After the demise of Generation X and Gen X, Billy would follow Bill Aucoin, his manager and Kiss’ former manager, to New York City to start a solo career.  When Billy signed on with Gen X as their manager, he quickly learned that the star of this band was not the band, but its lead singer, Billy Idol.

When Billy got to New York, he met a lot of interesting people and really loved the club scene…and of course, the drug scene was something he enjoyed as well.  If you read his book, “Dancing With Myself“ you can find out all about it so I won’t spoil the details here.

Billy was introduced to a guitarists at this time that would become just as big a part of Billy’s solo career as he was.  He met Steve Stevens.  There is no Billy Idol sound without Steve and his guitar playing is what makes Idol’s solo songs that much better.

With Steve Stevens in tow along with Phil Feit on bass and Gregg Gerson on drums, the band set out to record Billy’s first solo album.  As a teaser and build up to his career, it was decided an E.P. would be put out, I guess to whet everyone’s whistle and draw up buzz on the singer.  ‘Don’t Stop’ was the result.  It was more of a dance album than the former punk sound Billy had and you could see the magic being developed on what would become an amazing run of albums in the 80’s.

 

Side One:

The first song was a cover of Tommy James & the Shondell’s #1 song, “Mony, Mony”.  The song was a really good cover, but it didn’t really do much on the radio.  Compared to what was later to come from this song when he released the live version years later, this version is a little flat and doesn’t have the sonics and feel of that version.  It is missing a little of that charm and energy.  It is not a bad introduction to Billy, just kind of missed the mark as I know the live version so well.

The next track is the only new song on the album. It is called “Baby Talk”. It is fun dance song and has this whole old time 50’s rockabilly feel to it.  The lyrics are silly, a little cheesy and yet it works.  It is your first chance to really hear Steve’s guitar work.  The title of the E.P. comes from this song with how Billy ends with a lot of “Don’t Stop”.

Side Two:

Side two consists of two songs from the last Gen X album.  The first one is “Untouchables”.  The song was re-recorded for this album which is good as it boosted the sound and really kicked it up a notch.  It was a good song before and now it was great pop song thanks to the added help on the chorus and the new band’s playing.

The next Gen X track was “Dancing With Myself” which was not re-recorded for this release.  Instead, they took the extended version of the original song which was over 6 minutes and remixed it down to under 5 minutes to change it up a bit.  It is still just as fantastic as the original cause it was still the original.  The song was released as a single, but didn’t do anything. I don’t know if it was bad timing or what it was as it is a great song.  It wasn’t until 2 years later when they released as a bonus track on the first full length album did the song finally blow up.

If this was your first introduction to Billy, I think you would be excited as these 4 songs are all great.  It is an exciting introduction and would definitely leave me wanting to hear more.  As I think all songs are all good, the track listing score is easily 4 out of 4 for a 100% Track Score. 

The overall score won’t be as generous because it is really an album filled with 3 covers and only one original track.  Let’s be honest, that is not great.  Thankfully, they are all good songs and make for an enjoyable 16:44 seconds of music.  I will rate the overall score as a 3.5 out of 5.0 Stars.  As a fan, it is a must in your collection, my only disappoint with my vinyl was that the poster was not included.  I will need to find an edition with it, not that I am putting up on any wall, just to complete the collection.

If you want to check out the other reviews I have done so far for the Billy Idol Series, click the links below:

1. Generation X – ‘Generation X’
2. Generation X – ‘Valley of the Dolls’
3. Gen X – ‘Kiss Me Deadly’
4. Generation X – ‘The BBC Transcription Disc Series No. 126 1978’
5. Billy Idol – Don’t Stop E.P.
6. Billy Idol – Billy Idol
7. Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
8. Billy Idol – Whiplash Smile
9. Billy Idol – Vital Idol
10. Billy Idol – Charmed Life
11. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
12. Billy Idol – “Speed” (song from the Speed Soundtrack)
13. Generation X – K.M.D. Sweet Revenge
14. Billy Idol – VH1 Storytellers (Live)
15. Billy Idol – Devil’s Playground
16. Billy Idol – Happy Holidays
17. Billy Idol – The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself
18. Billy Idol – Kings & Queens of the Underground
19. Billy Idol – BFI Live (#RSD 2019)
20. Billy Idol – Revitalized
21. Generation X – Your Generation (7″ Record Store Day Release)
22. Billy Idol – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First

Up next will be Billy Idol’s ‘Billy Idol’.