty ballad wasn't about Suzi being the size of a cat - it was written about her leaving her hometown of Detroit to embark on a career in music.
Though, the inspiration behind the song's title came from an unlikely source.
"There was a thing in England in the roads that was invented - these little spotlights in the road when you're on a dark road - and they were called cat's eyes," she said in a 2019 interview.
"I thought, What a great idea for a song, which is what I called it. But I wanted to be clever, so I called it 'Cat Size' - just to be clever. But you've got the meaning right - it is something that sees in the dark."
The Wild One

Suzi Quatro - The Wild One HD

"I'm a blue-eyed bitch, I want to get rich, get out of my way, cause I'm here to stay... I'm the wild one."
Nobody could put it better than Quatro when it came to full-throttled female defiance.
When Suzi broke through, it was unusual for women to beat men at their own game - the game being rock 'n' roll.
Inspiring the likes of Joan Jett, Blondie, and The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, "wild one" Suzi Quatro has earned her status as an influential rock goddess.
She's In Love With You

Suzi Quatro - She's In Love With You ( Music Video)

By 1978, Suzi had garnered the attentions of an American audience, so wrote a stomper of a hit that could easy be played in discotheques as much as rock clubs.
'She's In Love With You' plows away with a rhythmic beat and radio-friendly production.
It's likely why the track peaked at number 11 in the UK, and stayed at the top of the South African music charts for a total of seven weeks.
Featuring on her sixth studio album Suzi... And Other Four Letter Words, the song was on the end of a 21st century resurgence thanks to social media platform TikTok.
48 Crash

Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash Remastered HD Original Music Video RARE 1973

"Well you got the hands of a man and the face of a little boy blue." Any idea what the lyrics mean? Me neither.
But that was the beauty of glam rock - most lyrics were nonsensical, but embodying the gender bending, knee-slapping sounds of the scene.
Quatro's second hit in the UK after it reached number three, '48 Crash' was penned by producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who never told her the meaning behind the song.
"It's crazy lyrics, but to me, that makes sense," she said in a 2019 interview. "And back then, Mike used to write kind of nonsensical lyrics. But it's one of the favourites around the world. So, I say it's about the male menopause."
Devil Gate Drive

Suzi Quatro: "Devil Gate Drive" (UK, 1974)

'Devil Gate Drive' describes a fictional place where bored and rebellious teens head to get their kicks and tear it up.
"It's the place where you go when you're a teenager, and your parents say, 'Where are you going?' 'I'm going out.' 'Don't you dare go to such-and-such',' she revealed in a 2019 interview.
"That's 'Devil Gate Drive,' and that's where you go. Of course, as soon as your parents say, 'Don't go,' that's where you go."
Written by the producing team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman - who also wrote for The Sweet - it scored Suzi a number one smash hit in the UK.
If You Can't Give Me Love

Suzi Quatro - If You Can't Give Me Love (Official Music Video)

One thing has to be said about Suzi Quatro - for sure she could rock with the best of them, but she could belt out a ballad better than anyone too.
'If You Can't Give Me Love' was certainly leaning more towards a bubblegum pop sound, but her fierce energy beams through.
Arguably one of the finest, and maybe first, feminist rock songs ever written, the lyrics promoted a simple plea: don't use women.
The song came during a more mellow era in Suzi's career, however she didn't lose any of the punch that made her a rock icon, she just delivered her message in a different way.
Can The Can

Suzi Quatro – Can The Can (Top of the Pops 25th December 1973) (HD 60fps)

'Can The Can' was the song that changed everything for Suzi Quatro.
The shrieking glam rock stomper rocketed her to the top of the charts in the UK (where she'd achieve her greatest fame), Japan, Australia, and throughout Europe.
Until that point, a solo female artist hadn't topped the charts in the UK for five years. But Quatro marked a new era in British music, when rock ruled the airwaves.
She knew it'd be a success, later saying: "I can hear a record for the first time and know whether it will be a hit. And I knew as soon as we had finished recording that we had a big hit on our hands."
But Suzi was happy to let her producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman pen the singles with her own songs often being relegated to album cuts.
"I was very boogie-based, very bass-based," she said in 2019. "And they went away and wrote 'Can the Can.' We had the arrangement where I could write the albums, and they would write the three-minute single - although I did have singles out myself, like 'Mama's Boy.' I didn't learn anything from their songwriting, because I always had my own thing. Whatever I did, I did."
Stumblin' In

Chris Norman, Suzi Quatro - Stumblin' In (ZDF Disco 27.11.1978) (VOD)

A choice that may very well offend Suzi's hardcore glam rock fanbase, but 'Stumblin' In' is undoubtedly her most enduring song, and her greatest.
For nearly a decade, Suzi rock the stages of the world - and even in the US after touring with Alice Cooper - but never made a meaningful dent in the American charts.
That was until 'Stumblin' In', a soft rock duet with Smokie frontman Chris Norman which became the biggest hit they'd both achieve.
A song about stumbling into love with someone they never expected to be with, it was a hit that reached number four in the US charts.
Adopting a more radio-friendly sound for an American audience, it was again Chinn and Chapman who wrote the lyrics for Suzi, and suggested she record the 1978 hit as a duet with a male singer.
She was also aware that glam rock, whilst spawning some of the greatest songs of the 21st century, didn't quite translate to American listeners.
"I was a part of the glam rock scene, but I don't think that glam rock transferred to the USA," she admitted in 2019.
"I had lots of radio play with 'All Shook Up' and 'Skin Tight Skin,' and 'Can The Can' got in the lower end, but my biggest hit was a country-rock record, 'Stumblin' In.'"
After featuring in 2021 movie Licorice Pizza which was set in the year the song was released, DJ Cyril remixed the song which made it a viral hit on TikTok, ensuring an entirely new generation of music lovers stumbled upon 'Stumblin' In'.