Rock City (Riot album)

Rock City is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Riot; it was released in 1977.

Rock City
Studio album by Riot
Released	September 1977
Recorded	November 1976 – June 1977
Studio	Big Apple Recording Studio, New York City
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	33:15
Label	Fire Sign Records
Producer	Steve Loeb, Billy Arnell, Richard Alexander
Riot chronology
Rock City (1977) Narita (1979)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Record Mirror	[2]

It was first released independently by Fire Sign Records, run by the band's producers, Billy Arnell and Steve Loeb, who also owned the Greene Street Recording Studio, before the album was picked up for wider distribution by Canada's Attic Records and by Victor Entertainment in Japan. Vinyl copies of Rock City can be differentiated by the color that frames the front cover artwork. The original Fire Sign pressing is framed in white; later editions are framed in black or lack this feature altogether.

American label Metal Blade Records re-issued the album on CD in early 1993 and again in 2015.

Rock City is the only Riot album to feature writing and recording contributions by original bassist Phil Feit who went on to join acts such as Billy Idol, playing on his hits Hot in the City and White Wedding, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Adam Bomb, where he briefly crossed paths with another Riot member, drummer Sandy Slavin.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Desperation"	Phil Feit, Mark Reale, Guy Speranza	2:43
2.	"Warrior"	Steve Costello, Reale, Speranza	3:50
3.	"Rock City"	Feit, Reale, Speranza	3:29
4.	"Overdrive"	Reale, Speranza, Lou A. Kouvaris	4:12

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
5.	"Angel"	Feit, Reale, Speranza	3:37
6.	"Tokyo Rose"	Reale, Speranza, Kouvaris	4:20
7.	"Heart of Fire"	Reale, Speranza, Kouvaris	3:00
8.	"Gypsy Queen"	Reale, Speranza, Kouvaris	3:56
9.	"This Is What I Get"	Reale, Speranza	4:09

Personnel

• Guy Speranza – vocals
• Mark Reale – guitars
• Lou A. Kouvaris – guitars
• Jimmy Iommi – bass (2, 4, 6–9)
• Peter Bitelli – drums
• Phil Feit – bass (1, 3, 5)

Derivative work

• Austrian artist Matthias Laurenz Gräff used the album cover of Rock City in his political painting.

• 
  Riot, Rock City as "Riot, Rock City (allegory to H. C. Strache and the music album of the same name"), 2016^[3]