ARTIST: Hollywood Stars ALBUM: Hollywood Stars LABEL: Arista SERIAL: AL4119 YEAR: 1977 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: LINEUP: Terry Rae - drums, vocals * Ruben De Fuentes - lead guitar * Michael Rummans - bass, vocals * Mark Anthony - lead vocals, guitar * Bobby Drier - drums, percussion TRACK LISTING: 01 All The Kids On Sunset * 02 Weekend Love * 03 I Need You Tonight * 04 Stay The Way You Are * 05 I Can't Help It * 06 Sunrise On Sunset * 07 Merry Go Round (Love Is A) * 08 So Blue * 09 All For Love * 10 Make It To The Party

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Background
Another project originally created by the legendary Kim Fowley, The Hollywood Stars were supposed to be the West Coast answer to the New York Dolls and for a brief period it seemed the group might have pulled it off. Drawing big crowds in the L.A. clubs, the band signed to CBS in 1974 and after working with a variety of producers, settled with Bill Szymczyk (The Eagles, Michael Stanley Band). Unfortunately a series of legal issues put a halt to the project and the band split with vocalist Scott Phares forming AOR faves Hero, bassist Gary Van Dyke moving on to long lost pop rocker's Virgin and Ruben De Fuentes filling in on guitar for a floundering Blue Cheer. All was not lost with a couple tunes from these sessions later covered by KISS ('King of the Night Time World') and Alice Cooper ('Escape'), but the originals have never been officially released. With Blue Cheer an obvious dead end, De Fuentes decided to resurrect The Hollywood Stars in 1976, this time as The Stars with vocalist Terry Rae who had also spent time in The Strawberry Alarm Clock and Flamin' Groovies, Bobby Drier on drums and Michael Rummans on bass. Discovering Starz had beat 'em to the punch, the old moniker was brought back to life and the group began filling clubs once again, recording a demo with Neil Merryweather and landing a contract with Arista.

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The Songs
Fortunately, this version of The Hollywood Stars put their Fowley inspired New York Dolls (an over rated band if there ever was) aspirations behind them offering up a good time power pop sound similar to Artful Dodger and The Raspberries. It's easy to understand why they packed out The Starwood and Whiskey a Go Go (featured on the album cover) after hearing this record. Guitars and hooks with swirling orchestration on several cuts, these guys had a magic formula happening and if they had got their act together just might have been a contender. 'All The Kids On The Street' and 'Weekend Love' have all the fist-in-the-air arena rock moves you could possibly hope for. Playing up the high school party rock vibe, De Fuentes is the star here with shit-hot guitar work at times reminiscent of Punky Meadows and while Terry Rae wasn't the best vocalist haunting the Sunset Strip at the time, his larger-than-life shouting does the job. Even on slower material like 'Stay The Way You Are' which sounds like sticky Shaun Cassidy and 'All For Love' with it's funky percussion; the group still manage to sound heavier than the album cover would give them credit for.

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In Summary
Signing with Queen manager Jack Nelson, some pretty big names opened shows for The Hollywood Stars including Journey, The Tubes, Quiet Riot and The Runaways just to name a few. The group even managed a short tour of the Western U.S with The Kinks before breaking up once again with De Fuentes carrying the Stars flag alone for several years before finally putting the name to bed once and for all in the early '80s before joining Susan Lynch for her 'Big Reward' album.

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