Tonight at 7pm, check out the Billy Idol Retrospective on Grant’s Rock Warehaus on YouTube. Thanks so much for Grant inviting me as we blast through the entire Billy Idol solo catalog as well as some of his rare vinyl releases. We had a great time and I hope you will too!! Give it a watch and then Subscribe to Grant’s channel as there is so much fantastic content!!
I have done two posts already on the Best & Worst songs from every Judas Priest album, Cheap Trick and even Whitesnake. I really enjoyed doing those so I thought I would continue that process and this time we would go through every Billy Idol album and see what is the best song and the worst one off each album as well. Billy Idol has 8 studio albums to go through and we will throw in the 3 E.P.’s and the 2 Vital Idol remix albums for fun. So, sit back and take it all in. Let’s preface this with the fact that these are my choices and not necessarily yours as we can have different opinions. If you watched the show you will see that sometimes my worst song was their favorite so you never know what people like and we all like different things or this would be a very dull world. I hope you enjoy!!
BEST SONG – “DANCING WITH MYSELF”: The Gen X track, “Dancing With Myself”, 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.
WORST SONG – “MONY, MONY”: The song is 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 to come later 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.
Continue reading “Billy Idol – The Best and Worst Songs on Every Album (The Billy Idol Series)”
For the past 8 to 9 months, I have been reviewing the entire Billy Idol catalog from Generation X back in 1978 through his solo years and even a Generation X single released in 2019 on Record Store Day. It has been such a fun journey and I hate it has come to an end. To wrap it up, we are going to rank all the studio albums from his very worst (and it is bad) to his very best (which is sensational).
I am not sure what Billy was thinking, but this should have never been released and probably never recorded. Hell, it is so bad that even Steve Stevens wasn’t involved with recording it. That should tell you something right there!! It is a rehash of classic Christmas songs that we are better off listening to the originals as these do not spark any Christmas cheer.
The original songs Billy wrote throw every cliche in the book out as lyrics and they are sappy, crappy songs. The best thing about “Happy Holidays” is that it is only 2 minutes. The only good thing about “Christmas Love” is that it does eventually end. My Christmas gift to you is to avoid this at any cost.
Continue reading “Billy Idol – The Albums Ranked Worst to First (The Billy Idol Series)”
On March 22, 2005, Billy Idol returns to music with his first album of new material in over 12 years. Way too long in my book. While on tour prior to the album, Billy was approached by Sanctuary Records to record an album. The trick was that they wanted it in the old Billy style and sound.
As a result, Billy, Steve Stevens and producer Keith Forsey re-teamed to record the album. Yep, the gang was back together and I couldn’t be more happy. Along for the ride was Stephen McGrath on bass, Derek Sherinian on keyboards and Brian Tichy on drums. Not a bad line-up.
Of course, Steve and Billy had some songs together. However, it was only 3 songs for Steve. Billy did most of his writing with drummer Brian Tichy who had 8 writing credits on the album. Of course, Billy had to have a cover song and the album checks that bucket as well. All was now in place.
Continue reading “Billy Idol – ‘Devil’s Playground’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)”
2 Loud 2 Old Music 