“A blaze of glory”: The song that immortalised Billy Joel’s voice
Ageing has an effect on every part of our body, including our voices. Even the most talented singers, even those who take care of their vocal cords like precious cargo, will experience changes to the sound and range of their voices over time. Bob Dylan’s singing became rougher and rawer as his career progressed, while popstar Elton John’s voice changed after surgery in the late 1980s. Almost every singer has experienced some kind of vocal shift, and Billy Joel is no exception.
In the 1970s, Joel became one of the most familiar voices in popular music as he released a slew of successful, singalong-worthy singles. From the iconic ‘Piano Man’ to the gentle ‘Just the Way You Are’ to the ever-iconic ‘Vienna’, Joel endeared himself to audiences with his talent behind the keys, his catchy songwriting and his warm vocals.
In the early 1980s, Joel released one of his most iconic albums, An Innocent Man, which produced a number one hit in ‘Tell Her About It’ and gave us the endlessly entertaining ‘Uptown Girl’. The record also saw Joel pushing his vocals to the limit on the title track, ‘An Innocent Man’, which was released as a single in the winter of 1983.
Over a softly swaying soundtrack, the song found Joel ruminating on love and romance, declaring himself an innocent man. “You know you only hurt yourself out of spite,” he sang over dramatic instrumentation, “I guess you’d rather be a martyr tonight, that’s your decision but I’m not below anybody I know…” Amidst the intense lyrics, Joel’s voice reaches new highs.
As he sings the title line, “I am an innocent man,” Joel’s voice swings high. There are some truly impressive vocals towards the end of the song, but the songwriter knew that it would probably be one of the last times he could reach those vocal heights. Speaking with Billboard, Joel explained that he knew his voice was changing, admitting, “I had a suspicion that was going to be the last time I was going to be able to hit those notes.”
Rather than bowing to his increasing vocal limitations, Joel decided to immortalise his youthful range on the track, going out on a literal high. “Why not go out in a blaze of glory?” he asked before admitting, “That was the end of Billy’s high note.” Although this track may have marked the end of Joel’s range in his earlier career, it was a stellar way to go out.
‘An Innocent Man’ made its way into the charts and still remains one of Joel’s most well-loved songs. Four decades or so later, he still performs it live – and nails it each and every time – though he no longer attempts to reach those soaring notes. Rather than straining his voice to heights, it can no longer obtain, he seems to allow audiences to carry those lines.
Although Joel may have known that his vocal range was a little lower than previously, that didn’t stop him from continuing to pen and perform hits in the years that followed the release of ‘An Innocent Man’. He released the iconic ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ later in the decade, showing off the speed of his voice rather than the range, and put out ‘The River of Dreams’ in the early 1990s.
‘An Innocent Man’ immortalised Joel’s early vocal range, but it didn’t mark the end of his hit-making career or his talent for songwriting.
