Piano Man (5:34)
1,000,346 plays (219,377 listeners)
“Piano Man” was Billy Joel’s first major hit and is considered Joel’s signature song. The verses of the song are sung from the point of view of a bar piano player who focuses mainly on everyone else at the bar: John the bartender, the waitress, and bar regulars like Paul and Davy. Most of these characters have unfulfilled dreams, and the pianist’s job, it seems, is to help them “forget about life for a while”. The chorus, in bar-room sing-along style, comes from the bar patrons themselves, who plead, “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 alright.”
“Piano Man” has been released as a single and on several albums.
“Piano Man” is a fictionalized retelling of real people Joel met during his days as a piano-lounge singer in Los Angeles, after the failure of his first album, Cold Spring Harbor. Joel’s own personal feelings about this failure are expressed in the failed dreams of the characters in his song. At the time, Joel was trying to get out of a bad deal with the record company Family Productions, so, according to Joel, he was “hiding out” at the bar, performing under the name Bill Martin while Columbia Records tried to get him out of the deal.
“Piano Man” has been released as a single and on several albums.
“Piano Man” is a fictionalized retelling of real people Joel met during his days as a piano-lounge singer in Los Angeles, after the failure of his first album, Cold Spring Harbor. Joel’s own personal feelings about this failure are expressed in the failed dreams of the characters in his song. At the time, Joel was trying to get out of a bad deal with the record company Family Productions, so, according to Joel, he was “hiding out” at the bar, performing under the name Bill Martin while Columbia Records tried to get him out of the deal.
Video
Added by pianojohn113
My voice had not fully recovered yet, so the high notes were a little rough. But if you're interested in learning the piano solo in the middle, check my "how to" video.
Share Video
See 8 more
Related Tracks
-
New York State of Mind
Billy Joel -
The Entertainer
Billy Joel -
American Pie
Don McLean -
Tiny Dancer
Elton John -
Rocket Man
Elton John -
More Than A Feeling
Boston
Albums featuring this track
-
Nassau (live 1977-12-11) (disc 1)
Billy Joel Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search
-
Greatest Hits, Volume I: 1973-1977
Billy Joel Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search
-
Piano Man
Billy Joel Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.99
- 7digital $9.99
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $37.99
- eBay Search
New
-
Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel
Billy Joel Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon $6.68
- eBay Search
Shouts
-
ABM1708 wrote:
Saw him do this in Cape Town and he is the piano man. What a song & the microphone smells like a beer. .
-
steamboat58 wrote:
Yep
-
psychochristoph wrote:
Klassic.
-
Hold-Me-Close wrote:
In high school I used to play this album over and over again until my family would beg me to stop. Joel and his Baby Grand in concert was simply amazing. He gave us five encores. What talent the man has!
-
kxelfm wrote:
Sing us a song..........
-
Dora117 wrote:
John at the bar is a friend of mine........he gets me my drinks for free.........play us a song tonight........and the waitress is practicing politics....... I once sang that song with a guy in a Toronto bar true true true :)
-
Mineira wrote:
" they´re sharing a drink they call loneliness But its better than drinkin alone"
-
GrizzlyMike wrote:
I saw him before I married my wife who was at the same concert as I at the Oakland Collisium Arena.
-
GrizzlyMike wrote:
It's an okay but I like is traditional song Songs in an Italian Restaurant a nice almost 12 minute song that tells the whole story.
-
oldfolkshome wrote:
MAN, REMEMBER "CHEERS"? DUDE, I LOVED THAT SHOW.
-
RAGGLEMAN wrote:
Great track. Shame he didn't continue down this path rather than reaping the big bucks and supermodels by releasing guff like Uptown Girl. He has a terrific back catalogue but dammit, the early stuff is so much better. Oh god, what have I done??!
-
Soyerz wrote:
This is a great song. Just heard it again for the first time in years. Lovely song.
-
BUCK199 wrote:
PERFECTION
-
snejk wrote:
beautiful song
-
abriltora wrote:
classic..
-
dominion_vortar wrote:
LOVE this song
-
Joesow wrote:
memories haaaa
-
love-again wrote:
<3
-
guitarman1973 wrote:
Greetings Pop Pickers! Back We Go To 1973 Then
-
cloudx45 wrote:
I like the harmonica
Billy Joel
Piano Man
full track
Listeners
-
ZaelKain
Listening now
-
Mars_Volta16
Listening now
-
mgjaltema
Listening now
-
gizum
Top Listener
-
DanJ88
Top Listener
-
gymrats_jk
Top Listener
Recent Activity
-
jogibaer66 added Piano Man to the playlist. 32 minutes ago
-
jogibaer66 and Da-Winkler added Billy Joel – Piano Man to their libraries. 32 minutes ago
-
AV333_pianoman and bangcamaro66 loved Billy Joel – Piano Man. 58 minutes ago
-
worlad added Piano Man to worlad’s library. 2 hours ago
-
thenyewnt added Piano Man to his Loved Tracks. 2 hours ago
-
Elvisklebt added Piano Man to Elvisklebt’s library. 2 hours ago
-
Elvisklebt added Piano Man to the playlist Mussik. 2 hours ago
-
JBIZZLE36, drgruney, CRAZYMARKUS12 and 5 other people loved Billy Joel – Piano Man. 2 hours ago
-
plmartinho added Piano Man to the playlist 80´s. 5 hours ago
-
plmartinho added Piano Man to plmartinho’s library. 5 hours ago
Related Journals
-
500 Greatest Songs Of All Time (The Rolling Stone Magazines)
by FanMusic2 |
28 Jun 2009 | 32 comments
-
more recommendations.
by Reijinni |
3 May 2009 | Add comment
-
recommended songs
by Reijinni |
3 Apr 2009 | Add comment
