For six months in 1972, Billy Joel played in LA's Executive Lounge piano bar under the name "Bill Martin." This experience is what gave him the material for "Piano Man." That song sold more than 4 million copies. As of January 2007, the song "Piano Man" is still in the top 100 rock songs on iTunes. As I was rolling along this afternoon in my portable karaoke lounge on 4 wheels, I found myself singing along with Billy Joel and I kept coming back to the refrain in "Piano Man" where the people in that bar keep asking "Bill," "Hey man, what're you doin' here? As I pound away on my own keyboard, that phrase resonates in my soul: "Hey, man, what're you doin' here? Unlike Billy Joel, I am not going to end up in any Hall of Fame, nor do my compositions sell millions of copies. Instead, I just keep bloggin' and (once in a while) vloggin'. If this is (fair & balanced) futility, so be it.
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Billy Joel — "Piano Man"
[William Martin (Billy) Joel's first major album Piano Man was released in 1974, and it showcased his gift for writing ambitious pop tunes that were both catchy and sentimental. Expansive singles like "New York State of Mind" (1976) and "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" (1977) cemented Joel's position as a blue-collar New York troubadour and helped make him one of the decade's most popular touring acts. His 1977 album The Stranger was packed with hit singles, including "Movin' Out, "Just the Way You Are and "Only the Good Die Young," and was perhaps the height of his fame. He continued to produce hit singles like "Uptown Girl" throughout the 1980s, though critics carped that he had replaced his early passion with nostalgic ditties and highfalutin message songs. Still, by the turn of the century he had sold over 100 million records and was one of the most successful recording artists in history. Joel's albums include Turnstiles (1976), 52nd Street (1978), Glass Houses (1980), An Innocent Man (1983), River of Dreams (1993) and My Lives (2005). "Movin' Out," a dance musical based on his songs and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, played on Broadway from 2002-2005. Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.]
Copyright © 1974-2005 Billy Joel
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