Customer Reviews

Absolute Hits

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Billy Squire paid his dues before finally grabbing the brass ring. A pair of underlooked albums with Piper (both unavailable) before going it alone as a solo artist (The Tale of the Tape) and then exploding with his second album, Don't Say No. The big meaty guitars and catchy shout along of "The Stroke" made him ready to start filling the stadiums formally reserved for the likes of Foreigner or Queen.

Billy was also a tailor made MTV figure. Willowy good looks, bushy rockstar hair, tough-guy style with puppydog eyes, the videos soon became unavoidable. When they clicked, like "The Stroke" and "Emotions in Motion," they added to the star-power. But when they backfired, as they did in the universally derided "Rock Me Tonight," Billy suddenly found his momentum stopped like ramming the wall in a Mack Truck in overdrive. While there were still a few minor hits, Signs of Life was where the big success stopped.

The remaining tracks on this best of signal that record company malaise or just a changing of the times were more at fault than the quality of the music. Freddy Mercury's backing vocal on "Love Is The Hero" makes it a standout. "Don't Say You Love Me" barely missed the top 40 in 1989. By now, however, Robert Plant lite was being over-hauled by Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, and his co-contemporaries (think Def Leppard, who opened for Squire in their early career, and Queen, who were preparing their final bow with Innuendo) were suffering the same fate.

Thus this 12 song plus 2 live extras CD sums up Billy Squire quite well. His albums have begun to see re-issue of late, so you can still eat from the whole platters on some of these songs, but for the casual fan of "The Stroke," this does a service to American Arena Rock of the 80's.

Even though I live in England I had to order this CD from those lovely folks at Amazon.com as Billy is not exactly a household name over here. In actual fact if I wasn't a massive Queen fan I wouldn't know him either as none of his classy rock songs are played on the radio over here. As the liner notes to the CD state Billy Squier not only toured with Queen but recorded with Freddie Mercury too. On the brilliant Love Is The Hero Freddie's distinctive background vocals lend support to the song perfectly.

Remastered in 2005, all the songs sound great and every one is a winner on this compilation. Although having two live songs added on to the end of an album can sometimes not merge well with the rest of the record, in this case they work well. Both well chosen songs as they are two of Billy's biggest Billboard hits. All an artist like Billy Squier needs is for one of his songs to appear in summer movie blockbuster and he'll be re-discovered by a new generation. Until then though I'd advise anyone reading this to buy this excellent compilation.

I second the earlier reviewer's complaint: "Lonely Is The Night" is one of Billy Squier's best and best-known songs, but once again it's inexplicably left out of a Billy Squier compilation.

Of course, the songs on this new collection are all good; but the collection itself is a real disappointment.

In the 1980s, few solo artists rocked as hard as Billy Squier. He recorded many great albums on the Capitol label, and as a result, has become a hard rock/classic rock radio staple.

This compilation, 'Absolute Hits,' was released in 2006 on Capitol. It is one of the many Squier collections to be released over the years.

So how does this one measure up?

Well, I guess it depends on the individual. For the casual fan, it's got MOST of the radio hits. 'The Stroke,' 'My Kinda Lover,' 'Emotions In Motion,' 'Rock Me Tonight' and of course, 'Everybody Wants You.' For the casual fan looking for nothing but the hits, no need to look any further.

The live tracks are also interesting and will also be of interest to the Squier die-hard fan.

However, there are negatives. Where the heck is 'Lonely is the Night'? That's one of his biggest hits, and yet, NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. 'Absolute Hits' could have been a unique collection, as 'Ten Best Series,' '16 Strokes,' and 'Classic Masters' all omit that song. Irritating.

Also, why was this necessary? We have '16 Strokes' which contains almost everything here plus plenty more. This album was a waste of time and effort, essentially.

My advice? Unless you want the live tracks, just stick with '16 Strokes: The Best of Billy Squier.' It may be out of print, but boy is it a better album. Do yourself a favor and stick to that one. Or if you are a big fan, just buy his studio albums.

Overall, this was a blown opportunity and a waste of time and a waste of money.

Recommended only for those who want the live tracks.

I love Billy Squire...is much underrated rocker. But, why can't they provide a complete hit cd? Where is "Lonely is the Night" one of his best? Also missing "Too Daze Gone" & Whatta do you Want From me". Nothing absolute about this at all.

I think the overall album is awesome, especially if you're a Billy Squier fan. I agree with other people that didnt give the score higher marks because Lonely is the Night should have been included. However, I think that what we have is a near perfect greatest hits album that was just one song away from being perfect.

Geez, and these record companies still can't get it right. Where is "Lonely is the Night"? 1 Star for this arrogant oversight.

This compilation, while maybe not really comprehensive is still very good, all the good songs of Billy Squier are here and the sound is great. I'm quite pleased with it. I feel that Billy Squier has been underrated, he certainly deserved more credit, among the hard rock of the 80's. This disc brought back so many memories and I really like it. Recommended to anyone who likes Billy Squier.

I had to get this cd the song stroke and in the dark was on my mind all days well as everyone else's to this day who remember arena rock the way it was ment to be this cd includes my kind of lover dont say you love me got my eye on you this im saving for my grandkids in the future to tell this is how we rocked in the olden days

Ok,Ok,Ok...so I read how Capitol Records (I think that's this label, but who cares) those money hungry morons printed 2 Grtest Hits for Billy and one didn't included 'Lonely Is The Night' where the other did...well I bought this one, Y? It was cheap, and I have Lonely Is The Night on Guitar Hero...which is good enough for me! So not only can I hear it, but I can hear me FAKE PLAYING IT FOR REAL (oxy-moron in there somewhere?)-Be quite! I got other CD's to review..."Don't Say You don't Love Me" and my reviews....