Piano Man (album)

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Piano Man
Studio album by Billy Joel

Publication
(s)

November 9, 1973

Label (s) Family Productions / Columbia Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

10

running time

42:51

occupation

production

Michael Stewart

chronology
Cold Spring Harbor
(1971) 		Piano Man Streetlife Serenade
(1974)

Piano Man is the second album by the American singer Billy Joel . It was released in November 1973 and was its first major hit after the failure of Joel's debut album Cold Spring Harbor . The theme song Piano Man is one of Joel's most famous songs and also gave the artist his nickname.

Emergence

The work has clear musical influences from the previous year's album Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John, as well as country themes in almost all tracks. Lyrically, the influences are particularly evident in The Ballad of Billy the Kid , a ballad about the outlaw Billy the Kid , and musically in the songs Captain Jack , Travelin 'Prayer or Stop in Nevada . These pieces all use pentatonic scales , a characteristic found in country music.

publication

Piano Man was Joel's first release on Columbia Records after legal disputes over his contract with his previous production company Family Productions could be resolved. The album was released in the US in November 1973. The song Piano Man reached number 25 on the US Billboard charts . The other releases Travelin 'Prayer and Worse Comes to Worst occupied positions 77 and 80 in the single charts, respectively, and the album itself reached 27th place in the pop album charts. A cover version of Travelin 'Prayer earned Dolly Parton a Grammy nomination in 1999 .

Track list

On the vinyl version of the album, the two sides of the plate against the common numbering ( "Page 1" and "page 2") as are "One Side" ( "A side" , title 1-5) and "Another Side" ( "Another side “ Titles 6-10). All of the songs on Piano Man were written by Billy Joel.

One side

  1. Travelin 'Prayer - 4:10
  2. Piano Man - 5:37
  3. Ain't No Crime - 3:20
  4. You're My Home - 3:14
  5. The Ballad of Billy the Kid - 5:35

Another side

  1. Worse Comes to Worst - 3:28
  2. Stop in Nevada - 3:40 am
  3. If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You) - 3:35
  4. Somewhere Along the Line - 3:17
  5. Captain Jack - 7:15

Charts

Piano Man was most successful on the Australian music charts ; here it reached third place. The album reached number 26 in the Canadian RPM charts. In the US Billboard 200 , the album achieved a similar result with number 27. In the Irish album charts the album reached number 75. In the British album charts of the Official Charts Company , the album was number 98 and in the Japanese album charts number 112.

Awards

The album was awarded platinum four times by the RIAA by 1999 . In Canada the album was first awarded gold, then platinum and finally double platinum.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Kent: Australian Chart Book 1970-1992 . Australian Chart Book, St Ives, New South Wales, 1993, ISBN 0-646-11917-6 .
  2. ↑ Top Albums / CDs - Volume 21, No. April 8, 06 1974 ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved May 19, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
  3. ↑ TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUM, WEEK ENDING 13 June 2013 , on chart-track.co.uk. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  4. ^ Piano Man , on the RIAA website . Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  5. ^ Piano Man , on the Music Canada website . Retrieved May 19, 2017.