Stroke To Joke: How "Rock Me Tonight" Ruined Billy Squier's Career

In the summer of 1984, Billy Squier's career fell apart. After MTV aired his over-the-top, effeminate video for "Rock Me Tonight", Squier immediately began playing to half-houses and his career never recovered.

Billy went from everybody wanting him to NOBODY within a very short manner of time. However, his troubles began prior to the shooting of the infamous video as two prominent 80's music video directors, Bob Giraldi and David Mallett both passed on "Rock Me Tonight" because they either didn't like the budget or the song itself. As they say in baseball after a couple of missed swings... "stee-rike two". Unfortunately, "strike three" delivered a crushing blow to any momentum he had been building at that time.

When the video for "Rock Me Tonight" finally dropped on MTV in the summer of 1984, so did the jaws of both fans, peers and Billy Squier himself. Nobody could believe this video made it to television without the slightest hesitation. It begs the question, why didn't ANYONE, either Billy or his manager, ever bother to preview the video upon release? Wasn't anyone curious in the slightest?

Even though Billy took a couple of years to carefully craft his follow-up album, 1986's "Enough Is Enough", he simply didn't have the reputation or the singles to catapult him back into the mainstream as his earlier releases. That says alot, especially when his follow-up single, "Love Is The Hero", featured Queen's Freddie Mercury who was hot off his band's "Miracle" tour and Live Aid performance from the year before. As a side note, it was also likely one of Freddie's final guest appearances on anyone's album considering the serious health issues he would soon be facing.

In retrospect, I think Billy's career was tanked by two things: a tremendously awful video for "Rock Me Tonight" followed by one mediocre album after another that didn't fit too well into the late 80's hair band music scene. Let's face it, regardless of anything, a great song is a great song and Billy's brand of rock simply went "in the dark" after '84.

As for my video documenting this absolute mess, I must admit, it was probably the most fun I've had creating a video. I had completely forgotten that an entire chapter was devoted to Billy's disastrous video in the revealing 2011 book, "I Want My MTV", which I recall reading upon release. The book was assembled in a fun way that made for an easy, informative read; every story in every chapter was uniquely stitched together by quotes from various artists, VJs, managers, producers and more who detailed the varied history of MTV in a fresh way. I can't recommend it enough.

After revisiting the chapter on Billy, hilariously titled, "A Whopping, Steaming Turd, The Worst Video Ever Made", I wanted to bring that chapter to life in a video. This posed a challenge because I would be reacting to a MUSIC video without having the audio because of copyright reasons. However, I decided to go with a combination of my own commentary punctuated by short, memorable quotes by Billy and others from the book in a "pop-up video" kind of way. I needed to walk the line between not detracting from the horrendous video but also not reminding the viewer there was nothing to be heard. That being said, I enjoyed the challenge and am quite pleased with how things turned out.

Anyways, as mentioned at the beginning of this video, my idea for this topic came from the comment section of a recent video. I've been paying closer attention not only to what videos are most viewed on this channel but also what people are saying and how well those comments are received as it gives me a good sense of what people enjoy seeing. What a concept, right? Creating a video that people will actually relate to. I figure, as long as I can get behind an idea, it's a good place to start. So, if you ever have an idea for a topic or video, don't hesitate to drop it in the comments below as you never know how it may be used in the future. Maybe I'll feature your comment in a related video or it could become a video by itself. And, of course, I'll give credit where it's due.

Be sure to check out my "soundtrack", or companion playlist, to this video which features the best of Billy Squier, including "Rock Me Tonight" and more.

Companion Playlist:    • Playlist: Nobody Wants You (Billy Squ...  

I hope you enjoy this video and I'll see you again soon.

Ant
Rushtrader.com