The song Billy Joel called one of the hardest to sing
Billy Joel was never looking to be one of the impressive vocal talents of his generation. Although his voice may have been perfect for the songs he wrote, Joel was always looking to make people look at the quality of his writing rather than the massive runs he could do with his voice. While Joel may have still been able to tear the house down every time he opened his mouth, he thought one track was far too intimidating to touch.
When looking through Joel’s back catalogue, he put his vocal chops through their paces. While changing a key here or there with age, Joel always made sure that artists knew the person behind the piece rather than his impressive vocal ability, relating to the characters like Brenda and Eddie in ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ or the lonesome man on the city street in ‘The Stranger’.
Joel would even let most of his songs rely on the talent of his voice some of the time. When he wasn’t beating the life out of his piano, Joel was more than likely looking to show off the vocal prowess of his band in the 1980s, creating ‘Uptown Girl’ as a homage to vocal groups like Franki Valli while also finding time to work on the a cappella track ‘For the Longest Time’.
No one gets into that kind of vocal shape without being put through his paces. Before Joel had even started working on his vocal chops, he was more interested in listening to the songs coming from the premiere vocal groups of the 1950s and the 1960s, from the soul music of Ray Charles to the harmony singing of The Beatles.
While many fans may have tried their meagre attempts at soul, everyone paled compared to what The Righteous Brothers could do on record. Sounding like hardened men who have had their hearts broken one too many times, the vocal duo would become a mainstay of rock and roll history thanks to songs like ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’, featuring the most conversational lyrics about love ever put to tape.
Although Joel fell in love with the sound of their voices, he knew that nothing could touch what they did with ‘Unchained Melody’. Famous for being one of the cornerstone tracks on the soundtrack to the 1980s movie Ghost, the song is a slow ballad playing up the melodrama of the lyrics as they plead to feel their lover’s touch one more time.
When inducting the duo into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Joel remembered just how hard it was trying to sing the track effectively, saying, “I don’t know if anyone who doesn’t sing knows how hard it is to sing that song with that melody in half time. The original was [much faster], and you try to do that in half-time. This took a real understanding of how to sing.”
While Joel may not have been able to carry the tune as well as his vocal idols, one of them was paying attention to what he was doing with his melodies. Years after becoming a star in his own right, Bill Medley would later record his own version of Joel’s ‘Until the Night’, bringing the same kind of bombast he would have brought to any classic Righteous Brothers tune.
Joel may have just been another kid hoping to make it big as a singer, but when he heard The Righteous Brothers, he knew there was more to singing than just staying in tune. It was about taking the listener on a musical journey they wouldn’t soon forget.
