Billy Squier

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
The Tale of the Tape
  US 169 06/07/1980 (12 weeks)
Don't say no
  US 5 05/02/1981 (111 weeks)
Emotions in Motion
  DE 63 09/20/1982 (1 week)
  US 5 08/07/1982 (50 weeks)
Signs of Life
  DE 59 08/27/1984 (1 week)
  US 11 08/04/1984 (29 weeks)
Enough is enough
  US 61 10/18/1986 (16 weeks)
Hear and Now
  US 64 07/15/1989 (17 weeks)
Creatures of Habit
  US 117 04/27/1991 (6 weeks)
Singles
The Stroke
  AT 3 09/01/1981 (8 weeks)
  UK 52 10/03/1981 (3 weeks)
  US 17th 05/16/1981 (20 weeks)
In the dark
  US 35 09/12/1981 (12 weeks)
My kinda lover
  US 45 11/28/1981 (10 weeks)
Emotions in Motion
  US 68 08/07/1982 (6 weeks)
Everybody Wants You
  US 32 08/07/1982 (17 weeks)
She's a runner
  US 75 02/05/1983 (6 weeks)
Rock Me Tonite
  US 15th 07/07/1984 (16 weeks)
All night long
  US 75 10/27/1984 (3 weeks)
Eye on you
  US 71 December 8, 1984 (8 weeks)
Love is the hero
  US 80 04/10/1986 (5 weeks)
Don't say you love me
  US 58 06/24/1989 (15 weeks)

Billy Squier (* 12. May 1950 in Wellesley , Massachusetts as William Haislip Squier ) is an American rock musician . Three of the albums he released made it into the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album charts in the 1980s , and he also released several hit singles. Musically it can be assigned to stadium rock.

Career

Squier began playing guitar and piano as a child . Under the influence of the music of the late 1960s, including Eric Clapton , he decided to start a career as a musician. He first played in various bands from the Boston area . His first permanent engagement was at Magic Terry & the Universe , where Klaus Flouride was also playing at the time . He attended Berklee College of Music and shuttled steadily between Boston and New York . This was followed by other short memberships in various bands, most recently with the Sidewinders . With them Squier recorded some albums of Lenny Kaye produced were. After the band split up, he founded Piper and became their singer and guitarist. The band released one album each in 1976 and 1977 via A&M Records , but broke up due to unsuccessfulness in the late 1970s.

Squier decided to embark on a solo career and was signed to Capitol Records . In 1980 his solo debut The Tale of the Tape appeared . Well-known musicians such as guitarist Bruce Kulick (later Kiss ) and drummer Bobby Chouinard (later Gary Moore ) took part in the recordings . The album was only moderately successful, but contained a radio hit with You Should Be High Love . Squier's commercial breakthrough came with the 1981 album Don't Say No , which was produced by Reinhold Mack and climbed to number 6 on the Billboard 200 . The single releases The Stroke and In the Dark were among the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 . Like its predecessor, the 1982 album Emotions in Motion made it into the top 10 of the American album charts, the album cover was by Andy Warhol . In terms of style, Squier turned more to R 'n' B with the album . The following album, Signs of Life , produced by Jim Steinman , was also commercially successful. To the song in 1984 steered Brian May of Queen , a guitar solo at.

The album Enough Is Enough , released in 1986, did not meet the record company's expectations in commercial terms. Likewise, the next album Hear and Now was a flop despite the compositional help from Desmond Child . After the successes of the early 1980s could not be repeated with the next albums, Capitol Records released a best-of album in 1995 under the title 16 Strokes and did not renew the recording contract with Squier.

The last studio album so far was released in 1998 under the title Happy Blue on the independent label J-Bird Records . Several compilations and live albums were released in the 2000s . Squier had live musicians on the 2005 and the 2008 tours of Ringo Starr , in 2009 he undertook a solo tour of the United States. In 2012 and 2013 he made some joint appearances with Joe Montgomery and appeared in New Orleans on the Voodoo Experience . He was also represented with Somebody Loves You on the 2013 charity sampler Songs After Sandy Vol. II for the benefit of the victims of Hurricane Sandy . Incidentally, Squier has largely withdrawn into private life.

Discography

with Piper

  • Piper (1976, A&M Records)
  • Can't Wait (1977, A&M Records)

Solo albums

  • The Tale of the Tape (1980, Capitol Records)
  • Don't Say No (1981, Capitol Records)
  • Emotions in Motion (1982, Capitol Records)
  • Signs of Life (1984, Capitol Records)
  • Enough Is Enough (1986, Capitol Records)
  • Hear and Now (1989, Capitol Records)
  • Creatures of Habit (1991, Capitol Records)
  • Tell the Truth (1993, Capitol Records)
  • Happy Blue (1998, J-Bird Records)
  • Don't Say No - 30th Anniversary Edition (2010, Shout Factory)

Compilations

  • 16 Strokes ( Best of , 1995, Capitol Records)
  • King Biscuit Flower Hour (1996, King Biscuit)
  • Reach for the Sky - The Anthology (1996, Polydor)
  • Live ( Live album , 2000, Capitol Records)
  • From the Front Row… Live! (Live album, 2003, Silverline)
  • Rip This Joint (Live album, 2004, Disky)
  • The Essential Billy Squier (2011, Capitol Records)

literature

  • Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Encyclopedia. 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years . Rock Hard, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 978-3-9805171-0-2 , pp. 390 .

swell

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT UK US1 US2
  2. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7
  3. ↑ Songs After Sandy. Archived from the original on January 9, 2015 ; accessed on January 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Emily Hingle: Interview with Billy Squier. In: Where Y'at Magazine. October 14, 2013, accessed August 1, 2014 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Squier, Billy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Wellesley , Massachusetts , USA