10 Musicians Whose Careers Were Destroyed By Just One Song
3. Rock Me Tonite — Billy Squier
This one is an unusual case, as glam rock icon Billy Squier’s song itself was pretty well-received by fans and stayed well within the sonic style he was known for.
The track’s accompanying music video directed by future High School Musical helmer Kenny Ortega, however…
It seems impossible that a flopped music video alone could have ever spelled out the instant overnight end of a superstar artist’s career. But the campy promo for Rock Me Tonite was so spectacularly misjudged that it halted the artist’s career almost immediately.
A misjudged tribute to Tom Cruise’s star-making turn in 1983’s teen comedy Risky Business, the video saw Squier bouncing around on a plush, bright pink bed in his pyjamas, grooving, writhing, and otherwise destroying any hint of toughness to his image. Squier of course insists he never approved of the video’s colourful high camp aesthetic, though Ortega maintains he was all for it until the public scorn started to roll in.
Whatever the case, the video may not have hurt Ortega’s gradual rise from music video cutting to Hollywood stardom, but it certainly spelled the end for Squier’s brief time at the top..