Personnel: Billy Idol (vocals, guitar); Steve Stevens (guitar); Phil Feit (bass); Steve Missal (drums).Producer: Keith Forsey.Reissue producer: Cheryl Pawelski, Kevin Flaherty.Includes liner notes by Scott Schinder.All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24 bit technology.Although Generation X had been relatively unheralded second-generation punks in their native UK, the group's frontman, the former William Broad, always clearly wanted more. For his solo debut, Billy Idol hired American metal guitarist Steve Stevens and streamlined his sound to something more in line with Def Leppard (soon to have their own US breakthrough) than the Sex Pistols. BILLY IDOL's first single, "Hot in the City," was a radio-ready pop-rocker in the glossy, late-1970s FM style of Nick Gilder's quite similar "Hot Child in the City." However, the second single, the tougher and creepier "White Wedding," was a massive MTV hit and made BILLY IDOL one of the top-selling albums of 1982 and '83. The remastered CD is faithful to the second US version of BILLY IDOL; the first version featured a different cover shot and the track "Congo Man," here replaced with the reworked Generation X single "Dancing with Myself," a major chart success in 1983.
