Billy Squier

Billy Squier is an American rock singer who enjoyed significant success at the start of The Eighties before derailing his career with a music video that qualifies one of the most notorious bad decisions of all time.

Inspired by Eric Clapton, Squier became the lead singer and guitarist of a rock group called Pepper in The Seventies, whose self-titled record was once praised as the greatest debut album by an American rock and roll band. He went solo on the basis of this success, putting out well-received records that blended pop sensibilities with Hard Rock and scoring hit singles with songs like "The Stroke" and "Emotions In Motion". For a while, he was one of the most popular solo rockers in America.

Ironically enough, Squier's biggest hit ended up harming his career quite badly. "Rock Me Tonite" was accompanied by a music video directed by Kenny Ortega, which infamously featured Squier dancing about in a pink tank-top. As one might expect, it undermined the tough guy image he'd worked hard to cultivate, and alienated a lot of his fans. His career stalled, and although he remained moderately successful throughout the eighties, he never quite recovered the fame he'd experienced at the start of the decade.

Since then, he's exited and returned to the music industry and played with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.

Tropes:

• A Date with Rosie Palms: This is what everyone assumes "The Stroke" is about, but it's actually about the challenges one faces in the music business.
• Music Is Politics: Discussed in his first hit single, "The Stroke".
• Notable Music Videos: "Rock Me Tonite", for better or worse.
• Sampled Up: His 1980 song "The Big Beat" was widely sampled by rap artists in the late eighties.