“Wanted Man” by Ratt

"Wanted Man" kicks off Out of the Cellar, Ratt's 1984 album for Atlantic, and it was born in squalor on the Sunset Strip: Warren DeMartini and Joey Cristofanilli, then briefly subbing for bassist Juan Croucier, were squatting in an abandoned building in Los Angeles when it came together. The riff was Cristofanilli's, and he shares the writing credit with Robbin Crosby and Stephen Pearcy, whose big idea was that everybody wants to be a cowboy.

Beau Hill produced, and the band rides in like a posse: Crosby and DeMartini on electric guitar, Croucier on bass, Bobby Blotzer on drums, three voices hollering backup behind Pearcy. The video went full wild west, casting the band as a gang of wanted men dubbed the Ratt Gang after a line in the song. It became the album's second-biggest hit and later turned up on the soundtrack to Weird Science, the 1985 film.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.