Funny how a song can be inexorably linked to a time or place (or people). For me The Stray Cats will always belong to London, in 1981, where I spent a summer. The likes of Adam and the Ants and two-tone ska bands like Bad Manners made sense there at the time – but the emergence of an American rockabilly band (that was not known in the US yet), did not.

Perhaps that’s why the specific time stamp, but also the vivaciousness of the tight trio – vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom – whose jaunty hit “Stray Cat Strut,” was my song of the summer.

Along with “Rock This Town,” and “Runaway Boys,” the songs made stars of the band in the UK, and paved the way for a debut in their home country the following year where the songs were re-released.

Fame and fortune followed, and the inevitable break-up, but the boys reunited a couple of times – again in 2019 when they recorded a new album and are touring again. Meow!

Lyrics

Oooh, Oooh, Oooh, Oooh
Black and orange stray cat sittin’ on a fence
Ain’t got enough dough to pay the rent
I’m flat broke but I don’t care
I strut right by with my tail in the air

Stray cat strut, I’m a ladies’ cat
A feline Casanova, hey man, thats where its at
Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man
Get my dinner from a garbage can

Yeah don’t cross my path

I don’t bother chasing mice around
I slink down the alley looking for a fight
Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night
Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry
“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy.”

I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class and I got cat style

I don’t bother chasing mice around
I slink down the alley looking for a fight
Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night
Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry
“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy.”