I want to thank one of my subscribers for suggesting this video topic. Now have you
guys ever done something so cringe-worthy that you regret it? Chances are you probably didn't
do it in front of millions of people on TV but one artist who did do something so cringe-worthy
and awful was Billy Squier. What did he do? Well, it was so bad that he fired both of his managers
and some credited it with ruining his career. Stay tuned to find out in today's video what that was.
So back in the early 80s, Billy Squier was on top of the world and within two years
he would release two massive records which would be top five hits including
1981's "Don't Say No" and the following year's "Emotions in Motion". Combined,
both those records sold an astounding five million copies and Squier was soon playing sold-out arena
shows. What should have been a huge career for the rest of the 80s came crashing down by 1984
when he released his fourth record Signs of Life. Initially, the album seemed to be a huge hit with
the lead single "Rock Me Tonight", giving Squier a number-one hit on the rock charts
and also proved to be a crossover hit peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
If Squier did stop there with a single, he could have possibly had a much bigger career
for the rest of the 80s but what came next was what some would consider a disastrous
career move. Like with any singles that get released back then and even in today's world
they normally get the video treatment and unfortunately for "Rock Me Tonight",
the video was well awful and cringe-worthy. The video would be directed by Kenny Ortega who's
probably best known for directing the High School Musical films.
The video is linked down below and shows Squier waking up in a bed sporting colourful
and satin coloured sheets Squier then proceeds to prance around the room as he
gets dressed and then puts on a pink tank top over a white shirt. By the end of the video,
he puts on a pink guitar to join his band in performing the song.
For the 2011 book, I Want My MTV the author focused on the network's early years. They
interviewed over 400 people including artists, managers, filmmakers, record company executives
and even employees of MTV and none could agree on the best MTV video of all time but there was
a pretty big consensus that "Rock Me Tonight" was the worst music video of all time. In fact,
there's an entire chapter in the book devoted to discussing the video.
The video would make its debut on MTV and you would have thought that Billy Squier 's manager
or someone would have stepped in and said maybe this isn't a good idea,
we're not putting this video out, but remember guys and girls,
hindsight is 2020 because if you look at the music charts in 1983 and 1984,
it was full of bands who made cheesy music videos. In some respects,
Squier was just doing what other artists were doing as well. Just take a look at
what was popular and cheesy at the time, including Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face",
Paul Stanley and Kiss' clip for "Heavens on Fire" or REO Speedwagon in drag in "I Do Want to Know".
Squier original idea was to show himself getting ready for a show and he would be
paralleled by younger fans doing the same and then seeing them sneak out to
the show. Originally Squier wanted Bob Geraldi who worked on the Michael Jackson
"Beat It" video to direct the shoot. Squier would have discussions with Geraldi who was
excited about the idea at first but declined because he wanted a bigger budget for the
video. Capitol Records, who was Squier label, wasn't into the idea of spending
large amounts of money on music videos at the time, especially when compared to other labels.
With no director on board, Squier and his management team approached David
Mallet, who directed Billy Idol's video for "White Wedding". Mallet
put together some storyboards but they were flatly rejected. Squier recalled the quick
interaction he had with Mallet, telling an interviewer 'the first thing he showed me
was a scene of me riding into a diner on a white horse. I was like 'get rid of him'."
Squier and the label were in a jam because they had already set a premiere date for the video on
MTV and they hadn't even found a director yet. It would be director Kenny Ortega who happened to be
a friend of Billie Squier girlfriend at the time who offered to direct the shoot. He was best known
at that time for directing the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited" and he'd also worked with David
Mallet on some of the choreography in his videos.
Ortega would be chosen to direct the video and he would suggest to the musician that the front men
do the exact same onstage moves in the video as he does during a live show, just without a
guitar. Ortega wanted the video to be in line with what Tom Cruise did in that memorable scene in the
movie, Risky Business. Squier turned down the idea thinking it should be a grainy and dark video.
Squier showed up on the video shoot and saw satin and pastel-coloured sheets on
the set and expressed his concerns. Ortega
reassured him that the finished video would be what he wanted.
Tom Moeller who was one of Squier's managers at the time, told Ortega that there
needs to be footage of the band performing the song in its entirety
to use as coverage. Ortega promised to do so but at the end of the day,
he didn't do that. Molar took his concerns to the Capitol Records' president,
Jim Massa to scrap the video but the label disagreed and put it out anyways.
Squier was on tour at the time and when he saw the video for the first time he was shocked.
His label tried to ease his concerns by telling him that the single was already
successful and not to worry but Squier 's girlfriend said the video would
ruin his career.
Squier would go on to claim that the impact to his career was felt almost immediately
when the video premiered saying, "The video had a deleterious effect on my career. The tour before,
I was selling out arenas faster than Sinatra and as soon as the video came
out I was playing to half houses." Why was the video so hated? Well remember folks,
this was in the 80s when it wasn't preferred that men act effeminate. Men were supposed
to be tough and act a certain way. Squier gave his own thoughts on the
matter saying "The video misrepresents who I am as an artist. I was a good-looking,
sexy guy that certainly didn't hurt into selling records but in this video, I'm sort of a pretty
boy and I'm prancing around the room and people are saying 'he's gay' or 'he's on drugs'."
So what does the director, Ortega, think of the clip? In 1986, he would say "If anything,
I tried to toughen the image he was projecting." He claims that he and the video's editor had
their names taken out of the credits when they got frustrated over the lack of creative input.
Let there be no doubt "Rock Me Tonight" was a Billy Squier video in every sense. It has
damaged his career and he has no one to blame but himself. Squier himself,
also claimed the effeminate nature of the video alienated a lot of his base, which were
predominantly teenage boys at the time. Even his peers, including Rudolf Schenker
of the Scorpions, said it best when talking about Squier 's saying, "I liked him very much but then
I saw him doing the video in a very terrible way and I couldn't take his music serious anymore".
In every album following Signs of Life, it seemed to show a steady
decline in Squier's popularity even with his last two albums
of his career. 1993's Tell the Truth and 1990's Happy Blue, failing to even chart.
Do you guys think the video caused Billy Squier's drop in popularity or did you
even care as a fan? Let me know in the comments section. That does it for today's video. Guys,
thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe and as always,
if you have suggestions for future topics, let me know in the comments section below.