Howling to the Moonlight on a Hot Summer Night: The Tale of the Stray Cats

While New Wave pop music was dominating the charts in the early 1980s, one band made up of a trio of throwback-loving musicians from the suburbs of Massapequa, Long Island--guitarist/singer Brian Setzer, drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and bassist Lee Rocker--returned rockabilly to the international pop charts as the Stray Cats, releasing such infectious Top 10 singles "Rock This Town," "Stray Cat Strut," and "(She's) Sexy + 17." Over forty years and many classic studio and live albums later, the Stray Cats still epitomize the spirit of the founding fathers of rock and roll--a coolness that never goes out of style.

Howling to the Moonlight on a Hot Summer Night: The Story of the Stray Cats tells the full story of the band's history and catalog as musicians. It not only celebrates the Cats as one of the most successful rock revival groups, but follows their exploits as a throwback act in the years when MTV was still new, going on to enjoy long-lived popularity in rockabilly culture across the globe from Massapequa to Memphis and beyond.

A Long Island, New York native, Christopher McKittrick is the author of Can't Give It Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City (2019), Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles (2020), and Gimme All Your Lovin' The Blues Beard, and Boogie of ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons (2024). McKittrick and his work have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Observer, Newsday, USAToday.com, CNBC.com, Time.com, RollingStone.com, and dozens of other entertainment and news websites. He has appeared on television on the Tom Petty episode of HLN's How It Really Happened and Al Araby TV's Hekayat Al Cinema, and on various radio shows and podcasts.