Billy Squier

Infobox musical artist


Name = Billy Squier
Img_capt =
Img_size =
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = William Haislip Squier
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1950|5|12
Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States
Died =
Instrument = Vocals, guitar, keyboards
Voice_type =
Genre = Rock, hard rock
Occupation = Musician, Songwriter
Years_active = 1968-1993
Label = Capitol
Associated_acts = The Sidewinders, Piper, Magic Terry and the Universe
URL = http://www.billysquier.com

William Haislip "Billy" Squier (born on May 12, 1950 in Wellesley, Massachusetts) 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".

Biography

William Haislip Squier was born on May 12, 1950 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. When Squier was nine, his grandfather taught Squier how to play the piano. He took lessons from his grandfather for two years. After Squier stopped taking piano lessons in 1961, when he was eleven, he became interested in guitar and bought one from his teenaged neighbor for 95 dollars. Squier took guitar lessons for a couple of months until he decided to teach himself, he mastered the guitar by the time he was 15.

Squier attended Wellesley High School from 1964 to 1968. In the eleventh grade, Squier and two high school friends formed a blues band called the Bluesbreakers. In 1968, Squier graduated from high school and pursued a career as a musician by performing at nightclubs.

Career

Billy Squier's first public performance was at a New York City nightclub 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, 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.

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.Fact|date=May 2008 "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.

Early 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". 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 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 for the movie "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 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 (directed by Kenny Ortega - "Xanadu", "High School Musical") which shows 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. 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 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. On the VH1 show Ultimate Albums (Def Leppard 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 Tonight" video, derided by his fans who saw him as a guitar hero.Fact|date=May 2008

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."

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 beat of The Big Beat. 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. A documentary of the tour including a full length concert performance is now available on DVD. [cite web | url=http://www.ringostarr.com/news.php | publisher=ringostarr.com | title=New Ringo All Starrs CD and DVD OUT NOW!
accessdate=2008-07-23]

Influence and legacy

"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 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.

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 "". It also appeared in the season four of the 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, to start airing July 10,2008.

In 2008, Squier joined Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette touring with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.

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)
*"" (1995)
*"King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Billy Squier" (1996)
*"" (1996)
*"Happy Blue" (1998)
*"Absolute Hits" (2005)

Singles

References

External links

* [http://www.billysquier.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/squier_billy/bio.jhtml VH1 Biography on Squier]