With their first two albums, 1981's Too Fast For Love and 1983's Shout At The Devil, the Los Angeles glam-metal band Motely Crue had become one of the most popular acts in metal circles. Although Shout At The Devil had sold millions of copies and even spawned several videos that received heavy airplay on MTV, radio play was still practically non-existant.

However, by the time Motley Crue's third album, Theatre Of Pain, arrived in the summer of 1985, things had changed. Hard rock acts like Quiet Riot and Ratt had broken through on radio and managed to have mainstream hits that made the US Top 40. Perhaps with an eye on duplicating such success, Motley Crue included a cover of Brownsville Station's hit "Smokin' In The Boys' Room" (which had reached #3 in 1974) on the album and tapped it as the first single.

It worked. In August, the song became Motley Crue's first Top 40 single and could be heard blaring from car radios all during the summer. It deftly managed to retain their established audience while winning them a whole new legion of converts. Although the song wasn't as successful as Brownsville Station's original, "Smokin' In The Boys' Room" managed to remain in the Top 40 for nearly three months, reaching a peak of #16 in October. On the album rock chart, the song, however, managed to climb all the way to #7.

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