Piano Man (song)

"Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of Joel's own experience as a piano-lounge singer for six months in 1972–73 at the now defunct Executive Room bar in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles.^[8] In a talk on Inside the Actors Studio, Joel said that he had to get away from New York due to a conflict with his then recording company and hence lived in Los Angeles for three years with his first wife. Since he needed work to pay the bills, but could not use his common name, he worked at the Executive Room bar as a piano player using the name "Bill Martin" (Joel's full name is William Martin Joel).^[9]

Joel has stated that all of the characters depicted in the song were based on real people.^[10] Joel had moved from New York to L.A. to record his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, which was marred by a mastering error by the album's producers at Family Productions, the first label that signed Joel. After this bad experience, Joel wanted to leave his contract with Family Productions for Columbia Records, but the contract that he had signed made this very difficult, so Joel stated that he was "hiding out" at the bar while lawyers at Columbia Records tried to get him out of his first record deal.^[11]

The verses of the song are sung from the point of view of a bar piano player who focuses mainly on the "regular crowd" that "shuffles" into the bar at nine o'clock on a Saturday: an old man, John the bartender, the waitress, businessmen, and bar regulars like "real estate novelist" Paul and naval serviceman Davy. Most of these characters have broken or unfulfilled dreams, and the pianist's job is to help them "forget about life for a while", as the lyrics state. The pianist makes money when the patrons "sit at the bar, and put bread in my jar, and say, 'Man, what are you doin' here?'" The chorus, in bar-room sing-along style, comes from the bar patrons themselves, who say, "Sing us a song, / You're the piano man; / Sing us a song tonight. / Well, we're all in the mood for a melody, / And you've got us feeling all right." As for the lyrics, Joel has observed that with their five-line grouping, they were more in the form of a limerick than a typical poem.^[12]

Cash Box said that the "soft, tender narrative tune, reminiscent of that material being spun by Harry Chapin, is going to attract a ton of folks looking to sink their teeth into an equal blend of music and lyric".^[13] Record World described it as "a lengthy (4:30) story song that is reminiscent of Harry Chapin's 'Taxi' in style and sound".^[14]

The song was released as a single on November 2, 1973, and was the second track on Joel's Piano Man album. It was later released on several greatest hits collections.

The sheet music for the song is in the key of C major, though in later performances Joel sings it in the key of Bb major because of his age and deepened voice. It has a ³
₄ fast waltz time signature^[15] and begins with a jazzy piano solo before moving into its piano and harmonica introduction. The verses and the chorus feature a descending walking bassline in C that ends with a D–G turnaround. Instrumentally, Joel's 1973 version features piano, harmonica, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, accordion, mandolin, and drums.

1. "Piano Man" – 4:30
2. "You're My Home" – 3:08

Credits adapted from Allmusic^[16]

• Billy Joel – piano, harmonica, vocals
• Wilton Felder and Emory Gordy Jr. – bass
• Larry Carlton – guitar
• Richard Bennett – guitar
• Dean Parks – guitar
• Michael Omartian – accordion
• Ron Tutt – drums

The single broke into the Billboard Top 40 in April 1974 at number 30,^[17] going on to ultimately peak at number 25, making it Joel's first top 40 hit. In Canada, the song peaked at number 10 and established Joel as a star there.

Initially, "Piano Man" was a moderate hit in the US. However, following the 1977 release of Joel's album The Stranger, the song became one of his best-known and best-loved songs.^[18]

During the first Face to Face tour featuring Elton John and Joel, ads promoted the event as "Rocket Man meets Piano Man".^[19]

"Piano Man" was ranked number 421 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Ultimate Classic Rock placed it at number 63 in its "Top 100 Classic Rock Songs" list.^[20]

"Piano Man" was selected as one of 25 sound recordings in 2015 to be preserved by the Library of Congress National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[21]

In addition to selling more than five million copies in America alone, "Piano Man" is Joel's most-streamed song on Spotify (933+ million^[22]) and YouTube (251+ million^[23]).

Americans tuning in to a Sunday, April 14, 2024 CBS broadcast of Joel's 100th concert in his Madison Square Garden residency became enraged when local affiliates abruptly cut away in the middle of the song to air their late newscasts. CBS blamed the issue on a "timing error" (the special had been delayed 30 minutes due to Masters Tournament coverage running long) and announced it would rebroadcast the entire program later in the week.^[24] A rebroadcast of the entire show aired on April 19, and the error had been fixed.

• "Piano Man" Music Video on YouTube / ⒞1985 Sony BMG channel