The album reunited the hit-making team of Idol, Steve Stevens and Keith Forsey after their success with Idol's solo debut, Billy Idol (1982). Idol got the idea to name the album "Rebel Yell" after attending a party with the Rolling Stones. He explained on VH1 Storytellers that people were drinking Rebel Yell bourbon whiskey and he thought that would be a great title for an album.[8] The title track was recorded in only three days at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.[7]
Working with Forsey were guitarist Steve Stevens, bassist Phil Feit and later Steve Webster, drummer Gregg Gerson, and keyboardists Judi Dozier and Jack Waldman. Drummer Thommy Price was brought in towards the end of the recording sessions.[9]
Idol was battling Chrysalis Records over creative control, and decided to steal the master tapes; he eventually returned to the studio victorious. Forsey then informed him that he had taken the wrong tapes.[citation needed]
All of the singles, but particularly "Rebel Yell", "Eyes Without a Face" and "Flesh for Fantasy", would eventually have successful music videos on MTV. Idol's longtime girlfriend Perri Lister can be seen in the front row during the video for "Rebel Yell".
Cover art
When the album was in production, Idol had a disagreement with the record company over the image that would be used on the album cover: he saw it as flawed, but the company refused to change it. In response, Idol stole the master tapes for the album and gave them to his drug dealer so that he could blackmail the company, saying "This guy I've given them to, he'll have them out on the street bootlegged in a couple of days if you don’t change this picture."[10]
Upon its release, Rebel Yell received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success. In the United States, it peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and also peaked into the top ten in other countries, such as Canada, Germany, and New Zealand. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it double platinum for shipment of two million copies across the United States. Four singles were released from the album. The accompanying music videos for all singles received heavy airplay on television channel MTV.
Rating the album 4.5 stars out of 5, The Rolling Stone Album Guide described the album's music as wide-ranging: "a brilliant combination of punk, disco, synth pop, glam rock, metal and mud wrestling."[16] Concluding the review of the album for AllMusic, editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine claimed, "Each stylistic turn is distinguished by Idol's gusto. He's unafraid to be gloriously, shameless tacky, a quality that separated him from his new wave peers then and continues to give Rebel Yell a trashy kick years after its release."[2]
In 1999, EMI Music reissued the album as part of their "Expanded" series. The new version of the album included previously unreleased bonus tracks and expanded liner notes. In 2010, audiophile label Audio Fidelity reissued a 24-karat CD remastered in HDCD by Steve Hoffman.
Gregg Gerson – drums on "(Do Not) Stand in the Shadows", "Rebel Yell" (Session Take), "Motorbikin'" (Session Take) and "Flesh for Fantasy" (Session Take)
^ abIdol 2014, p. 185: "We tracked everything to Keith's patterns ... We used both the Linn and a Roland 808 that had a much softer sound. ... Keith's drum patterns were very distinctive and usually ended up as the hook in the song."
^Idol 2014, p. 188: "At the eleventh hour of finishing the album, we knew we needed a real drummer. As good as the Linn was, it still sounded a bit too unreal at times ... All the parts were there; they just had to be copied and played by someone. That someone ended up being Thommy Price."