Nov 9th in Pop History
On this day, November 9th, in:
• 1973 - Columbia Records released Billy Joel’s album, Piano Man. And the rest is history... A superstar was born.
The single, Piano Man, is one of the greatest pop songs in the history of music! (In my humble and accurate opinion). Melancholy songs fill the airwaves, because there is much sadness in real life. The simple but profound lyrics: “They’re sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it’s better than drinkin’ alone,” says it all. The existential aloneness that we all share is a universal condition of the human experience.
He continues, “It’s a pretty good day for a Saturday, and the manager gives me a smile; cause he knows that’s it’s me they’ve been coming to see, to forget about life for a while....”
Piano Man is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel. It was included on Joel's 1973 album of the same name. The song is sung from Joel's point-of-view as a piano player at a bar, reminiscing about his experiences there and the people he encountered. Piano Man is based on his real life experiences as a lounge musician in Los Angeles from 1972–73. He decided to pursue the bar gig in an effort to escape his contract at a New York City-based record company at the time, Family Productions, following the poor commercial performance of his first album. Joel describes various characters, including a bartender named John and a "real-estate novelist" named Paul, all based on real life individuals.
This song was Joel's first major hit and it became his signature song. Piano Man only peaked at # 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1974. But it became one of his most well-known songs, and is now a highlight of Joel's live shows, where he usually allows the audience to join in on the chorus. It is also a basic staple song heard on most classic rock radio formats.
Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after this first major hit, Joel, a native of Hicksville, New York, has sold more than 150 million records in his career. That makes him one of the best selling music artists of all time. For those who care about such record selling metrics, that makes him specifically the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. His Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 and 2 has sold 23 million copies and is the sixth biggest-selling album in music history.
Wow. Quite a resume. Basically it just means Billy Joel writes songs that connect with real people in real life. And he’s done it a lot.
And...it all started with Piano Man.
Click below to enjoy this wonderful record:
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Also, on this day, November 9th, in:
• 1958 - Elvis Presley's massive hit Hound Dog - with Don’t Be Cruel on the flip side - becomes only the third record in history to sell more than three million copies, following Bing Crosby's White Christmas and Gene Autry's Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. It is the only single to have both sides reach # 1. The single was # 1 in the US for 11 weeks
• 1959 - Bobby Darin registered a sixth consecutive week at # 1 with Mack The Knife
• 1963 - Louie, Louie, the ultimate 60s party song, was released by the Kingsmen
• 1967 - The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is published on this date, with a photo of John Lennon on the cover and items about David Crosby, The Who, and Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe & the Fish)
• 1968 - The Beatles enjoyed the biggest hit of their career as Hey Jude logged a seventh week at # 1!
Mary Hopkin remained in the runner-up spot (# 2) with Those Were The Days, a record produced by Paul McCartney of the Beatles, and released by Apple Records 🍏
• 1985 - Jan Hammer's instrumental Miami Vice Theme was # 1, the last instrumental of the Rock Era to reach the top
