Chart entered : 11 February 1978
Chart peak : 19
Number of hits : 20
A funny one this. I really like some of this guy's songs but I loathed everything from his most successful album - in the UK - and would put its title track on the shortlist for worst single of all time.
William Joel was born in The Bronx in 1949 to Jewish parents, his father a German refugee and classical pianist. Young Billy accordingly took piano lessons from an early age and while still at school played in bars to help his mother make ends meet after his parents' divorce in 1957. He failed to graduate as a result but eventually rectified this in 1992 ! He took up boxing for a while with some success on the amateur circuit but decided to quit after his first broken nose.
Billy's yet another who credits The Beatles on Ed Sullivan as the starting point for his pop career. He was in a number of bands in the mid-sixties as well as doing session work; he played on a demo of Leader of the Pack. In 1967 he joined the band The Hassles a Psychedelic / R &B band who already had a contract lined up with United Artists. They released their eponymous debut LP later that year. Though mostly comprised of soul covers it is worth checking out although you could be forgiven for thinking you're listening to a Small Faces tribute band ; singer John Dizek has Steve Marriott off to a T and Billy matches Mac's prowess on the Hammond. The first single was a cover of Sam and Dave's "You've Got Me Hummin" which huffs and puffs without going anywhere exciting. The follow-up "Every Step I Take" is credited to Billy and their two producers and is a better attempt at a pop single with a rousing chorus and a distinctive violin part . Billy wrote two other tracks on the album, the opening instrumental "Warming Up" and the lively "I Can Tell" with its Rod Argent-esque jazzy organ break.
Billy was sole composer of their next single "Four O Clock in the Morning" in August 1968, an ambitious attempt at fractured Beatles/ Bee Gees pop melodrama that probably deserved a bit more attention. Dizek quit the band shortly afterwards leaving Billy the undisputed main man. He took over as lead vocalist and wrote or co-wrote all the songs on their second album "Hour of the Wolf ". "Night After Day", the second single, was one of the solo efforts and it's another heavily Beatles-influenced number , a self-pitying ballad with Billy sounding like George . It's good but elsewhere on the album they fall prey to prog tendencies with drum solos, pseudo-classical sections and jazz passages. The 12 minute title track with its animal noises is particularly testing.
After one more, standalone, single "Travellin' Band" in September 1969 which sounds like an early Deep Purple rocker , The Hassles slimmed down to a duo of Billy and drummer John Small, calling themselves Attila. They produced one eponymous LP, of noisy prog metal in the vein of Uriah Heep, in 1970 which was absolutely excoriated by the critics. No singles were forthcoming and the band broke up abruptly when Billy eloped with Small's wife Elizabeth. Shortly after this Billy claims to have tried to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish.
Nevertheless he soon got a solo deal with Artie Ripp's Family Productions label and released his first album "Cold Spring Harbor" an excellent collection of songs with "Why Judy Why" and the suicide-referencing "Tomorrow Is Today" as good as anything as he's ever written. Famously however Ripp as producer got the mastering wrong and released it at slightly too fast a speed making Billy sound like a chipmunk. Billy was furious and spent the next couple of years trying to get out of his contract which he eventually managed with a proviso giving Ripp a slice from all his recordings up to 1986. The album was eventually a small hit in 1983 when the pitch was corrected. The singles were the bare piano ballads "She's Got A Way" in November 1971 and the ultra -bleak "Tomorrow Is Today". Neither made the charts.
Billy went on tour and was clocked by a Philadelphian radio executive. He booked Billy to do an exclusive concert for the radio station. Billy included five new songs in the set including the anti-heroin tale "Captain Jack" which drew an enormous response from listeners. This helped clinch the deal with Columbia Records for his second album "Piano Man" in 1973 which reached 27 in the US. Despite the big production from Michael Stewart I find it less appealing than his debut with too many third person narratives and a heavy Elton John influence on many of the tracks.
The first single in October 1973 was the title track ( shortened to Billy's disgust ) which has become his signature song. A bittersweet account of his recent stint at a supper club in Los Angeles it reached number 25 in the US but doesn't appear to have been released here. The chorus has the same melody as the verses and Billy himself has said the song "doesn't go anywhere ( musically)". The second was "Worse Comes To Worst" , a repudiation of the sentiments of "Tomorrow Came Today" in favour of "I'll Get By" stoicism set to a a light reggae rhythm. It got to number 80. The third single was the banjo-driven country tune "Travellin Prayer" which earned Dolly Parton a Grammy when she covered it in true bluegrass style in 1999 . Billy's original reached number 77. A fourth track , "The Ballad of Billy The Kid" a Wild West narrative in the style of Carole King's Smackwater Jack was released as a single to test the UK market but didn't do anything.
Billy trod water commercially with his next LP "Streetlife Serenader" which reached number 35 in 1974. A shortage of material meant there were two instrumental tracks but elsewhere the album is notable for the cynicism creeping into his lyrics. "Roberta" is addressed to a prostitute while "Weekend Song" proves he could do blue collar Everyman grumbles as well as Mr Springsteen. The only single was "The Entertainer", four minutes of industrial strength bile set to Pinball Wizard acoustic arpeggios and synth splashes. It reached number 35 despite the line " I've laid all kinds of girls " ( go Billy ! )
The next one "Turnstiles" took a couple of years to come out because Billy scrapped the original recording sessions in Nevada and re-located to New York. This in turn inspired some new songs for the album which was eventually released in May 1976. It was a big disappointment commercially failing to reach the Top 100. It wasn't helped by the choice of the downbeat chorus-free "James" ( Elton John's Daniel without the tune ) as first single which missed the charts completely. The error was compounded by sticking the album's best track, the Spector tribute "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" on the B-side to the next single behind the less immediate hymn to decadence "I've Loved These Days".
All that would change with his next album "The Stranger" released in September 1977. The lead single was possibly my favourite of all his songs, "Movin' Out ( Anthony's Song )" a proto-slacker anthem from the point of view of a young man who rejects the upwardly mobile immigrant dreams of his community. The jabbing guitars underline the dissension in the verses then a lovely sax line accompanies Anthony's bitersweet decision to leave home in the chorus. Inexplicably it wasn't a hit the first time round but got to number 17 when re-released six months later.
"Just The Way You Are " was the second single, released in November 1977. This supper club classic is a bit too laid back for my tastes. The song is mostly unashamedly romantic though there's a confession of laziness in the second verse that raises the suspicion that Billy doesn't want his partner to develop and mature. Musically it owes a lot to I'm Not In Love with that woozy electric piano sound and the choral synths just the way they were. It reached number 3 in the US. Here it did better for Barry White at the other end of the year.
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