it doesn’t look like it’s a nice day for you to start again, Mr. Squirrel.
It’s a beautiful day, there’s a chill in the air, and it’s a great day to go peeping at the earworms as they turn so many brilliant colors! It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for The Nest to rake up another lost hit out of that giant pile of organic music waste we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s too hip to be drinking that pumpkin spice shit, while the Sponkies are having fun playing with the leaf blower. Time to catch another falling song…
Billy Idol may be one of the few celebrities whose real name (William Broad) is much more entertaining than his stage name. A member of the punk band Generation X in the late 70’s, Idol began dancing with himself in 1981 and soon found success with a handful of hits on the UK charts. He hit at the right time to ride the popularity of MTV in the early 80’s to also become a household name in America…
Yes it is. Now how about some more pictures of chicks in leather slapping their ass?
Idol’s legacy nearly 40 years later is quite bizarre, in that his best known songs today happen to be the ones he had the least success with on the US charts. “Dancing With Myself” never charted at all, “Rebel Yell” peaked just outside the Top 40, and maybe what’s considered Mr. Broad’s signature song, “White Wedding,” barely cracked the Top 40 at #36. Almost every other hit Idol had afterwards, and he had quite a few, fared much better on the charts…. yet those songs (with the exception of “Mony Mony”) don’t get the airplay of those early non-hits.
One such Billy Idol song that’s faded into obscurity despite being a #6 hit in 1986 is his cover of the William Bell song ‘To Be A Lover”…
Idol’s singing and physical mannerisms earned him the nickname The Blonde Elvis, and boy does he Elvis it up in this video.
Ladies and gentlemen, Billy has left the boxing ring!
Mecca’s muzak supplier has taken a shine to Billy Idol’s songs this year, and “To Be A Lover” is one of a handful that I hear all the time at work now. It’s really a great song… and while I’d be hesitant to say it’s better than the classics he’s known for, it’s definitely my favorite underground Idol song.
I’ll go through the record selection in the mirror’s reflection and dance with myself and another lost hit next Monday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
oooh billy!!!! do you remember the hoax in the 80’s that he is dead? omg… our school exploded… 87k girls in black clothes who tried to wrinkle their lips like billy to honor mr Idol their idol…
That faintly rings a bell. Billy had quite an interesting run back in the day. He did almost kill himself on his motorcycle, which ended his Hollywood career before it even started…
I’ve never heard this one although I have heard and liked several of his “not quite hits” in his time. He did definitely have his Elvis on in this one…..love it. I can see everyone dancing in the aisles at Meeca when this plays……!
Pam
Since I’m about the only one in the store who doesn’t use earbuds to listen to their own music, the only one dancing would be me!
This is one of my favorites of his. His music was just fun and different. No baby baby ohhhh ohhhh for him. But I keep thinking about how he beat the crap out of every girlfriend he ever had back then. Happy F-ing Halloween every day when you dated him. I heard him in an interview about a year ago and he said he has calmed down now and spends a lot of time with his grown kids. I know, I know, I get too much into the private lives… did you know he is 65 now? Grandpa Billy. Thanks for another great music posts. This gets me going on Monday better than a pot of coffee.
I thought I remembered something about him having an abusive relationship or two, but Wikipedia, which is about all the research I’m lazy enough to do, said nothing about it. I was going to make a tasteless comment about how fitting it was that the video was shot in a boxing ring…
Yup…definitely an Elvis vibe on this one. Boy…the hair product he used back in the day-yikes!
I like his original name better. Wonder how big (hehe) he’d be if he kept his name?
Jean
You can’t really go wrong with Billy Idol, so this one’s on my “tick” list. I hope you’re keeping score, it would be fun to see our percentage agreement on songs…