A colorful pop-metal outfit with a sizable cult following, Chicago's
Enuff Z'nuff emerged in the late 1980s during the waning days of the glam metal scene, but their sugary melodies and keen power pop smarts hewed more closely to artists like
Cheap Trick,
Elvis Costello, and
Badfinger -- despite their obvious pop leanings, Atco pushed hard to market the group as a glam-metal act, much to their detriment. Released in 1989, the band's eponymous debut yielded their highest-charting singles, "Fly High Michelle" and "New Thing," both of which cracked the mainstream Top 40 charts. Despite enduring plenty of personal hardships, hiatuses, and lineup changes, the band spent the ensuing decades touring and recording, releasing dozens of studio albums and staying true to their flashy, power pop sensibilities via strong offerings like
Strength, Animals with Human Intelligence,
Paraphernalia,
Welcome to Blue Island, and
Brainwashed Generation.
Musical soul brothers
Donnie Vie (guitar and vocals) and
Chip Znuff met in Chicago in 1984 and quickly set about writing songs together. Their relationship proved extremely fruitful and in less than a year the duo had recruited guitar player Gino Martino and drummer B.W. Boski, named themselves "Enough Z'nuff" -- they would shorten it to
Enuff Z'nuff in 1989 -- and begun shopping around a full-length demo called Hollywood Squares to the major labels. Obtaining a contract proved more difficult than expected, however, and it was only four years later, after the arrival of virtuoso guitarist
Derek Frigo and drummer
Vikki Foxx, that the band finally signed a deal with Atlantic subsidiary Atco.
Released in August 1989,
Enuff Z'nuff's self-titled debut scored a couple of quick hit singles with "New Thing" and "Fly High Michelle," but the frustrated bandmembers found themselves receiving more attention for their over the top, brightly colored, peace sign-infested wardrobe than their superlative hard rock songs. By the time they unleashed 1991's
Strength album, they had noticeably toned down their image and turned up their creative ambitions to deliver a masterful '90s take on the crunchy power pop sound of
Cheap Trick and
Badfinger. America's new alternative rock regime was not impressed, however, and their dismissal from Atco due to disappointing sales coincided with a growing rift with guitarist
Frigo. And though they were quickly snapped up by Arista Records, drummer
Foxx would abruptly leave for the greener pastures of former
Mötley Crüe vocalist
Vince Neil's solo band as soon as the sessions for their third album, Animals with Human Intelligence, were completed. When this third effort also failed to connect with consumers, Arista shut its doors and
Frigo quit for good.
Vie and
Znuff hit rock bottom in 1994. With no record deal in sight and wallowing in deepening drug addiction, they decided to re-release their original 1985 demos as the next
Enuff Z'nuff album, simply calling it 1985. Containing liner notes penned by the "King of All Media" himself,
Howard Stern (by all accounts a rabid fan), the album proved a godsend, doing enough business domestically and in Japan to get them back on their feet. It also allowed them to record two new albums in 1995: an official release for Mayhem Records called Tweaked (featuring original guitarist Martino and drummer Ricky Parent) and the Japan-only Chip & Donnie: Brothers -- later released stateside as
Seven in 1997. In between,
Enuff Z'nuff recorded 1996's
Peach Fuzz as a trio following Martino's departure, then released the retrospective Live in 1998. Guitarist
John Monaco joined the group in time for 1998's
Paraphernalia (which was released by Spitfire Records, along with most of the band's late-'90s output) and stayed on through 2000's 10.
Unfortunately, this unusual spell of relative stability would not last for
Enuff Z'nuff. Following the release of their 11th studio album,
Welcome to Blue Island, by the Dream Catcher label in 2002,
Donnie Vie quit to pursue a solo career in Los Angeles, leaving
Chip Znuff and a rotating cast of players to carry on and tour sporadically as a trio. Then, just as reunion discussions with former members
Derek Frigo and
Vikki Foxx were getting underway,
Enuff Z'nuff's already shaky constituents were dealt another devastating blow on May 29, 2004, when
Frigo was found dead from an accidental drug overdose outside his girlfriend's apartment in L.A. The band had just finished recording ?, which was eventually released in November 2004 on the Pony Canyon label. A live album, Tonight, Sold Out, dropped in 2007, followed in 2009 by a new studio LP, Dissonance, which heralded the return of
Donnie Vie -- the reunion lasted until 2013, with
Vie once again heading out to do his own thing. In 2016 the band and Frontier Records issued
Clown's Lounge, a largely archival collection of material taken from recording sessions from 1988-1989. In 2018 the band returned with a new studio LP,
Diamond Boy, which featured
Znuff handling lead vocals (for the first time), guitarist Tory Stoffregen, ex-
Ultravox guitarist Tony Fennell, and Chicago native Daniel Benjamin Hill on drums. Two years later the band returned with
Brainwashed Generation, which featured guest spots from
Mike Portnoy,
Cheap Trick's
Daxx Nielsen, and a returning
Donnie Vie. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia