After the lack of success of ‘Cyberpunk’, Billy Idol was pretty quiet for many years with one minor exception. He reunited with Steve Stevens for a song on the 1994 Soundtrack to the movie Speed starring Keanu Reeves. Billy was having some disagreements with his label and having many issues with drugs (still), he needed something to get back in the fans good graces.
Billy and Steve were contacted by the soundtracks music director, Ralph Sall, to come up with the movie’s title song and Billy thought this would be a good opportunity. The song was inspired by the movie and the rest of the soundtrack included songs that were either inspired by the movie or were just songs about Speed such as the Kiss song “Mr. Speed”.
I am not reviewing the whole soundtrack as this is a Billy Idol series so we will focus only on Billy’s song. And what a song it is. It didn’t do well upon its release as this was 1994 and Billy’s style of Rock was no longer in fashion. The movie did way better than the song for sure.
The song, however, is a total kick ass rock & roll song. It’s fast tempo, hard driving drums and Steve Stevens magical guitar sound just “speed” through and gets your motor running at full throttle. Don’t listen to this while you are driving as you will be speeding down the road at 100 mph (thus the name of the song). The sound is a far cry from the “Cyberpunk” album and is more of a straight-up rock song and not the normal dance/rock that he does. It is full of energy and life that Billy needed to do more of in my opinion.
This is a top-notch song and I easily give it a 5 out of 5 Stars as Billy and Steve were back together and they brought back the magic they have when they are together.
Sadly, this would be the last new thing we would get from Billy until his 2001 Greatest Hits compilation which had an unreleased single. That is of course except for the release of the missing third Generation X album that we will discuss next time.
If you want to check out the other reviews I have done so far for the Billy Idol Series, click the links below:
- Generation X – ‘Generation X’
- Generation X – ‘Valley of the Dolls’
- Gen X – ‘Kiss Me Deadly’
- Generation X – ‘The BBC Transcription Disc Series No. 126 1978’
- Billy Idol – Don’t Stop E.P.
- Billy Idol – Billy Idol
- Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
- Billy Idol – Whiplash Smile
- Billy Idol – Vital Idol
- Billy Idol – Charmed Life
- Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
- Billy Idol – “Speed” (song from the Speed Soundtrack)
- Generation X – K.M.D. Sweet Revenge
- Billy Idol – VH1 Storytellers (Live)
- Billy Idol – Devil’s Playground
- Billy Idol – Happy Holidays
- Billy Idol – The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself
- Billy Idol – Kings & Queens of the Underground
- Billy Idol – BFI Live (#RSD 2019)
- Billy Idol – Revitalized
- Generation X – Your Generation (7″ Record Store Day Release)
- Billy Idol – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First
Up next will be Generation X’s ‘KMD Sweet Revenge’.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
Interesting, I must have heard this during the film but I’d no recollection of it at all. It’s good too.
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I don’t even remember it from the movie as well. It might have been a end credit song. I do know I really like it.
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Never heard this tune until today! Great post. The song is good as well. Could have fit nicely on the Rebel Yell album… crazy god solo as only Stevens can do
Cool stuff John!
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Thanks. Yes, this is a lost gem. It takes you back to days of old when those two really were on fire. I was glad they got back together for this even if that was the last thing for 10 more years (or original material)
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It is actually a really great song!
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Always liked the movie SPeed – and now I like the tune speed!
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This sounds familiar, so I must have heard it in the film. Pretty good… it sounds urgent and Idol is obviously into it (not just a paycheque).
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Definitely not phoning it in. Great song. You can only get it on this release and his last greatest hits album in 2011 (I believe)
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