Piano Man is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriterBilly Joel, released on November 9, 1973. Joel's first recording with Columbia Records, Piano Man emerged from legal difficulties with his former label, Family Productions, and became his breakthrough album. However, the Family Productions print logo was used until 1986.
The single "Piano Man", a fictionalized retelling of Joel's experiences with people Joel met as a lounge singer in Los Angeles, peaked at #25 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and at #4 on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. "Travelin' Prayer" and "Worse Comes to Worst" peaked at #77 and #80, respectively, on the Pop Singles chart, while the album reached #27 on the Pop Albums chart. ("Travelin' Prayer" later earned Dolly Parton a Grammy Award, when she covered it in 1999.)
Legacy edition
Columbia Records released a 2-disc legacy version of Piano Man in November 2011.
This edition included a slightly truncated live 1972 radio broadcast of early songs that Joel recorded at the Philadelphia radio station WMMR's Sigma Sound Studios. This radio broadcast was extremely important to the success of Joel's music career because, after the show was recorded, the live recording of "Captain Jack" was played by the station and quickly became "the most requested song in the station's history". Once the popularity of this live recording was known, people working for Columbia Records heard the recording and signed Joel to the label. The radio broadcast included three songs ("Long, Long Time", "Josephine" and "Rosalinda") that were never on any of Joel's studio albums.
Andreas Grassl (born 25 October 1984) is a German man found in England in April 2005, who remained unidentified for a long time due to his refusal to speak, communicating instead through drawing and playing the piano. During the over four months that passed until he revealed his identity, the mysterious story spawned media attention and speculation across the world, dubbing him the Piano Man.
When Grassl was picked up by police on 7 April 2005, he was wandering the streets in Sheerness, Kent, in England, wearing a soaking wet suit and tie, and he did not answer any questions. Remaining silent, he was presented a pen and paper by Medway Maritime Hospital staff in the hope he would write his name. Instead, he drew a detailed sketch of a grand piano. When they first brought him to a piano, he reportedly played music from various genres (ranging from classical music by Tchaikovsky to pop music by The Beatles) non-stop for four hours, and then was taken away by the hospital staff.
Its nine oclock on a saturday The regular crowd shuffles in Theres an old man sitting next to me Makin love to his tonic and gin He says, son, can you play me a memory? Im not really sure how it goes But its sad and its sweet and I knew it complete When I wore a younger mans clothes La la la, de de da La la, de de da da da Chorus: Sing us a song, youre the piano man Sing us a song tonight Well, were all in the mood for a melody And youve got us feelin alright Now john at the bar is a friend of mine He gets me my drinks for free And hes quick with a joke or to light up your smoke But theres someplace that hed rather be He says, bill, I believe this is killing me. As the smile ran away from his face Well Im sure that I could be a movie star If I could get out of this place Oh, la la la, de de da La la, de de da da da Now paul is a real estate novelist Who never had time for a wife And hes talkin with davy whos still in the navy And probably will be for life And the waitress is practicing politics As the businessmen slowly get stoned Yes, theyre sharing a drink they call loneliness But its better than drinkin alone Chorus Its a pretty good crowd for a saturday And the manager gives me a smile cause he knows that its me theyve been comin to see To forget about life for a while And the piano, it sounds like a carnival And the microphone smells like a beer And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar And say, man, what are you doin here? Oh, la la la, de de da
Tom Black of Merritt Island stopped by last week to tune my piano ... For the late Earl of Topaz, the resonance of the piano was as terrifying as thunder or fireworks ... When he came into the house, Tom stepped back and looked at the piano with reverence.
Alexis’ deep reverence for nature shines through in every note of his solo piano EP, drawing inspiration from his personal experiences exploring the stunning landscapes of the Scottish Highlands with his youngest son Jobim.
