Billy Squier

Billy Squier is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist who rose to prominence in the early 1980s with a string of arena-rock hits. After starting out in bands including Piper, he launched a solo career whose commercial breakthrough came with «Don't Say No», produced by Queen collaborator Reinhold Mack and featuring the singles «In The Dark», «Lonely Is the Night», and his signature track «The Stroke».

Squier's sound combined muscular guitar riffs with polished, radio-ready production, sitting alongside contemporaries like Foreigner and Pat Benatar in the early-MTV rock landscape — acts he also toured with. His songs found an unlikely second life decades later: «The Big Beat» became one of the most sampled tracks in hip-hop history, cited across countless beats, while «The Stroke» remains a staple of classic rock radio.

Though his commercial peak was relatively brief, Squier's catalog left a lasting mark on both rock and hip-hop production, and he continued recording and touring in the decades that followed, remaining a recognizable name from rock's arena era.