Suicide

Suicide were the first signing to Marty Thau's Red Star Records, and the album was recorded in four days at Ultima Sound in Blauvelt, New York, with Craig Leon and Thau producing, Larry Alexander engineering, Mitchell Ames assisting and Timothy Jackson supplying the artwork. It was mastered at Frankford/Wayne in New York and licensed to the UK through Howard Thompson of Bronze Records. Every track is credited to Alan Vega and Martin Rev: Vega sings, Rev plays keyboards and programs the drums. The two singles were "Johnny" in 1977 and "Cheree" in May 1978. The sleeve gives the running time as 32:07, though the printed track times add up to 31:51.

It did not chart in the United States or Britain. NME, Time Out and Melody Maker were positive, Jon Savage in Sounds was mixed, Robert Christgau gave it a C+ and Rolling Stone's original review called it "absolutely puerile". The reputation came later: Pitchfork scored it 9.1 and placed it 39th among the albums of the 1970s in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it 441st in 2012 and 498th in 2020, and it is in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It is routinely cited as an influence on post-punk, synth-pop and industrial music, and Bruce Springsteen has said that "State Trooper" on Nebraska was heavily influenced by "Frankie Teardrop". Red Star reissued it in 1980, Mute in 1998, and Blast First later, with "Cheree (Remix)", "I Remember" and "Keep Your Dreams" as bonus tracks.