Billy Squier

Billy Squier

William Haislip 'Billy' Squier (born May 12 1950, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA) is a rock musician. Squier had a string of arena rock hits in the 1980s. He is probably best known for the song "The Stroke" on his 1981 album release Don't Say No. Other hits include "In The Dark", "Rock Me Tonite", "Lonely Is the Night", "My Kinda Lover", "Everybody Wants You", "All Night Long" and "Emotions in Motion".

Early life

William Haislip Squier was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts and was raised there. When he was nine years old in 1959, he started taking piano lessons which were being payed for by his grandfather and took lessons for two years. When he was twelve he became interested at playing the guitar and bought a guitar from his friend for 90 dollars. Squier performed with a band in high school and shortly after his graduation in 1968, he got his first gig at the Psychedelic Supermarket where he saw Eric Clapton perform.

Career

Billy Squier originally performed with Magic Terry & The Universe, which also included Klaus Flouride, who went on to play with The Dead Kennedys. He then performed with The Sidewinders, a band that premiered during the early 1970s. He played with members including Mike Reed, Alex Phillips, Henry Stern, and Bryan Chase. Squier left the group to form the band Piper, which released a couple of albums in the mid '70s, Piper and Can't Wait, but broke off soon after. Bruce Kulick of KISS fame played with him during this period also. Upon reviewing the debut Piper, Circus magazine touted it as the greatest debut album ever produced by an American rock band. Piper was managed by the same management company as Kiss, and opened for Kiss for some of their most memorable performances during their 1977 tour, including a three-night, sold-out run at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Squier signed with Capitol Records to release his solo debut in 1980. Tale of the Tape was a minor hit, partly because Squier played a mixture of pop and rock, which earned him a large crossover audience. The song "You Should Be High Love" received a fair amount of play on album rock stations, but no single cracked the pop charts. Years later, the song "The Big Beat" was sampled in rap songs.

Early 80s peak

Squier asked Brian May to produce his album Don't Say No. Unfortunately, May had to decline due to scheduling conflicts, but he recommended instead Reinhold Mack who had produced one of Queen's most successful albums ever, The Game. Squier agreed, and Mack went on to produce Don't Say No. The album became a smash, with the lead single "The Stroke" becoming a hit all around the world, hitting the Top 20 in the US and even topping the singles chart in Australia. "In The Dark" and "My Kinda Lover" were successful follow-up singles. Squier was a monster act on Album Rock radio with every track on the album receiving airplay. Don't Say No reached the Top 5 and lasted well over two years on Billboard's album chart, selling nearly 4 million copies in the US. What truly distinguished the album was the amazing longevity of the tracks, many of which still receive recognition on "classic rock" radio stations.

Billy Squier's third album for Capitol, Emotions In Motion, was released in 1982 and became nearly as successful as Don't Say No. This album also climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and sold nearly 3 million US copies. The lead single was the album's title track but the major hit was "Everybody Wants You" which hit #1 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart and #32 on the Hot 100. Squier was also popular on MTV. That same year, he recorded a song for the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

"Rock Me Tonite" video and fall

Two years passed between Emotions In Motion and Squier's next album Signs Of Life. It was his third consecutive Platinum album. The album's first single release, "Rock Me Tonite" was Billy's biggest pop hit. It reached #15 on Billboard's Hot 100 - as well as #1 on the Album Rock Tracks chart - in late 1984. However, the video for the track, which largely consisted on Billy dancing around a bedroom in a pink tank top, frequently appears on "worst music video ever" lists.

Billy Squier's career took a major downturn afterward. His next two albums, released in 1986 and 1989, sold in the neighborhood of 300,000 copies each. Billy also began playing smaller venues like music theatres. The 1990s would find Squier largely off the radar and recording and performing considerably less.

Squier is also known for his collaborations with Freddie Mercury on Squier's 1986 release Enough Is Enough ("Love Is The Hero", "Lady With A Tenor Sax"). Mercury also sang background vocals on Squier's hit single "Emotions in Motion".

In 1983, Squier did his first headlining arena U.S. tour with Def Leppard as opening act and Def Leppard upstaged him. Squier confirmed this on the VH1 show Ultimate Albums on the episode which spotlighted the making of Def Leppard's Pyromania album.

On that same show, Squier revealed that his career as a chart-topping rocker came to a stunningly rapid and sudden end with the release of the music video for "Rock Me Tonite", derided by his fans who saw him as a guitar hero. The video showed Squier in a bedroom with soft, pastel fabrics and shimmering satin sheets, and featured Squier ripping off his clothing, reminiscent of Jennifer Beals' performance in the film Flashdance.

Later years

Nevertheless, Squier continued to record music throughout the '80s and '90s. He released Hear And Now in 1989, which featured the singles "Don't Say You Love Me" (which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart) and "Tied Up".

In 1991, Billy Squier released Creatures Of Habit, which yielded only one single, "She Goes Down," which also peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The title of the track refers to oral sex, and the music video is a very rare item, mainly because it features nude females and sexual metaphors throughout.

Squier released his final album with Capitol Records in 1993, Tell the Truth, which featured different sets of musicians performing the various tracks. Squier called it his finest album since Don't Say No, yet Capitol did little to promote the album, and Squier walked away from the music business to pursue other endeavors.

In 1998, Squier released his last studio album to date on an independent label, a solo acoustic blues effort entitled Happy Blue. He embarked on a mini-tour to showcase songs from the album, which included a stripped-down acoustic version of his classic rock mega-hit, "The Stroke."

Recent activity and influence

Squier played a special acoustic show at BB King's in NYC on November 30, 2005. Highlights of the show were acoustic versions of "Everybody Wants You", "Nobody Knows", "Learn How to Live", "The Stroke", "Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You", and most of the 1998 Happy Blue CD. VH1 Classic and New York hard rock radio icon Eddie Trunk introduced Squier that night as "one of the great singer/songwriters in the history of rock."

Squier now lives in New York's Upper West Side. Sampling of "The Big Beat" continues. The late Jam Master Jay's reference to the song as a classic beat in the early days of hip hop has paid great dividends for Squier. Jay Z's "99 Problems," a massive hit in 2004, is based on that beat, as well as British grime/hip-hop MC Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp".

Squier's hobbies include such disparate activities as mountain climbing and gardening. He also has written an award-winning screenplay (Sundance Film Festival).

In 2006, Squier joined Rod Argent, Richard Marx, Edgar Winter, and Sheila E touring with Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band.

"The Stroke" can be heard in the films Blades of Glory and Billy Madison.

RZA referenced Billy on Masta Killa's "Iron God Chamber." On the 2006 song, RZA said: "I got a 'big'ger 'beat' than Billy Squier" at about 1:22. The song appeared on Masta Killa's Made In Brooklyn.

Hard rock band Buckcherry cover "The Stroke" frequently in live concerts, while Damone have recorded a version of "Everybody Wants You" for the CW Network.

Squier's "The Big Beat" was sampled by Kanye West on the track "Addiction" in his 2005 album, Late Registration.

The drum track from "The Stroke" can be heard throughout the song "Opticon" by Orgy.

"Lonely Is the Night" is one of the tracks on the Activision game Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

Discography

• Tale of the Tape (1980) #169 US
• Don't Say No (1981) #5 US
• Emotions in Motion (1982) #5 US
• Signs of Life (1984) #11 US
• Enough Is Enough (1986) #61 US
• Hear & Now (1989) #64 US
• Creatures of Habit (1991) #117 US
• Tell the Truth (1993)
• A Rock and Roll Christmas (Various Artists Compilation) (1994)
• 16 Strokes: The Best Of Billy Squier (1995)
• King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Billy Squier (1996)
• Reach For The Sky: The Anthology (1996)
• Happy Blue (1998)
• Absolute Hits (2005)

Singles

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US MSR	UK singles	Album
1981	"The Stroke"	17	3	52	Don't Say No
1981	"In The Dark"	35	7	-	Don't Say No
1981	"Lonely Is The Night"	-	28	-	Don't Say No
1982	"My Kinda Lover"	45	31	-	Don't Say No
1982	"Everybody Wants You"	32	1	-	Emotions In Motion
1982	"Emotions In Motion"	68	20	-	Emotions In Motion
1982	"Learn How To Live"	-	15	-	Emotions In Motion
1982	"Keep Me Satisfied"	-	46	-	Emotions In Motion
1983	"She's A Runner"	75	44	-	Emotions In Motion
1984	"Rock Me Tonite"	15	1	-	Signs Of Life
1984	"All Night Long"	75	10	-	Signs Of Life
1984	"Eye On You"	71	29	-	Signs Of Life
1986	"Love Is The Hero"	80	17	-	Enough Is Enough
1986	"Shot O' Love"	-	30	-	Enough Is Enough
1989	"Don't Say You Love Me"	58	4	-	Hear And Now
1989	"Tied Up"	-	20	-	Hear And Now
1989	"Don't Let Me Go"	-	38	-	Hear And Now
1991	"She Goes Down"	-	4	-	Creatures Of Habit
1991	"Facts Of Life"	-	37	-	Creatures Of Habit
1993	"Angry"	-	15	-	Tell The Truth

External links

• Official website
• VH1 Biography on Squier