Track 14 from Vital Idol (1985)

Tracks 15 and 16 from Whiplash Smile (1986)

Tracks 17 and 18 from Charmed Life (1990)

Billy Idol was part of the British punk movement from practically day one, as part of a crew that would go to every Sex Pistols show. His band Generation X started gigging in 1976, and while they were never really revered as one of the very best punk bands in London, they had a pretty good run, recording three albums, until Billy Idol left, using a remix of Generation X's "Dancing With Myself" to launch his solo career. The Clash's original drummer Terry Chimes eventually joined Generation X, playing on the band's third album and co-writing "Oh Mother," and later played in Idol's touring band. 

Billy Idol's main collaborator, Steve Stevens, played guitar on pretty much all his solo stuff except the two '90s albums, and co-wrote a lot of his songs as well. For a long time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was stingy about inducting sidemen and collaborators alongside solo artists -- Bruce Springsteen was inducted alone, while the E Street Band were inducted separately years later in the Sidemen category (that category has since been renamed the Award for Musical Excellence and has become kind of the sneaky way for the Hall to push in artists who've been nominated many times but never inducted, like the MC5 and Dionne Warwick). Three years ago, Pat Benatar was inducted alongside her husband and primary guitarist/songwriter Neil Giraldo, and in light of that precedent, I'd say Steve Stevens deserves to be inducted with Billy Idol, the same way I'd want Jim Steinman inducted with Meat Loaf.

If I had a ballot (I don't), I'm not sure whether Billy Idol would be on it, although there's definitely a chance I'd throw him on there. I had a band in the early 2000s that covered "Rebel Yell," that's a really fun song to play. I was born in 1982, so I was kinda too young to experience Idol's commercial prime, "Cradle of Love" was the only big hit I remember hearing when it was current, and I was just a kid so the video made me vaguely uncomfortable. I do also remember the release of Cyberpunk, and while I think Idol deserves some credit for being a little ahead of the curve, releasing a whole album referencing William Gibson a few years before Hollywood went all in on the cyberpunk aesthetic, that album hasn't aged super well. It may the first time I was very conscious that an established artist was in their flop era. 

"Hot in the City," "To Be A Lover," "Sweet Sixteen," and "Don't Need A Gun" were all Top 40 hits, but I have no memory of encountering those songs in the wild like "Rebel Yell" or "White Wedding." Even "Flesh For Fantasy" I'd never heard until the video popped up on MTV2 one day in the late '90s, I was like "what the hell is this?" Something that I didn't know existed until this week: "Speed," Billy Idol's title song for the Keanu Reeves film Speed, which isn't on streaming services at all now. 

"Blue Highway" is the only album track that Billy Idol performs as much as his hits, and also featured in his "VH1 Storytellers" episode. I think there's quite a few excellent songs on here, though, particularly "Nobody's Business," and "The Dead Next Door" transfers his aesthetic to a slow, spacey song better than I thought was possible. Billy Idol may be kind of one dimensional, but he's consistent, his album tracks are often as good as his singles. The stuff he's made since the '90s is pretty decent too, but I wanted to focus on the really commercially relevant part of his career, so I didn't make an effort to include any post-Wedding Singer music.