Billy Squier quit The Sidewinders to form his own band Piper, but after two albums he struck out on his own. His debut album Tale Of The Tape had no hit songs, but still sold fairly well and features “You Should Be High Love” (co-written with Desmond Child) which was “the number-one top requested song for almost two months in the country on rock radio”. It also has “The Big Beat” which MTV called the most sampled song ever in the history of hip hop. Squier toured with Alice Cooper that year.

Tale Of The Tape was originally going to be produced by Queen’s Brian May, but he was recording their album The Game and the soundtrack to the film Flash Gordon at the time with Reinhold Mack. At May’s suggestion, Mack then produced Squier’s breakthrough sophomore album Don’t Say No, containing the classic singles “In The Dark”, “Lonely Is The Night”, his signature song “The Stroke”, and “My Kinda Lover” – a single backed with the perennial holiday staple “Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You”.

Squier toured as the opening act for Whitesnake, then Pat Benatar, then Foreigner, and Don’t Say No was certified platinum in less than six months, ultimately staying on the albums chart for two years. Squier’s third album Emotions In Motion was also certified platinum on the strength of its top 40 lead single “Everybody Wants You”. In 1983, he headlined a tour with the up-and-coming Def Leppard as his opening act.

Signs Of Life followed in 1984 and its lead single “Rock Me Tonite” was both a blessing and a curse. It remains his highest-charting song and made the album his third platinum-selling release in a row, but its video of Squier flamboyantly dancing around in a bedroom has often been called the worst music video ever made and many feel it killed his career. Squier later called it:

probably the most damning four minutes of video ever shot in history … It knocked me right off the top of the mountain and I never got back!

His next album Enough Is Enough sold considerably less than his previous three and its lead single “Love Is The Hero” got no further than #80. Hear And Now followed in 1989 and its lead single “Don’t Say You Love Me” peaked at #58 – Squier’s final Hot 100 entry. It also sold far less than his early 80s albums.

Creatures Of Habit arrived in 1991 and its lead single “She Goes Down” did well on rock radio, but did not crossover to pop stations. 1993’s Tell The Truth did not chart and neither did 1998’s Happy Blue, an album that marked a shift away from hard rock to blues. In the 2000s, Squier has occasionally toured on his own or with acts like Styx, Bad Company and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

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