Original Portuguese version at Sound(/)Zone.

MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s career is filled with major hits from every album – even songs exclusively recorded for compilations, such as “Primal Scream” for “Decade Of Decadence ’81-’91” – but “Dr. Feelgood” was the only album that’s ever topped the famous Billboard chart. Or at least officially. One of the urban legends in the music industry is that “Girls, Girls, Girls” had done it two years before, but being on the race against Whitney Houston, someone must have pulled the strings for the Afro-American diva to achieve number one for the second time. Whatever the truth, “Dr. Feelgood” would get six platinum certifications in the United States alone, while “Girls, Girls, Girls” would “only” get four.

Having Bob Rock as producer might have contributed for that outcome, polishing edges of a rock which was already less raw and had more texture to it. They’d already started exploring the more bluesy side of rock’n’roll in “Girls, Girls, Girls”, but in “Dr. Feelgood” they do it with more class.

Steven Tyler was surely hand-picked for the background vocals in “Slice Of Your Pie”, as the more relaxed tempo has clear influences from AEROSMITH. And the introspection which Mick Mars fingers his guitar with seems somewhat deeper in this song.

“Rattlesnake Shake” and “Sticky Sweet” both pull more to the roll than to the rock, the first with a horn section boosting its seduction. The counterweight to these songs are the title-track, of such a teasing rhythm, and “Kickstart My Heart”, the song with the highest level of adrenaline in all their career, Literally. It’s an expression alluding to Nikki Sixx‘s resurrection in December 1987 after he was pronounced dead for two minutes due to a heroin overdose. One of the paramedics said something like “no one dies in my ambulance” and using two shots of adrenaline, he made the bassist’s heart beat again.

The sleaze of “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)” and “She Goes Down” is very rich, but there’s no doubt that the melody in “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” takes the first prize.

“Without You” is no “Home Sweet Home” or “You’re All I Need” but it melts hearts just the same, And the other ballad, “Time For Change”, is a hymn to hope and strength of will where even Bryan Adams sings backing vocals.

“Dr. Feelgood” gathers a little bit of everything that’s valuable in North-American rock and it’s proof that the history of “the world’s most notorious rock band” isn’t written only of scandals and excesses but of great talent as well.

Label: Elektra

Producer: Bob Rock

Track list:

1. T.nT. (Terror ‘n Tinseltown)
2. Dr. Feelgood
3. Slice Of Your Pie
4. Rattlesnake Shake
5. Kickstart My Heart
6. Without You
7. Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
8. Sticky Sweet
9. She Goes Down
10. Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
11. Time for Change

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