History Music / BillyJoel

* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** One popular interpretation of "Captain Jack," though it's explicitly about being TheStoner. Being bored and masturbating is mentioned in the song, though.
** "Sometimes a Fantasy", however, is not only a song about ''phone sex'', but Joel even makes [[TheImmodestOrgasm Immodest Orgasms]]. (The music video is {{squick}}ier.)

[[AC:Classical Albums]]

References to his songs come up in pop culture quite a bit: among them a second season episode of ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had the contestants singing songs from his catalog, he's been the musical guest on four episodes of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', an entire episode of ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' was dedicated to his music (and surprisingly, kept all of it for the DVD), and a classic ''Series/SesameStreet'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHC3M7KL2ns skit]] has him serenading Oscar the Grouch along with Creator/MarleeMatlin.

* WeDidntStartTheBillyJoelParodies: "We Didn't Start the Fire" is possibly the most parodied pop song of its era.

--> ''And these are the last words I have to say.\\

* WeDidntStartTheBillyJoelParodies: A list of the innumerable parodies of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

** "Getting Closer" from ''The Bridge'' is one to his first manager Artie Ripp. "The Great Wall Oof China" from ''River of Dreams'' is one to Frank Weber, his ex-brother in law who replaced Ripp as his manager. Both were caught swindling Billy of his money at various times in his career.

* BlackSheepHit: "You're Only Human (Second Wind) counts as this. Released in 1985 as a single from Joel's compilation album "Greatest Hits - Volume I & Volume II" in 1985. Charting at #9 on the Billboard Charts when it was originally released, the upbeat synth driven song (which itself is a bit of a departure from the piano driven style Joel is known for) heavily contrasts the lyrics, which encourages those struggling with depression not to resort to suicide. Also doubles as a *RarelyPerformedSong due to Joel feeling that the subject matter of the song is too (understandably) depressing, having not performed the song in concert once, between 1991 & 2016, performing it then, and only then as a dedication to the people of Orlando (following a nightclub shooting that had recently occurred.) Also appearing in the music video for "You're Only Human", is a young Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame), playing an extra/friend of the video's protagonist (keep an eye out for the red haired kid with thick glasses - that's Adam!)

* BlackSheepHit: "You're Only Human (Second Wind) counts as this. Released in 1985 as a single from Joel's compilation album "Greatest Hits - Volume I & Volume II" in 1985. Charting at #9 on the Billboard Charts when it was originally released, the upbeat synth driven song heavily contrasts the lyrics, which encourages those struggling with depression not to resort to suicide. Also doubles as a *RarelyPerformedSong due to Joel feeling that the subject matter of the song is too (understandably) depression, having not performed the song in concert once, between 1991 & 2016, performing it then, and only then as a dedication to the people of Orlando (following a nightclub shooting that had recently occurred.) Also appearing in the music video for "You're Only Human", is a young Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame), playing an extra/friend of the video's protagonist (keep an eye out for the red haired kid with thick glasses - that's Adam!)

** Likewise, "Leningrad" subtly interpolates a part of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

** As he mentions in his live album ''Songs in the Attic'', the song "demands the gothic reverberation of a vast railroad terminus, such as Madison Square Garden." Apparently this is what they were aiming for on the original, and landed in the aural UncannyValley instead.

References to his songs come up in pop culture quite a bit: among them a second season episode of ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had the contestants singing songs from his catalog, he's been the musical guest on four episodes of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', an entire episode of ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' was dedicated to his music (and surprisingly, kept all of it for the DVD), and a classic ''Series/SesameStreet'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHC3M7KL2ns skit]] has him serenading Oscar the Grouch along with Marlee Matlin.

* RefrainFromAssuming:
** It's "River of Dreams" not "In The Middle Of The Night".
** Similarly, it's "Summer, Highland Falls" not "Sadness or Euphoria".
** "Goodnight Saigon" is not called "We Will All Go Down Together".
** Several of his songs have subtitles by which they're more commonly known. "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Down on Broadway)" are the most famous.

* SelfDeprecation:
** The cover of the 1991 "Shameless" single, when it was re-released as a single after being covered by Music/GarthBrooks, is a letter from Columbia Records congratulating Joel on his first country hit as a songwriter.

* PrecisionFStrike: Billy swears quite a bit in interviews and concerts, but his songwriting is mostly clean. An exception is "Laura" from the album ''The Nylon Curtain'', the only song in Joel's entire oeuvre to contain an F-bomb.

William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and classical composer. Originally from the Bronx, New York, he is the third-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with 33 Top 40 hits and six Grammy Awards to his name. As his 1973 breakout hit "Piano Man" implies, he is a skilled piano player, and many of his most famous songs have strong keyboard elements.

* ACappella: "The Longest Time". Slight aversion in that, while it's become an a cappella standard, the original version on ''An Innocent Man'' included a bass guitar.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "We Didn't Start the Fire" is full of these, with a RantInducingSlight that pushes him over the edge:

* {{Ballet}}: the young granddaughter in the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” music video is shown twirling in a tutu and tights.

** "Piano Man" is very biographic. 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.
** ''An Innocent Man'', an upbeat and nostalgic album reflected Billy's bachelorhood and newfound romances with Christie Brinkley and Creator/ElleMacPherson. ''River Of Dreams'' reflected Billy and Christie's marital woes and eventual divorce, along with Billy's legal issues (his ex-brother-in-law, who managed Billy's finances, was found to have cheated him for millions of dollars).

** ''My Life'': The "old friend" who calls Billy to tell them they "couldn't go on the American way" and started doing standup comedy in Los Angeles was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lewis_(comedian) Richard Lewis]].

* AmicableExes: Despite rumors to the contrary, Joel and Christie Brinkley remained friends after their divorce, and supposed animosity for her was ''not'' the reason he stopped performing "Uptown Girl" live.[[note]]He actually found it increasingly hard to sing it in the falsetto sound he used to record it, since it was stylistically an homage to Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons.[[/note]]

** Subtly, his first two albums [i]Cold Spring Harbor[/i] and [i]Piano Man[/i] do feature Joel at times using a fast vibrato which he seemed to drop on subsequent albums as his music became more rock-influenced.

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

* ThatsAllFolks: ''River of Dreams''.