Billy Joel Doesn't Like The Sound Of His Own Voice, But What Does He Actually Think About His Best S
Highlights
- Billy Joel doesn't love all the songs he's written and recorded.
- Joel didn't think highly of his own singing voice.
- Billy Joel has revealed a lot about what many consider to be his best songs.
Even though Billy Joel has been putting out music since the 1970s, he doesn't actually love all the songs that he has written and recorded. This is definitely shocking to hear about. For instance, Joel doesn't like "We Didn't Start The Fire". While some musicians keep their feelings about their songs close to their chests because they want fans to interpret them as they see fit, that isn't Billy Joel's style. He opens up quite a lot, and fans like hearing the true tales behind his music.
Even though Billy Joel was married three times, not all of his songs are about his ex-wives. He has quite a big catalog of songs that are about different parts of his life, and it's fun to look back on his musical history. Here's what Billy Joel has said about his biggest songs.
7 Billy Joel Disliked His Singing Voice
It's easy to assume that if someone has been a solo artist or a member of a band for a long time, they think highly of their own musical talents. That wasn't always the case with Billy Joel, however.
In 2014, Howard Stern interviewed Billy Joel for a SiriusXM Town Hall, and he talked about his voice. According to Consequence.net, he said, "I like [my voice] better now than I used to. I don’t think of myself as a singer."
This might be surprising for fans to hear since Joel has been releasing songs and performing since the 1970s. It also seems like smoking might have affected his voice over the years. Joel said in the same interview, “It’s terrible for your voice.”
6 Billy Joel Wrote "Piano Man" About A Job He Once Had
Billy Joel's 1973 song "Piano Man" was his first massive hit, and fans still love it to this day. It tells a great story about a musician who plays the piano at a restaurant and comes across many different people. There's no question that it's an absolute classic.
Joel talked about "Piano Man" in a 2017 interview with the Library of Congress and said that this is the job that he once had. He explained, "It’s pretty accurate. It’s what really went on when I was a piano man in this piano bar. All the characters have the same name: there was John at the bar, the bartender; Davy was in the Navy; a guy named Paul, who was a real estate agent and was trying to write the great American novel, and the waitress, who was my girlfriend at the time and then became my wife."
5 Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind" Was Meant To Be Positive
The Billy Joel song "New York State Of Mind" was on his album "Turnstiles," which was released in 1976. The lyrics of the chorus are memorable: "It comes down to reality/And it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slide/Don't care if it's Chinatown or up on Riverside/I don't have any reasons/I've left them all behind/I'm in a New York state of mind." Joel also sang the song with Tony Bennett.
In a 2015 interview with Newsday, Joel explained why he wrote the tune. He said, “A lot of bad things were happening in New York then. There was a lot of crime. Drugs were out of control. The city looked bad; it was really dirty. It almost defaulted, financially. It really needed a boost, and I wanted to write an anthem for it.”
4 Billy Joel Wrote "Uptown Girls" When He Dated Christie Brinkley
Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel were married from 1985 to 1994, and he wrote at least one song about her. But even though "Uptown Girls" is one of Joel's most notable songs, people didn't always get the backstory totally correct.
According to Far Out Magazine, people thought that "Uptown Girls" was written because of the singer's relationship with Elle MacPherson. But, in fact, he wrote it because he was dating Christie Brinkley. As Joel told Howard Stern, “So I’m dating Elle for a couple of months, on and off. She went to Europe, and I figured that was it. Then I started to date Christie, after Elle and I had stopped dating. Rather than the song being about all these different girls, she became the uptown girl. I started writing it about one person. They got the story wrong. It is about Christie.”
3 Billy Joel's "Big Shot" Was Actually About Mick Jagger And Bianca Jagger
Billy Joel talked to Howard Stern in 2021 and explained what he was thinking about when he wrote "Big Shot." This is likely something that his fans have been wondering about for a long time. The singer wrote the song about Mick and Bianca Jagger, who were married from 1971 to 1978.
Joel told the radio show host, “I just pictured him yelling at Bianca Jagger after they went out and had too much to drink." He added that he came up with fictional lyrics: "It was my own fantasy. It wasn’t based on anything real.”
2 What Did Billy Joel Think About "Only The Good Die Young"?
"Only The Good Die Young" was released in 1977 on Billy Joel's "The Stranger" album. When compared to the singer's other popular songs, it's definitely a bit racier. He sang about someone who wanted to sleep with a religious girl.
Recently, Joel said that he realized that the song has some issues. He told The Los Angeles Times, "It’s kind of a selfish song — like, who cares what happens to you? What about what I want? But on the other hand, it was of its time. This was written in the mid-’70s, and I was trying to seduce girls. Why bulls— about it?”
According to American Songwriter, Joel once said that he liked a girl named Virginia Callahan when he was younger, and she is the person he wrote the song about.
1 Billy Joel's "You're My Home" Was Inspired By Gordon Lightfoot
In 1973, Billy Joel put out his song "You're My Home." It's a beautiful tune, and he was actually thinking about another musician he wrote it. The lyrics are very romantic, especially "Well, I never had a place that I could call my very own/But that's all right, my love, 'cause you're my home" and "Well, I'll never be a stranger and I'll never be alone/Wherever we're together, that's my home."
While of course many bands and singers have released countless songs about love, there is something else that fans should know about this song. As Joel said to Howard Stern in 2021, he wanted the song to sound like a song that Gordon Lightfoot would have released. He said, “I love Gordon Lightfoot. He’s one of my favorite singers."
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