Simon & Schuster Canada

From punk pioneer to global superstar, Billy Idol has left an indelible mark in popular music and remained a household name for over three decades. His style, music, and attitude have transcended time and trend. Determined to break through in America, he hooked up with guitar genius Steve Stevens and a crucial musical partnership was forged. Idol created some of rock’s most enduring anthems including “White Wedding,” “Dancing With Myself,” “Flesh For Fantasy,” “Hot In the City,” “Eyes Without A Face,” “Rebel Yell,” and “Cradle of Love,” among others. Billy Idol is the original punk rocker who found a way to take that sneering punk attitude into the pop and rock mainstream, carving out songs that have lasted a lifetime.

• Billy Idol's real name is William Michael Albert Broad.
• The video for Idol's hit song "Dancing with Myself" was directed by Tobe Hopper, the director of the original 1974 version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• Idol had a cameo role in Adam Sandler's 1998 film The Wedding Singer.

A consummate musical chameleon, David Bowie has been a folksinger, androgyne, alien, decadent, blue-eyed soul man, art-rocker and a modern pop star, with each persona spawning a new league of imitators. His late-Seventies collaborations with Brian Eno made Bowie one of the few older stars to be taken seriously by the new wave. In the Eighties Bowie followed the mainstream pop smashLet's Dance (Number One, 1983) with numerous attempts to keep up with current trends. In the Nineties, that meant embracing grunge, industrial rock, rap and dance music, to varying degrees of success. But by then Bowie's place in history was secure: This is a man who did for pretensions what Jimi Hendrix did for electric guitar.

• Elvis Presley and Bowie share the same birthday: January 8.
• His real name is David Robert Jones.
• He voiced the character of Lord Royal Highness on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2007.