In three short years, Quiet Riot went from the pinnacle of popularity and stardom to not just irrelevant but loathed and hated throughout the music industry. Quiet Riot was initially formed in the early seventies and released two albums in Japan only. Up until that point, the band was only known as the launch pad for the late-Randy Rhoads. In 1983, a reformed Quiet Riot released Metal Health with a cover of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize" as its initial single. While band members have continually stated that they hated recording the song and try to do as bad of job recording, the song become a radio staple and its video was in heavy rotation on Mtv. That summer, Quiet Riot performed at the three day US Festival and solidified their trajectory into superstardom. Metal Health reached #1 on the Billboard charts which kept Michael Jackson's Thriller from reaching its pinnacle. Unfortunately, the success was short lived and the beginning of the end for the group, due to lead singers Kevin DuBrow as he continually put his proverbial foot in his mouth. By 1986, bass player Rudy Sarzo left the group and was replaced by "original" bassist Chuck Wright. The music industry was also beginning to change from hard rock/heavy metal bands with loud guitars to "pop metal/hair bands" with power ballads and with keyboards incorporated or in the forefront. This album follows that formula with the collection of 10 songs (not include the 1 minute bass instrumental) having sophomoric lyrics, overbearing keyboard/synthesizer textures, quick guitar solos and simple drums. After this album was released, Kevin DuBrow was fired from the band and replaced by Paul Shortino and would go through various line-up changes in subsequent years and play in front of smaller and smaller venues. In reality, the band should have called it quits after this album because QR III was the proverbial final nail in the Quiet Riot coffin.
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