#1427: Britny Fox

80s Snapshot:

• Number of songs on Hot 100: 1
• Highest peak position: 100
• Cumulative weeks on the Hot 100: 2

While the name might suggest a solo female act, Britny Fox is in reality a Philadelphia hair metal band. They were founded in 1985 when guitarist Michael Kelly Smith and drummer Tony Destra left fellow Philadelphian hair-metal outfit Cinderella (a band we’ll meet much further down the line). They were paired with singer “Dizzy” Dean Davidson and bassist Billy Childs to complete the quartet’s first lineup.

Destra died in a 1987 car accident shortly before the band was signed to Columbia Records, and Johnny Dee was ultimately brought in to be the group’s drummer for their self-titled debut album.

Britny Fox was released in June 1988 and sold well for a new act in a crowded genre, earning gold certification by the end of the year and reaching the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart (#39). A 2019 Rolling Stone list saw the album ranked 38th on their “50 Greatest Hair Metal Bands Of All Time.”

Shortly after the album’s release, “Long Way To Love” began making the rounds on AOR radio, peaking at #33 on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks chart. A physical single release followed, and “Long Way To Love” debuted at #100 on the October 1st, 1988 Hot 100. After spending a second week at #100, the track departed.

Britny Fox’s second album Boys In Heat was released at the very end of 1989 and featured another single which reached the Album Rock Tracks chart (“Dream On”, #34) but failed to hit the Hot 100.

Singer “Dizzy” Dean Davidson left the group after their second album to form the band Blackeyed Susan, who similarly scraped the bottom of the Album Rock Tracks chart in 1991 with “None Of It Matters” (#44).

With new singer Tommy Paris, Britny Fox released their 3rd album Bite Down Hard in 1991 to no commercial success as hair metal continued to decline in popularity, and the group disbanded shortly thereafter. The band would ultimately reform with the same 1991 lineup a decade later to record 2003’s Springhead Motorshark.

Britny Fox got its start as an offshoot of Cinderella and opened for acts like Poison and Ratt in its early years. That mirrors how they’re ultimately remembered, as a supporting part in rock’s prominent but short-lived hair metal chapter.

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