Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat” is the first song from his 1980 debut album The Tale of the Tape. Squier introduced himself with bold vocals indebted to the transatlantic travels of blues and soul that produced some of his faves like John Mayall and The Beatles. The smoking country guitar licks and those weighty drums made an earnest impression on the ’80s American rock scene. The Tale of the Tape had a modest chart presence and Squier would have more success later with the singles “The Stroke,” “Everybody Wants You,””Emotions In Motion” and “Rock Me Tonite.” The comparisons to Led Zeppelin were logical because his music is one of the links between hard rock and metal. The video for “Rock Me Tonight” was said to have confused his fans because of his newfound stage crawling and preening in the mirror. Squier’s moves would become standard for rock bands of the ’80s like Motley Crue. “The Big Beat” made an unexpected history by being sampled over 300 times by many artists including Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane, Jay-Z, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, and ASAP Rocky. Squier released the single “Harder On A Woman” in 2023.
