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Billy Squier
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Billy Squier was born in 1950 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. As a child he took piano lessons, but a second-hand guitar from a classmate brought him to rock. At fourteen he had his first little band. In 1968 he saw Eric Clapton play with Cream in a Boston club, and from then on he took music seriously. In the mid-1970s he was singer and writer of the band Piper, which supported Kiss.
Music and breakthrough
In 1980 his first solo album appeared, The Tale of the Tape. It included The Big Beat, which did not become a hit at the time. His breakthrough came with Don't Say No (1981), produced by Reinhold Mack, who also worked with Queen. Hits such as The Stroke, In the Dark and My Kinda Lover, and the radio favourite Lonely Is the Night, made him a star of arena rock: solid guitar riffs, powerful drums and choruses to sing along to. Emotions in Motion (1982) and Signs of Life (1984) were also successful. After that his popularity fell quickly, according to many because of an unfortunate video.
Influence
His lasting influence came from an unexpected direction. The drum break at the start of The Big Beat became one of the most sampled drum parts ever. Run-DMC, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Dizzee Rascal used it. In this way the work of a white rock singer of the 1980s lives on in hip hop.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1980The Tale of the Tape
- 1981Don’t Say No
- 1982Emotions in Motion
- 1984Signs of Life
- 1986Enough Is Enough
- 1989Hear & Now
- 1991Creatures of Habit
- 1993Tell the Truth
- 1998Happy Blue
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black PlanetNL Reader