Das Racist - "You Oughta Know"

In honor of that new Billy Joel documentary, which I haven't seen yet, let's enjoy one of the best uses of a Joel sample in a hip-hop song. 

David Letterman's First 'Late Show,' 30 Years Later

TIME Magazine Cover, August 30, 1993: David Letterman
He's Tanned.
He's Rested.
He's Ready.
Is America? pic.twitter.com/I6Ldftnb3p

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) August 30, 2021

I vividly remember watching the first episode of Late Show with my new college friends back in 1993. I haven't seen that episode since, so I decided to give it a revisit on its 30th anniversary. Turns out, I had a lot to say about it.

Why Is "Vienna" Billy Joel's Most Popular Song?

Never a hit. Never a single. And yet, this album track from The Stranger is everywhere on social media and his biggest song on Spotify. How did this happen? I wrote about it for MEL.

Billy Joel - "Laura"

One of the side effects of getting a record player is that I've taken to digging back through my family's old vinyl. Which brings me to The Nylon Curtain, Billy Joel's 1982 album, the one he's most proud of in terms of material and recording. (He has clearly forgotten he made The Stranger.)  

The Nylon Curtain was clearly Joel's attempt to make a Reagan-era record: Everything is bitter and paranoid and disconsolate. And because Joel loves the Beatles, there are also a lot of Lennon/McCartney touches throughout. Two of the non-hits have caught my ear: the ballad "Surprises" and the angry "Laura," where he goes off on a needy lover with the sort of punk-like anger he tried to bring to 1980's Glass Houses. Love those "ahhhh-ahhhhs" in the background.

billy joel - an innocent man

Recently, I was sent a copy of Billy Joel's latest greatest-hits package, The Hits. I have a complicated history with this man. My parents played his music pretty religiously when I was a kid -- we wore out a couple of his Greatest Hits tapes on car trips -- but in adulthood I've found that his music hasn't aged well at all. This is not exactly a groundbreaking revelation -- most music critics hate the guy -- but for me it's harder because there are a lot of family memories embedded in his songs.

The Hits is only one disc, and it misses a lot of Joel's actual hits. One song I thought of, that I still like, is "An Innocent Man." Here it is.

yes, billy joel

It'll break my dad's heart, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't find much nice to say about Billy Joel in this recent piece.