Mötley Crüe’s first album was released in 1981 entitled Too Fast For Love. The album featured the core four of the band Mötley Crüe including Vince Neil on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mick Mars on lead guitar and backing vocals. Nikki Sixx on bass and Tommy Lee on drums.
In 1983, Mötley Crüe released the album, Shout At The Devil It was an album that catapulted the group to an entire new level of stardom. That level of stardom grew even stronger with the release of Theater Of Pain in 1985. The album contained the band’s great cover version of Brownsville Station’s “Smoking In The Boys Room.” The album also contained the emotional ballad “Home Sweet Home.”
Mötley Crüe was enjoying great commercial success in the 1980s. The band’s fourth album Girls, Girls, Girls was another smash featuring the hits “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and “Wild Side.” Just when you thought the band would slide a bit due to all their carrying on, Mötley Crüe released the biggest album of their career in 1989 entitled Dr. Feelgood. From both an artistic and commercial standpoint, the Dr. Feelgood album defined Motley Crue at their best.
Our Top 10 Motley Crue songs list centers on the band’s 1980’s output. The band did release a few more albums in the 90s and 2000s but it was their 1980’s period that defines their importance in the history of classic rock.
# 10 – Anarchy In The UK
It’s fitting to start out our top 10 Motley Crue songs list with a cover song from a band that defined the art of scaring the audience to death while having a real genuine good time doing it. Mötley Crüe brings more of a party atmosphere to the song as opposed to The Sex Pistols raging angry original. Nonetheless, its works well for the Crue. Released on their greatest hits package in 1991.
# 9 – Hell On High Heels
While most of the Motley Crue songs on this list stem from their 1980s period and some early 1990’s recordings, we could not ignore this great single released in 2000. Minus Tommy Lee on drums, the band still churned out some great music. “Hell On High Heels,” was one of our favorites. Replacing Tommy Lee was drummer Randy Castillo who had worked with Ozzy Osbourne from 1986 to 1993. Sadly, Castillo passed away from cancer in the early 2000s.
# 8 – Live Wire
The great Motley Crue song “Live Wire,” was released on the band’s debut album in 1982 entitled Too Fast For Love. The song was also the first single ever released by Motley Crue. It’s raw, loud, and a boatload of fun. Tommy Lee’s kick drum and that killer guitar riff set the tone for all that was to come.
# 7 – Home Sweet Home
One of those great songs in which the video also helped propel the song’s popularity. It was played all the time on MTV. The song was originally released on the Theater of Pain album in 1985. This is a fun video that also stars the actor Michael John Berryman who scared us all to death in the movie The Hills Have Eyes. We first saw Michael John Berryman in the Jack Nicholson film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. His appearance in the beginning of the video is a fun choice for movie buffs who also happen to be die-hard Motley Crue fans.
# 6 – Kickstart My Heart
Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart,” was released on the album Dr. Feelgood. The band Led Zeppelin has always been accused of stealing riffs from old-school blues artists. However, Motley Crue got away with one on this track as the opening riff bears a very striking resemblance to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
# 5 – Primal Scream
The Motley Crue Song “Primal Scream,” was recorded for their greatest hits album Decade of Decadence 81-91. It was one of three new songs released on their 1991 greatest hits package. Releasing new songs on greatest hits packages has been a long tried and successful concept that pretty much assures fans of the band that already have all their albums and don’t really need the hits will go out and buy the hits package for the one or two new songs. It’s cool that they released three new ones on this package. And three really good ones at that. Do you hear those Led Zeppelin riffs in this one? The band even copies the sound of Jimmy Page’s guitar.
# 4 – Looks That Kill
One of our favorite Motley Crue songs entitled “Looks That Kill,” was released on the Shout At The Devil album in 1983. The song “Looks That Kill,” was released as a single in January of 1984. The song was written by the band’s bass player Nikki Sixx.
# 3 – Dr. Feelgood
“Dr.Feelgood,” was the title track to the band’s 1989 album Dr. Feelgood. The song was released as the album’s lead single. It was one of the band’s most commercially successful songs as it reached all the way to the number six position on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989.
# 2 – Shout At The Devil
As we get to the end of our top 10 Motley Crue songs list, we turn once again to the great Shout At The Devil album. The record’s title track has always been a fan favorite. The song paid tribute to Aerosmith with some of its lyrical content. One of the band’s greatest musical moments.
# 1 – Girls Girls Girls
We end our Top 10 Motley Crue songs list with a track that defined the heart and soul of the band better than any other Motley Crue song ever released. The great track “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and the accompanying video represented the band’s energy, talent, and that bad boy Motley Crue persona perfectly.
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