An anomaly amongst other acts of the '80s, the Stray Cats stood out like a sore thumb from the surrounding sea of synth-pop and hair metal. Purveyors of semi-vintage '50s rockabilly, of all things, the Cats, lamentably, were unable to turn their more revival-than-influential sound into anything beyond the same 15-minute success as their big-coiffed compatriots on the infant MTV. Runaway Boys is the definitive compilation of the band's best material, with all the hits - all three of them. Leader and guitarist Brian Setzer was the heart and soul of the Stray Cats, and the architect of the band's vision (which continues to this day, in the form of the amazing 17-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra). Setzer's flashy stringwork and unremarkable but effective croon are the focal point of the band, as bassist Lee Rocker and drummer "Slim" Jim Phantom were merely functional (live, Phantom usually played a three-piece set while standing, and Rocker a stand-up bass). With such a basic arrangement, the songs are quite simple - they had to be. This simplicity is what made hits like "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" such infectious pop songs, with catchy choruses and unadorned hooks. Sometimes, it worked against the Cats, too, causing many of their albums to sound somewhat similar.
For fans, this collection contains a half-dozen rare and unreleased tracks; the best and most distinctive being a traditional sounding cover of Bobby Fuller's "I Fought the Law" (notably redone in 1979 by the Clash). Two more of the new songs were UK-only tracks from the Stray Cats' original 1981 eponymous debut, two more are B-sides of US singles, and the other few are LP tracks from the band's last three Japanese-only albums (believe it or not, Japan is rockabilly-mad). While none of the new songs are bad, several are indistinctive. The band hardly changed its sound at all over its thirteen-year career and the only difference in sound throughout the whole compilation is due to the changes in recording technology.
Non-fans of the Stray Cats who can hum their hits are advised to start with this collection; it has all the aforementioned hits, several spiffy covers (besides "I Fought the Law", we get "You Can't Hurry Love", and Gene Vincent's "Race With the Devil" and "Cruisin'"), and most of the non-single highlights from the band's previous half-assed 1990 best-of disc (wouldn't it be insulting to have a greatest- hits collection with only ten songs on it?), with a hefty twenty-five tunes for the single-disc price. Fans need no further encouragement. The Stray Cats, out of their resident decade as a swingin' bar-band with panache, were truly unique in their own right. Wonderful, unpretentious pop songs, these remain, done up with a minimum of complexity and a maximum of style and chutzpah. And, best of all, Setzer says in the liner notes that he would love to reunite the band sometime.
