Don't Say No (CD)

Boston rocker Billy Squier first attracted attention as the leader of '70s hard-rock/power-pop band Piper, but went solo at the onset of the '80s. Squier's second solo album, 1981's DON'T SAY NO, was a massive success, spawning several hit singles with its blend of hard-rock crunch and pop hooks, and making the singer/songwriter/guitarist one of the top rock attractions of the era. The follow-up EMOTIONS IN MOTION was a substantial hit as well, but after that Squier's star began to fade, and for a while he dropped out of the music business altogether. However, the 1998 comeback album HAPPY BLUE showcased a more mature, low-key Squier, even reinventing his hard-hitting 1981 smash "The Stroke" as "Stroke Me Blues."

• Category:  Music  »  Rock & Pop  »  Hard Rock
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: October 25, 1990
• Label: Capitol/EMI Records
• UPC: 077774647922
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106065756
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #8409 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #3446 in Rock & Pop (See Top 100 Rock & Pop Bestsellers)
• #188 in Hard Rock (See Top 100 Hard Rock Bestsellers)

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Personnel: Billy Squier (vocals, guitars, piano, percussion); Cary Sharaf (guitar); Alan St. Jon (keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Mark Clarke (bass); Bobby Chouinard (drums).

Recorded at The Power Station, New York, New York.

All songs written by Billy Squier.

Before becoming a solo superstar, Billy Squier had done time in Piper, a Cheap Trick-like 1970s band that split the difference between hard rock and power pop. Some of that sensibility still informs his second solo album and mainstream breakthrough, DON'T SAY NO. While the gargantuan guitar riffs and drum beats are clearly indebted to Led Zeppelin, and Squier's vocal style finds a middle ground between Robert Plant and Freddie Mercury, all the excess of Zeppelin and Queen is mercilessly sliced away, leaving lean, concise pop hooks that drive the record's turbo-charged heavy-rock attack.

The energy level almost never lets up, as Squier and his band careen from one breathlessly infectious-yet-diamond-hard track to the next. "Nobody Knows," one of the only down-tempo moments, reveals a Beatles influence that underscores Squier's pop roots. But it's the sledgehammer groove of "The Stroke" and the AOR nirvana of "In the Dark" that made this album a centerpiece of rock radio in the era when what we now regard as "classic rock" was drawing its last breath, just before giving way to New Wave.

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