Customer Reviews

Don't Say No

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't Say No is Billy Squier's best album and an early-80's hard rock classic. This was released when heavy metal was getting very little airplay and the hard rock bands that were huge, like Journey and Reo Speedwagon, were scoring primarily with power ballads. Billy Squier proved you can have commercial success playing melodic hard rock and staying true to your roots. This album, along with his next release Emotions In Motion, paved the way for the melodic metal movement of the mid-80's which spawned bands like Ratt, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard.

Every track here is a winner. The singles "The Stroke", "My Kinda Lover", and "In The Dark" were all big hard rock hits and still sound great today. Other great tracks including the hard-driving rockers "You Know What I Like" and "Whadda You Want From Me", the mid-tempo rocker "Too Daze Gone", and "I Need You", which is carried by Mark Clarke's excellent bass line. The ballad "Nobody Knows" is also a strong track. "Lonely Is The Night" is probably the best track here, one of the great hard rock riffs of the '80s. Although there are keyboards featured throughout the album, they're only added for color, and don't overwhelm the guitars like on other hard rock albums. His next album Emotions In Motion was pretty good, but the rest of his albums were inconsistent, including 16 Strokes, his greatest-hits album. If you want to hear the best of Billy Squier, this is the album to purchase. Highly recommended.

I loved every single song on this album and I am wondering how he wasn't more than an opening band. This CD has great and original songs. The guitar playing is really great and he started a guitar company! Here are my ratings for the songs.

1. In the Dark (10/10) --Great introduction to a great album

2. The Stroke (9/10) --I wasn't alive back then, but this had to be a 80's hit, right?

3. My Kinda Lover (10/10) --Not only one of his best songs, but one of my favorite songs ever.

4. You Know What I Like (10/10) --Good song after good song.

5. Too Daze Gone (10/10) --One of the best tracks here. At first i just liked it but then i re-listened to it and the lyrics started making more sense to me. I think it's a song many people can relate with.

6. Lonely is the Night (10/10) --At this point I'm wondering...Is this a best of or something???

7. Whadda You Want From Me? (7/10) --Okay, okay. Good song but definitely not the best.

8. Nobody Knows (10/10) --Sad song dedicated to John Lennon.

9. I Need You (10/10) --One of my favorite rhythms ever.

10. Don't Say No (9/10) --Good song. At this point, I think...WHY ONLY TEN SONGS!!! I NEED MORE OF THIS!!

Average song rating: (95/100) (9.5/10)

This is Squier's bestselling cd overall and for good reason. It contains three hits "In The Dark", "The Stroke" and "My Kinda Lover". The rest of the cd is nearly as solid as those three tracks with "Too Daze Gone" and "Lonely Is The Night". Unfortunately, Capitol records has deleted all of his catalogue except "Don't Say No", which is ridiculous because he had other great cds like 1982's "Emotions In Motion", 1984's "Signs Of Life" and 1989's "Hear & Now" (I have his entire catalogue on cd before they went out of print). Highly underrated artist, and as far as I can tell, still underappreciated. If you want hits, the buy the "Reach For The Sky" anthology, otherwise you'll have to be content with this, his only available cd (out of the 8 he recorded with Capitol records). You can also buy 1998's "Happy Blue" to see what Squier has been up to lately if you didn't catch him on tour with Styx and Bad Company this summer.

Come on now~how can you say no to Billy Squier! Great songs on this.

Ah yes, high school. Back then you could hardly turn around without getting hit up side the head with "The Stroke." I've never really liked that song, probably for the fatigue factor alone. So, for me, the songs in the heart of the album are the ones that still move me, "Too Daze Gone," "Lonely Is the Night," "Whadda You Want from Me," and "Don't Say No" for example.

As with most "remasters," this one does not disappoint. You get the requisite bump in volume but also a much fuller presentation of all the instruments and voices. The 2 live tracks at the end are fine, they're kinda fun but they didn't set my hair on fire. They'd have been cooler if they'd come from one of Billy's shows when he was out trying to conquer the world with these songs.

In the very off chance your kids want to hear what you listened to in the early '80s, Billy's album sure beats the crap out of playing them Loverboy, right? :-)

If you only have a first generation CD like I did, definitely get this. It'll give you an entirely new appreciation for an album full of great songs, no matter when you graduated high school.

This CD is fantastic from start to finish. Not a bad song on the entire CD. The big plus for buying the 30th ann. edition is that the sound is fantastic. The non remastered edition of Dont Say No is very light in bass, but the thump really comes through in this remastered version.

THis is 80s rock at it's finest, ladies and gentlemen. I loved these songs. Each one was so catchy and it was definitely worth the 3 dollars. I loved the songs like In the Dark which kept you inclined with novelty guitar-based rock. Any true rocker should look into Squier and definitely get this album

2 best songs - the stroke & my kinda lover

Someone in my SigmaPi fraternity at NCSU had the habit of placing the words BETWEEN THE SHEETS after every song title to see if they made sense and rated the album on this absurd criteria. This got his highest rating ever.

Even if this doesn't make any sense or cause a laugh, the music is certainly worthy of praise. Of all my albums, this is always in the emergency travel pack, along with David+David.

Despite the help of various talented people, Billy manages to say no to all the influence and sound original. Think about it.

After two albums with Piper and one album using his own name (Tale Of The Tape), Billy put out this rock classic. Every song on this album is good! My favorites are In The Dark (great vocals), My Kinda Lover, Too Daze Gone, Lonely Is The Night (classic riff), The Stroke (a bit sleazy but crankin guitar), and Nobody Knows (nice ballad). Billy's next album, Emotions In Motion, had a couple classic songs (Everybody Wants You and Learn How To Live) but I think things started to go downhill with Sings Of Life (and the video for Rock Me Tonite). Mind you he did continue to write some good songs. Get this classic from 1981!

Dont Say No by Billy Squire is a really good pop/rock album consedering when it came out. I mean back in the early 1980's when this came out there wasnt a whole lot of good music comming out it was kind of like music is today, well anyways you guys know what I am talking about.

Billy Squire's best songs are on this album, I dont think any of his other albums are worth owning but this one is pretty damn good. I own a couple of Billy Squire's albums and this is the only one that I think is really any good. But boy is this good. 'In The Dark' 'Stroke' 'My Kinda Lover' 'Lonely Is The Night' are all big hits for Squire. But songs like 'You Know What I Like' and 'Too Daze Gone' are what make this a classic album. Before I finish I want to say that I think Billy Squire is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time!

Dont Say No is the album for you if you want to get a good Billy Squire album!