Billy Squier spent the early '80s on a hot streak, releasing two multi-platinum Top 5 albums (1981's Don't Say No and 1982's Emotions in Motion) in a two-year span. For a brief while, it looked like he'd end up being one of the biggest rock acts of the '80s — and then, in the summer of 1984, it all came crashing down when he released one of the worst videos ever made.
Unfortunately for Squier, like most singles of the day, "Rock Me Tonite" came with a video — and this particular video proved so hilariously awful that it's generally credited with sinking his entire career. Helmed by choreographer and future film director Kenny Ortega — working, according to Squier, from a concept he developed that was inspired by the visual aesthetic Paul Schrader used in Richard Gere's American Gigolo — it depicts Squier flailing effeminately around a pastel-lit bedroom and writhing on satin sheets.
According to conventional wisdom, the clip was so outrageously out of step with what rock fans were willing to tolerate that it stalled the single, derailed his 1984 tour and permanently cooled his momentum as a recording artist.
iSnark 1 points 10 months ago
Billy Squier spent the early '80s on a hot streak, releasing two multi-platinum Top 5 albums (1981's Don't Say No and 1982's Emotions in Motion) in a two-year span. For a brief while, it looked like he'd end up being one of the biggest rock acts of the '80s — and then, in the summer of 1984, it all came crashing down when he released one of the worst videos ever made.
Unfortunately for Squier, like most singles of the day, "Rock Me Tonite" came with a video — and this particular video proved so hilariously awful that it's generally credited with sinking his entire career. Helmed by choreographer and future film director Kenny Ortega — working, according to Squier, from a concept he developed that was inspired by the visual aesthetic Paul Schrader used in Richard Gere's American Gigolo — it depicts Squier flailing effeminately around a pastel-lit bedroom and writhing on satin sheets.
According to conventional wisdom, the clip was so outrageously out of step with what rock fans were willing to tolerate that it stalled the single, derailed his 1984 tour and permanently cooled his momentum as a recording artist.