Tough Love-Romantic Fever

Bio by She Rox All Female Bands, Chicago, Illinois based Tough Love was a reformed version of local hard rock legends, the all-female rock band Bitch. Whose then guitarist Lorrie Kountz wanted to change the band’s name to Tough Love, to any avoid censorship and achieve accessibility on any commercial formats. Tough Love would release their first single in 1984, two years after Bitch’s debut album, America’s Sweethearts. Tough Love as a band in their infancy was similar to Bitch however a change in line up was the only difference, with only three members remaining. Fronted by the hypnotic vocals of Nancy Davis, the one constant member in a long line of member changes, hailed for her perfect pitched Pat Benatar-esque vocals that collaborated well with guitarists Berni Popiolek, who left the band before their debut single, and Gerre Edinger a true guitar virtuoso that could have easily originated the now famous phrase “guitar shredder”. The rhythm section consisted of drummer Leslee Kaye, the last remaining original Bitch member, and bassist Deanna Rose. This line-up would release the band’s 1984 single Dizzy/Romantic Fever, which featured Tom Orsi on keyboards shortly before being replaced by Laura Jerri Bolton. The debut single was a strong effort and engineered by the famed Phil Bonnano, however its keyboard driven overlays overshadowed the guitar genius of Gerre Edinger, but a shift in musical style would take place soon after leaving the band’s overall sound much more guitar driven. Tough Love would bring in hard hitting drummer Courtney Wolfe to replace Leslee Kaye and had already began establishing themselves in the music industry, playing hundreds of shows, along with marketing the band at any chance they could is partly why such a strong buzz was growing over the band, the second was due to their sheer determination to break into the mainstream. Tough Love did gain the attention of former Runaways manager Kim Fowley who was rumored to have a worked with the band for a short time but true or not, mainstream success eluded the band, but continued on releasing a three track demo in 1987. The stand out track, A Gerre Edinger/Nancy Davis written hard rocker, Mama’s Boy, received some local radio rotation and became a fan favorite with many describing the band as a heavier version of Heart. By 1987 the band consisted of, Nancy Davis on lead vocals, Laura Jerri Bolton on keyboards, Courtney Wolfe on drums, and new bassist Jeanne Von Graf. Katrina Britt, formerly of the all-female hard rock band The Hunted, was brought in on guitar to replace Gerre Edinger who had already left to form the all-female band She Rok, who also did a version Mama’s Boy. Soon after lead vocalist and founder Nancy Davis would leave the band to focus on a solo career and the band’s original bassist Deanna Rose was brought in to replace Nancy on lead vocals. This version of Tough Love would continue on before calling it a day in 1990. The remaining members of Courtney Wolf, Jeanne Von Graf, Deanna Rose, and original guitar player Berni Popiolek, who replaced the departed Katrina Britt, would reform the band, now known as Romantic Fever, paying homage to the Tough Love single of the same name, the members said it was their way of keeping a connection between the two bands. Romantic Fever would release several demos before officially disbanding in 1993. By 2018 Tough Love would reunite for a reunion benefit concert for Lurie Children’s Hospital, with Nancy Davis on vocals, ex Bitch bassist Patti Prendergast on bass, Berni Popiolek on guitar, Marianne Sullivan on guitar filling in for the late Gerre Edinger who sadly passed away from an aneurysm in 2008. Gerre’s twin sister Terre Beach would play drums for the band for the benefit, which gave fans a last chance to see these amazing talented women that have a long intertwining history in music and with each other that should have reached a level of fame that matched their aptitudes for music.
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[@steveolsen4874]

I love this. I remember Tom Orsi and still look at his house when I’m in the area on occasion

[@topdroog]

This is nice. Tough Love played my high school once or twice in the 83-85 range.

[@ms.felonystrutter2472]

Gerre could play and soooo goregeous

[@VanielDeeform]

This is fantastic! Thanks for uploading. It deserves to be heard more!

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

Thank you! That means so much cause this video was alot of work, research, finding pics etc, we try to showcase bands that may be more obscure but definitely deserve a second listen!

[@baileyshaffer9433]

that’s my mom, the lead singer. haha. she became very successful on her own after this. signed to warner chapel. tough love also had a Reunion/benefit recently for st. judes. my mom still sings! where did you find these videos and pics?

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

That's awesome, you Mom is an AMAZING singer!! Most of the pics were from Jim, and a maybe one or two off the net :)

[@mcschneeman1]

wow, i'm a journalist working on a story about Kenneth E Gage, quite the left turn, but his son Joe was just telling me about Bitch and Tough Love. very cool music

[@stratmancruthers]

I saw them at a bar in Lyons back in the 80s, great band. I had a crush on the blond guitarist, was that Lorrie Kountz? Didn’t they change their name from Bitch to Tough Love?

[@TornadoChickWeatherNetwork]

Your mom is Dea? Dea Cangelosi sang on this recording. Unless you meant that's your mom in the pictures singing...that would make your mom Nancy Davis, the best female vocalist chicago ever heard. :) I didn't know Dea really well but she might remember me...she was more a friend of my bass player Mary and my friend Jean Graf who eventually played in Romantic Fever with Dea. Only met Nancy once....very cool chick and what a damn voice she had.

[@TornadoChickWeatherNetwork]

@@sheroxallfemalebands3196 haha Jim Lenz?

[@monstergirl7695]

I'm the admin for a Facebook group that's dedicated to female bands, and I am delighted to have found this track. This band sounded awesome. Thanks for uploading it, I have shared it to my group for others to enjoy.

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

awesome! Thanks for the nice comments! :)

[@TomTobin67]

I wanna hear you play. Let me know when you have guitar videos up.

[@80srocknheavyjohannhawk52]

Awesome band!

[@TomTobin67]

I would love it if you posted "Mama's Boy" by Bitch. I think my old friend Jeanie Canella was a member of Bitch til she left to form the Sex Kittens.

[@rockyseverino9230]

FYI Gerre Edinger was my mom and the Kim Fowley rumor was true. He lived in our house and was working with the band, i'd guess around 1985 or so. I'd have to ask Tom Orsi, my step dad, he'd know more, but Kim was there working with them, i think he wanted my mom to leave the band and form a new band that he would manage.

[@baileyshaffer9433]

my moms nancy! the singer! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[@rockyseverino9230]

@@baileyshaffer9433 Hi Bailey! Give Nancy a big hug from Rocky! Be well :)

[@Aaron361970]

This is a good group. Where did you find this album? Is this album available on CD?

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

other then this single, which you may find on discogs....vinyl only, they only had one or two other demos, very, VERY hard to find..

[@jolietdave3750]

I have this 45 with a signed photo sleeve somewhere.

[@disappearingmedia]

Can you tell me what is their relationship to The Girls and Illicit?

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

I do know that guitarist Lorrie Kountz from Bitch/Tough Love would resurface in Illicit and I am sure there is more involved with members, the rock scene in Chicago late 70's to early 1980's was a tight knit community and as far as female musicians they were much more rare, which is why it seems many have come and gone in several of the female bands, best advice I can give to find out more is to check out facebook.com/IllinoisRockandRollMuseum it's an amazing page with rare bands and ran by Jim Tsicouris, he really is the gate keeper to a lot of those bands, the videos we have of Romantic Fever, Bitch. Tough Love, She Rok would not be if not for him. Hope that helps :)

[@TomTobin67]

They had a song called "Mama's Boy" which was a way better song than this one.

[@sheroxallfemalebands3196]

Mama's Boy was hands down their best song, we searched the web for days trying to find it, well a decent version of it, there is one on KZbin but the quality is horrible, there was no way we could have fixed the quality of it, and we tried, we even reached out to Nancy the singer to see if she may know where we could find it, but it is just not in the cards for now, we will keep looking though maybe we will find it one day, if we do , it will for sure be part of our channel. :)

[@TomTobin67]

@@sheroxallfemalebands3196 - I'm working on it.