History Music / BillyJoel

* BigApplesauce

* RealSongThemeTune: "My Life" for ''BosomBuddies'' and "You May Be Right" for ''Dave's World''

* RealLifeWritesThePlot of "Piano" Man. He was supporting himself by playing in a piano bar while waiting out a bad record deal and thought no one would believe his story, so he wrote a song about it. Everyone in the song is based on a real person.

* DoNotCallMePaul: Billy is ''not'' fond of being called "William".

4. He never robbed a bank in Colorado, nor did he rob his way from Utah to Oklahoma. What's known of his criminal activities is restricted to subsistence thievery, horse thievery and feud killings, and pretty much stuck to New Mexico.

3. He rode with a gang for most of his career - the song claims he always rode alone.\\

* RealLifeWritesThePlot of Piano Man. He was supporting himself by playing in a piano bar while waiting out a bad record deal and thought no one would believe his story, so he wrote a song about it. Everyone in the song is based on a real person.

Not to be confused with [[GreenDay Billie Joe]] or BillyIdol

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_yPvB1vws Joel's account]], he first wrote "Only The Good Die Young" as a {{Reggae}} song. When he brought it into the studio and first played it, his drummer Liberty [=DeVitto=] [[DisproportionateRetribution threw his sticks at him, yelled "I fucking hate reggae music!"]] and said [[DeadpanSnarker "the closest you get to Jamaica is when you change trains in Queens!"]]. [=DeVitto=] then demanded that the song be changed to a shuffle beat instead of a reggae beat (something Joel describes as "playing against the reggae"), resulting in the version we know today. Joel also mentions that initially the single stiffed on the charts, and only began selling tons of copies after it was banned for being "anti-religious", and claims that he wrote quite a few letters thanking religious organisations and asking them to ban his next album as well.

* DeadAir: Billy Joel invoked a live-performance version of this trope during the 1994 Grammy Award Show. The director of the show cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, and this pissed Joel off to the point that he stopped his performance of "The River of Dreams" in the middle. He sat there, grinning at the audience, while pretending to check his watch. After a couple of minutes, he resumed playing the song.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_yPvB1vws Joel's account]], he first wrote "Only The Good Die Young" as a {{Reggae}} song. When he brought it into the studio and first played it, his drummer Liberty [=DeVitto=] [[DisproportionateRetribution threw his sticks at him, yelled "I fucking hate reggae music!"]] and said [[DeadpanSnarker "the closest you get to Jamaica is when you change trains in Queens!"]]. [=DeVitto=] then demanded that the song be changed to a shuffle beat instead of a reggae beat, resulting in the version we know today. Joel also mentions that initially the single stiffed on the charts, and only began selling tons of copies after it was banned for being "anti-religious".

4. He never robbed a bank in Colorado, nor did he rob his way from Utah to Oklahoma. What's known of his criminal activities is restricted to horse thievery and feud killings, and pretty much stuck to New Mexico.

1. William McCarty was born in New York, not Wheeling, WV.\\

* DidNotDoTheResearch: He gets just about every historical detail wrong in "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid". A few examples:
1. William McCarty was born in New York, not Wheeling, WV.
2. He was shot to death, not hanged.
3. He rode with a gang for most of his career - the song claims he always rode alone.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_yPvB1vws Joel's account]], he first wrote "Only The Good Die Young" as a {{Reggae}} song. When he brought it into the studio and first played it, his drummer Liberty [=DeVitto=] threw his sticks at him, yelled "I fucking hate reggae music!" and said [[DeadpanSnarker "the closest you get to Jamaica is when you change trains in Queens!"]]. [=DeVitto=] then demanded that the song be changed to a shuffle beat instead of a reggae beat, resulting in the version we know today. Joel also mentions that initially the single stiffed on the charts, and only began selling tons of copies after it was banned for being "anti-religious".

* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind: This trope appears word-for-word as a line in "The River Of Dreams".

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The song "Don't Ask Me Why" inexplicably drops "parlez-vous francais" ("Do you speak French?") for no other reason than it rhymes with the word "away".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_yPvB1vws Joel's account]], he first wrote "Only The Good Die Young" as a {{Reggae}} song. When he brought it into the studio and first played it, his drummer Liberty [=DeVitto=] threw his sticks at him, yelled "I fucking hate reggae music!" and said [[DeadpanSnarker "the closest you get to Jamaica is when you changed trains in Queens!"]]. [=DeVitto=] then demanded that the song be changed to a shuffle beat instead of a reggae beat, resulting in the version we know today. Joel also mentions that initially the single stiffed on the charts, and only began selling tons of copies after a leading archbishop from New York denounced it and called for a ban.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_yPvB1vws Joel's account]], he first wrote "Only The Good Die Young" as a {{Reggae}} song. When he brought it into the studio and first played it, his drummer Liberty [=DeVitto=] threw his sticks at him, yelled "I fucking hate reggae music!" and said [[DeadpanSnarker "the closest you get to Jamaica is when you changed trains in Queens!"]]. [=DeVitto=] then demanded that the song be changed to a shuffle beat instead of a reggae beat, resulting in the version we know today.

* HarsherInHindsight: "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" straddles the line between this and a FunnyAneurysmMoment, as Joel originally intended the described destruction of New York City to be tongue-in-cheek or, in his words, "science fiction". After 9/11 some of the imagery (particularly the falling skyline) became all too real. Billy averted TooSoon by playing the song very soon after 9/11 at a benefit concert, lampshading these tropes, saying "I never thought it would really happen. But unlike the end of that song, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming we ain't going anywhere]]."

* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: He acknowledges this as a reason why "Only the Good Die Young" became a hit; Catholic groups complained about its lyrical content and got it banned from several radio stations, prompting listeners to buy the single to see what all the fuss was about.

* TheTropeSong: "Weekend Song"