Piano Man (song)

Billy Joel in the typical style of the "Piano Man"

Piano Man is a song by US singer Billy Joel from 1973. It was Joel's first major commercial success and gave rise to his nickname "Piano Man".

Composition and text

The piece has the basic key of C major and is played in 3/4 time . It starts with a short jazzy piano theme , followed by an intro with piano and harmonica . The piece has the form of intro, stanza , stanza, transition to the chorus (sung an octave higher), chorus. The stanzas and the subsequent chorus contain a walking bass that ends in a C and has a turnaround from D to G. Joel's 1973 version includes piano, harmonica, bass guitar, drums and vocals.

The song describes the guests of a bar from the perspective of the piano player Bill , who watches the people while they are playing. Those in attendance described include an old regular, the bartender John, the waitress, and regulars Paul, a real estate agent posing as a book author, and Davy, an aging Navy soldier. These people have a number of unfulfilled wishes and dreams in common; the pianist's job is to make people's problems forget for a while. In the chorus, in which those present have their say in the form of singing along in the choir, which is typical in bars, it says “Sing us a song, you're the piano man. / Sing us a song, tonight. / Well, we're all in the mood for a melody, / and you've got us feeling alright. ” ( “ Sing us a song, you're the bar pianist. / Sing us a song tonight. / We're all in the mood for a melody, / and you make us feel good. " )

background

According to the artist himself, Piano Man is a fictional tale about Joel's own time as a piano player in various bars in Los Angeles after the failure of his debut album Cold Spring Harbor . At the same time, Joel tried to get out of the unfavorable contract with the music label Family Productions . While the artist said he was hiding in various bars under the pseudonym Bill Martin , his new record company Columbia Records tried to break the contract with Family Productions. The name of the lyric self , "Bill", is also a tribute to Joel's past.

Publications

The song was first released on November 2, 1973 as a single and then as the second track of the successful album of the same name Piano Man . The song later appeared on various greatest hits compilations , including The Essential Billy Joel .

Before Piano Man was released as a single, those responsible shortened the song by two verses because of the length of the track of 5:38 minutes. Billy Joel took up this fact in his 1974 piece The Entertainer , which reads “It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long. / If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit. / So they cut it down to 3:05. " ( " It was a nice song, but it was too long / And if you want to get a hit you have to make it fit. / So they cut it down to 3:05 minutes . " )

Success and reception

Piano Man is one of Billy Joel's greatest successes. When it was released, the song was ranked 25th on the US Billboard charts and over the years has become the artist's trademark, nicknamed "Piano Man" ever since. For example, the first Face to Face Tour Joels together with Elton John was described as Rocket Man meets Piano Man and the nicknames of the two artists, each created by a popular song, were taken up. Piano Man has the 421st place in 2004 published list of 500 greatest songs of all time pop magazine Rolling Stone .

On his 2003 album Poodle Hat , the American musician Weird Al Yankovic published a parody of the title as Ode to a Superhero , in which Yankovic chronologically processes the events of the first Spider-Man film . In addition, the song was parodied at games of the Australian football club Newcastle United Jets , when the fans sang “Score us a goal, Super Mario, / Score us a goal, tonight when a substitute or good actions by striker Mário Jardel were played. / We're all in the mood for a victory, / And you got us feelin 'alright. ”( “ Score us, Super Mario. / Score us tonight. / Yes, we're all in the mood for a win, / and you make us feel good. ” ) On the album Just Say Yes by the American rock band Punchline, there is a song entitled The Other Piano Man , which also refers to Joel's Piano Man .

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Mexico (AMPROFON)	gold	30,000
United States (RIAA)	3 × platinum	3,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	400,000
All in all	2 × gold 3 × platinum	3,430,000