Heavy metal and headbanging have always rocked together as one. You’d think that the devil-horned music begat the motion, but no. The repetitive and forceful head movement actually started with Sufi religious songs six centuries ago and remains in practice today. Believe it or not, as Ripley would say.

Somewhere along the line, Western musicians discovered electricity, distortion, Marshall amps, and a thunderous beat to bring out the beast — audiences began nodding their noggins to Cream and Led Zeppelin in the late 60’s, a sea of long-haired teens assenting vigorously to the music surrounding them. A few years later, a band called Quiet Riot, heavily influenced by the rock sounds in the UK, began making their own noise in Los Angeles.

Guitar wizard Randy Rhoads co-founded the band with a bassist who, a few years later, after firing a handgun in the recording studio, was arrested for drunk driving while on his way to kill the lead singer, Kevin Dubrow. Quiet Riot always lived up to the second half of their name. But despite their popularity as a live act, the band’s record company would only release their albums in Japan, and when an opportunity arose for Rhoads to join Ozzy Osbourne’s band, he decided to leave the riot and hop aboard the crazy train. As a result of Randy’s departure, the lack of US success, and all the attempted murders, Quiet Riot broke up in 1980.

Two years later, after receiving the okay from Rhoads, Dubrow put together a new lineup and revived the Quiet Riot name. This time, things would go better. In 1983, their cover of Slade’s “Cum On Feel The Noize” became a massive hit, and their album Metal Health — alongside albums from Def Leppard, Twisted Sister, and Ratt — would help establish pop-metal as a dominant genre in the 80’s.

Their second single from the album, “Metal Health (Bang Your Head),” was the band’s only other Top 40 hit. The track features briefly in the movie Footloose to suggest how much of a city-boy rebel Kevin Bacon is in comparison to the no-dancing farming community, but, more importantly, the song introduced the world to the nomenclature of metal, explicitly naming the motion and inextricably linking headbanging with the genre.

The Gods of Rock demand your agreement!

So get your straitjackets on tonight … with Quiet Riot.