Music / An Innocent Man

I'm only willing to hear you cry
Because I am an innocent man

Listen boy, don't want to see you let a good thing slip away
You know I don't like watching anybody make the same mistakes I made
She's a real nice girl, and she's always there for you
But a nice girl wouldn't tell you what you should do

Listen boy, I'm sure that you think you got it all under control
You don't want somebody telling you the way to stay in someone's soul
You're a big boy now, you'll never let her go
But that's just the kind of thing she ought to know

"Tell Her About It"

An Innocent Man is the ninth studio album recorded by American singer/songwriter/pianist Billy Joel. It was released through the Family Productions label of Columbia Records on August 8, 1983.

In the summer of 1982, Billy Joel had completed a divorce with his first wife. He was single for the first time since he made it big as a recording artist. And he found himself surrounded by supermodels.

Literally.

By his own admission, he felt like a teenager again. And so, the songs for his next album became an homage to the music he listened to as a child and a budding teenager. They ended up running the gamut of the sound of The '50s: original Rock & Roll, Doo Wop, even some early Motown.

The album was recorded through the spring of 1983. It would keep a fire burning for '50s nostalgia originally lit in the previous decade by American Graffiti, Happy Days, and Grease. It was warmly received, getting 4 out of 5 stars virtually everywhere, including Rolling Stone.

It ultimately went seven-times Platinum in the United States, peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It also hit #2 in the U.K. and went triple-Platinum there.

Seven singles were released from the album: "Tell Her About It", "Uptown Girl", the Title Track, "The Longest Time", "Leave a Tender Moment Alone", "This Night", and "Keeping the Faith". Six were hits in the U.S., with three being Top Ten, and "Tell Her About It" became Billy's second #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Uptown Girl" became his only #1 single in the United Kingdom.

Billy Joel released music videos for several of the singles, especially "Tell Her About It" (which was an homage to The Ed Sullivan Show) and "Uptown Girl" (which famously starred Christie Brinkley, one of his supermodel girlfriends—and his future second wife).

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Easy Money" (4:04)
2. "An Innocent Man" (5:17)
3. "The Longest Time" (3:42)
4. "This Night" (4:17)
5. "Tell Her About It" (3:52)

Side Two

1. "Uptown Girl" (3:17)
2. "Careless Talk" (3:48)
3. "Christie Lee" (3:31)
4. "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" (3:56)
5. "Keeping the Faith" (4:41)

"We were keeping the trooooooooopes! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the tropes!"

• Homage The entire freaking album is an homage to music from The '50s and early '60s:
  • "Easy Money": James Brown and Wilson Pickett
  • "An Innocent Man": Ben E. King, and The Drifters
  • "The Longest Time": Frankie Lymon
  • "This Night": Little Anthony and the Imperials (with a little Beethoven for good measure)
  • "Tell Her About It": The Supremes and The Temptations
  • "Uptown Girl": Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
  • "Careless Talk": Sam Cooke
  • "Christie Lee": Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis
  • "Leave a Tender Moment Alone": Smokey Robinson
  • "Keeping the Faith": His most general homage, simply to pre-British Invasion Rock & Roll
• Lyrical Cold Open: "The Longest Time"
• One-Woman Song: "Christie Lee"
• Rock Me, Amadeus!: The chorus of "This Night" is built around the second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata.
• Title Track: "An Innocent Man"