Hit Parade: Still Billy Joel to Me Part 2

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Tv & Film, Arts, Music

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

So, sure—Billy Joel’s first Top 40 hit, way back in 1974, was “Piano Man,” and the nickname stuck. But for a guy who became famous sitting behind 88 keys, few of his biggest hits are really piano songs. In fact, on all three of his No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, keyboards are not the primary instrument. The truth is, Joel isn’t the Piano Man, he’s the pastiche man. He has openly admitted to borrowing genre tropes, vocal styles, and even specific song hooks from his Baby Boom-era heroes, from Ray Charles to the Beatles to the Supremes. He’s been a jazzy crooner, a saloon balladeer, an anthem rocker, even a pseudo-punk. And on his most hit-packed album, he literally tried on a different song mode on every single—and was rewarded for it. This month, Hit Parade breaks down the uncanny success of pop magpie Billy Joel, the guy who would try anything for a hit: the next phase, new wave, dance craze, any ways. Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch and Kevin Bendis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is surprising, is it your celebrity crush knocking on your front door?
0:06.7	Oh, hiya!
0:08.4	Is it barbecuing and not burning the sausages?
0:11.5	Oh, hiya!
0:13.9	Is it realising your cat has more friends than you?
0:19.4	Or is it finding seven seasons of iconic American comedy parks and recreation to stream free on ITVX?
0:25.9	You be the judge, ITVX, the UK's freshest streaming service.
0:31.6	If you eat, sleep, breathe for all things NFL, then DeZone is your go-to streaming destination.
0:38.1	DeZone is the only platform with NFL Game Pass.
0:41.6	That means they'll have all 272 regular season games live, subject to weekly blackout restrictions,
0:48.1	plus the playoffs, Super Bowl and more.
0:50.8	Catch every game, anytime, anywhere.
0:53.8	NFL Game Pass, only on DeZone, sign up at DeZone.com forward slash NFL.
1:11.0	Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop-chark history from Sleet magazine
1:17.2	about the hits from Coast to Coast.
1:19.7	I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Sleet's Why is the Song No. 1 series
1:26.5	on our last episode.
1:28.4	We covered the first decade of Billy Joel's career.
1:32.3	Yes, he was the piano man.
1:35.3	But really, Joel was the pastiche man, borrowing styles and melodic tropes,
1:41.8	sometimes down to the same beat from both contemporary artists and hitmakers from his youth.
1:49.6	We are now up to the early 80s, and Joel is about to turn this trick from subtext into text.
	...

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