William Haislip "Billy" Squier
(born May 12, 1950 in Wellesley, Massachusetts) is an American 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".
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BILLY SQUIER TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
While growing up, Squier began playing piano and guitar at an early age, but didn't become serious with music until discovering
Eric Clapton. When Squier was nine, his grandfather taught him how to play the piano. He took lessons from his grandfather for two years. After he stopped taking piano lessons, he became interested in guitar and bought one from a neighbor for $95. Squier took guitar lessons for a couple of months until he decided to teach himself and had mastered it by the time he was 15.
Early career
Billy Squier's first public performance was at a
Boston nightclub in Kenmore Square called the Psychedelic Supermarket in 1968 which is where he saw Eric Clapton and his band
Cream perform. Squier originally performed with the band Magic Terry & The Universe, which also included
Klaus Flouride, who went on to play with
The Dead Kennedys. He then performed with The Sidewinders 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 the second and third nights of 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.
Squier asked
Brian May of
Queen to produce his album
Don't Say No
. May declined 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 topping the singles chart in Australia. "In The Dark" and "My Kinda Lover" were successful follow-up singles. Squier was a popular 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
distinguishes the album is the longevity of the tracks, many of which still receive recognition on "classic rock" radio stations.
1980s Peak
Billy Squier's third album for Capitol,
Emotions in Motion
, was released in 1982 and became nearly as successful as
Don't Say No
. The album also climbed into ''Billboard
s Top 5 and sold just under 3 million copies in the US alone. The lead single was the album's title track, but the major hit was "Everybody Wants You" which hit #1 on the
Billboard
Album Rock Tracks chart and #32 on the Hot 100. Squier was also popular on MTV. That same year, he recorded a song, "Fast Times (The Best Years of Our Lives)" for the film
Fast Times at Ridgemont High''.
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 Squier'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 (directed by
Kenny Ortega -
Xanadu
,
High School Musical
) which shows Squier 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. He 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 Queen frontman
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", along with Queen drummer Roger Taylor. In 1983, Squier did his first headlining arena U.S. tour with
Def Leppard as opening act. On the VH1 show Ultimate Albums (Def Leppard "Hysteria" episode), Squier revealed that his career as a chart-topping rocker came to a rapid and sudden end with the release of the "Rock Me Tonite" video, derided by his fans who saw him as a guitar hero.
Later years
Nevertheless, Squier continued to record music throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He released
Hear & 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."
As time passed, many of his albums became out of print, leaving the albums of "Don't Say No" and some greatest hits compilations; however, many of his albums are now being reprinted.
Recent activity
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. The three piece hip hop group performed a track live at
The Funhouse entitled "Here We Go", using the song's backbeat.
Jay Z's "
99 Problems," a massive hit in 2003, is based on that beat, as well as British grime/hip-hop MC
Dizzee Rascal's "
Fix Up, Look Sharp" and
Kanye West's "Addiction".
Squier's hobbies include such various activities as mountain climbing and gardening. He also has written an award-winning screenplay.
In 2006, Squier joined
Richard Marx,
Edgar Winter,
Rod Argent, and
Sheila E touring with
Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band. A documentary of the tour including a full length concert performance is now available on DVD.
[1]
In 2008, Squier joined
Colin Hay,
Edgar Winter,
Gary Wright,
Hamish Stuart and
Gregg Bissonette touring with
Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.
In 2009, Squier launched a nation-wide summer tour with a band that included drummer
Nir Z, guitarist
Marc Copely, long-time bassist
Mark Clarke and keyboard player
Alan St. Jon.
Influence and legacy
"The Stroke" can be heard in the films
Blades of Glory
,
Billy Madison
,
Crank 2
and is heard briefly in
Let's Go to Prison
.
RZA referenced Billy on
Masta Killa's "Iron God Chamber." On the 2006 song,
RZA said:
"I got a bigger 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.
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
. This song also appeared in the season four episode of
Supernatural, entitled "Are you there God? It's me, Dean Winchester."
"Everybody Wants You" is featured on USA Network's advertising of the upcoming second season of their television series Burn Notice.
In 2008, the song “Christmas is the Time To Say I Love You” was featured in the game "Rock Band".
Billy Squier is also performing at the Chesaning Showboat on July 14 2009.
Personal life
In 2002, he married Nicole, a professional German soccer player. They divide their time between a home on
Long Island and an apartment in the famous
San Remo on Central Park West in Manhattan. Billy Squier is an active volunteer for the
Central Park Conservancy, doing the hands-on "dirty work" by maintaining 20 acres of the park, as well as promoting the Conservancy in articles and interviews.
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
|
"In the Dark"
| 35
| 7
| -
|
"Lonely Is the Night"
| -
| 28
| -
|
"Too Daze Gone"
| -
| -
| -
|
1982
| "My Kinda Lover"
| 45
| 31
| -
|
"Everybody Wants You"
| 32
| 1
| -
| Emotions in Motion
|
"Emotions in Motion"
| 68
| 20
| -
|
"Learn How to Live"
| -
| 15
| -
|
"Keep Me Satisfied"
| -
| 46
| -
|
1983
| "She's a Runner"
| 75
| 44
| -
|
1984
| "Rock Me Tonite"
| 15
| 1
| -
| Signs of Life
|
"All Night Long"
| 75
| 10
| -
|
"Eye on You"
| 71
| 29
| -
|
1986
| "Love Is The Hero"
| 80
| 17
| -
| Enough Is Enough
|
"Shot O' Love"
| -
| 30
| -
|
1989
| "Don't Say You Love Me"
| 58
| 4
| -
| Hear and Now
|
"Tied Up"
| -
| 20
| -
|
"Don't Let Me Go"
| -
| 38
| -
|
1991
| "She Goes Down"
| -
| 4
| -
| Creatures of Habit
|
"Facts of Life"
| -
| 37
| -
|
1993
| "Angry"
| -
| 15
| -
| Tell the Truth
|
References
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