Suzi Q, First Lady of Glam

Born in Detroit, Suzi Quatro first began playing music with her sisters in an all-girl garage group called the Pleasure Seekers (which would later become Cradle) while in her early teens. British producer Mickie Most became interested in working with Suzi as a solo act when he happened to see Cradle perform while in town to work on a Motown album for Jeff Beck. Although she wrote some of her own songs (along with her husband and guitarist Len Tuckey), most of her recordings were penned by the songwriting duo of Mike Chapman & Nicky Chinn, who also wrote for fellow glam rockers the Sweet. Suzi had a string of glitter/bubblegum/raunch-fused hits in the U.K. during the mid-late '70s, but failed to really make waves with her music in the U.S.: her American star lit up with her stint as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days, the guitar-playing, sass-talking rocker girlfriend to The Fonz.