Stray Cats — Rock This Town

JUL 01 1981 · 12:00

Stray Cats — Rock This Town (1981) Director: Julien Temple Era: Early MTV / New Wave Breakthrough Era (1981) - Pre-MTV US launch UK music video production; rockabilly revival at its commercial apex, shot for Arista Records during the Stray Cats' debut UK campaign High. This video is a primary source document for the 1981 UK rockabilly revival and the early history of the director-driven music video format in Britain. Directed by Julien Temple at a pivotal moment in his career, it preserves the Stray Cats' visual identity at the precise moment of their UK breakthrough. The song's status as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-listed track further elevates the archival importance of this clip as a companion cultural artifact. Context: Produced in early 1981 during the height of the UK rockabilly revival, this video captures the Stray Cats at the moment of their commercial breakthrough in Britain, before any US release. The band — three Americans who relocated to London in 1980 to exploit the Teddy Boy and 50s nostalgia revival — embodied a transatlantic cultural exchange: American 1950s Sun Records aesthetics re-filtered through British punk-era energy. Released on Arista Records UK, the single peaked at No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later listed 'Rock This Town' as one of the '500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll,' cementing this video as a document of a culturally significant moment in the rockabilly revival and the early history of the promotional music video format. Director notes: Directed for Arista Records in 1981 as part of the Stray Cats' UK debut campaign. The video was produced in the UK prior to the band's American breakthrough, which came with the 1982 EMI America compilation Built for Speed. The production employs a theatrical city-street set — a technique consistent with Temple's early 1980s promo style — to frame the trio's neo-rockabilly performance. Temple was at this time actively building his reputation as a go-to director for British rock and punk-adjacent acts, a period the Wikipedia article on Temple describes as launching him into 'a career making music videos' that would define much of his early work. The video exists in at least two documented versions per IMDB (tt7566938 and tt21041320), with the version annotated here being the primary Julien Temple-directed cut.