Come Out and Play is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Twisted Sister, released by Atlantic Records on November 22, 1985. The album was significantly less successful than its predecessor Stay Hungry (1984), both critically and commercially, although it achieved Gold status by selling more than 500,000 copies.[5]
Following the massive success of 1984's Stay Hungry, which established Twisted Sister as one of the world's top recording acts, the band was faced with the question of whether they should continue in the same MTV and radio-friendly direction that brought them so much success, or return to their heavy metal roots. Come Out and Play saw them attempt to do both, but the approach ultimately proved devastatingly unsuccessful and the album marked the beginning of the band's commercial decline.
The band's decision to record a cover of the 1964 Shangri-Las' hit "Leader of the Pack" and release it as the album's first single proved very unpopular with the band's fanbase. Ultimately, neither "Leader of the Pack" nor second single "Be Chrool To Your Scuel" (featuring guest appearances from artists such as Alice Cooper, Brian Setzer, Clarence Clemons and Billy Joel) came close to matching the success of "We're Not Gonna Take It" or "I Wanna Rock" from 1984's Stay Hungry.
The 1986 world tour in support of Come Out and Play was a fiasco, marked by low attendance and ticket sales so low in some cities that several shows were simply canceled. Longtime drummer A.J. Pero left the band following the tour in 1986, contributing to the chaos that eventually saw Twisted Sister disband in 1988.
The music videos for "Leader of the Pack" and "Be Chrool to Your School" followed the same comedic formula that had been so successful for the band in the Stay Hungry era. The latter single, featuring a prominent guest spot by Dee Snider's hero Alice Cooper, was banned by MTV on the grounds that it was offensive. The band didn't produce a video for the album's second and final US single, "You Want What We Got".
In 1986 the band released the Come Out and Play: The Videos home video on VHS, which included four videos ("We're Not Gonna Take It", "I Wanna Rock", "Leader of the Pack" and "Be Chrool to Your Scuel") tied together by scenes of Snider in a scrapyard being visited by troubled teens seeking advice, to the tune of the song "Come Out and Play". This home video has never been re-issued on DVD.
The intro to the title track features an homage to the 1979 cult classic movie The Warriors, in which the main villain, Luther, chants "Warriors, come out to play".
All tracks are written by Dee Snider, except "Leader of the Pack" by Ellie Greenwich, Shadow Morton, Jeff Barry
The following people appeared only in the official video for "Be Chrool to Your Scuel":