Twisted Sister

Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band formed in 1972 in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based on Long Island, New York. Their best-known songs include "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both of which were associated with music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humour. Besides their music, the band is equally remembered for their hairstyles and wearing androgynous clothing and make-up, leading to a categorization in the hair metal scene of the 1980s. Twisted Sister evolved from a band named Silver Star, and experienced several membership changes before settling on the classic lineup of Jay Jay French (guitars), Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda (guitars), Dee Snider (lead vocals), Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (bass), and A. J. Pero (drums) in 1982. It was this lineup which recorded the band's first four albums. Twisted Sister's first two albums, Under the Blade (1982) and You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll (1983), were critically well-received and earned the band underground popularity. The band achieved mainstream success with their third album, Stay Hungry (1984), and its single "We're Not Gonna Take It", which was their only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next two albums, Come Out and Play (1985) and Love Is for Suckers (1987), did not match the success of Stay Hungry, and Twisted Sister disbanded in 1988. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band played a series of one-off shows before reuniting more permanently in 2003. They released two more albums, Still Hungry (2004), a re-recording of their third album, and a Christmas album, A Twisted Christmas (2006). Following Pero's death in 2015, the band embarked on a farewell tour and subsequently separated again after completing the tour in 2016. They announced another reunion in September 2025, but their planned tour dates were cancelled in February 2026 due to Snider's health issues, which resulted in his departure from the band. In 2013, Corey Deiterman of The Houston Press placed Twisted Sister eighth on his list of "The 10 Worst Metal Bands of the '80s". Conversely, two years later Twisted Sister was ranked at No. 73 on VH1's list of "100 greatest artists of hard rock" in 2015. One year later, the staff of Loudwire named them the 43rd-best metal band of all time. In 2020, Jeff Mezydlo of Yardbarker included them in his list of "the 20 greatest hair metal bands of all time", placing them third.