The 1980s singer Billy Joel always regretted rejecting: “Go away”
Billy Joel didn’t get into the music business trying to be a talent scout by any stretch.
He was focusing on getting every song sounding perfect on his own tunes, and even if people come up to him today to be mentored, it’s hard for Joel to approach writing from an objective standpoint after years away from the craft. He was always looking out for himself more than anyone when he was writing his tunes, but that meant having some great opportunities fall by the wayside right in the middle of his career.
But it’s not like Joel was ever trying to become one of the biggest stars in the world. Half of the reason why his stageshow works is because of his dopey demeanour every single time he performs, and even though he is one of the most recognisable voices of his generation, it’s easy to picture him as just an average guy that likes to play his songs for the people every single night.
Around the start of the 1980s, though, Joel needed to take some time to relax. He had already been through a massive separation from his wife and manager, and while The Nylon Curtain represented the best work he could have done up until that point, he needed to find some way to recharge his batteries. Then again, anyone would have thought they had landed on a completely different planet if they found themselves in Joel’s position at a lowly piano bar.
‘The Piano Man’ always took to the keyboard like it was second nature, but when Christie Brinkley and Elle McPherson showed up at the bar and started hovering over the piano, he was probably thanking his lucky stars for his star power. Brinkley would eventually become his wife for years to come afterwards, but in between chatting up his future soulmate, there were more than a few hangers-on in the bar that Joel could have done without.
For instance, any kid who goes up to someone like Joel and asks to hear them sing is going to need to come correct, but it turned out he didn’t realise that one of the other singers in the building that day was Whitney Houston. She wasn’t a superstar just yet, but even for someone who had the voice that could shake a room, Joel remembered accidentally blowing her off when she tried to sing.
You can almost forgive him because of how preoccupied he was with Brinkley, but Joel remembered that he would have traded his behaviour to be known as the guy who discovered Whitney Houston, saying, “I hope I was polite to this girl, but I’m sure there was just an edge of, ‘Go away, kid. You’re bothering me,’ to my attitude. I’ve kicked myself many times since.” But Joel wasn’t the type who was known to collaborate well with others to begin with.
Sure, he could have helped show Houston the tricks of the trade, but aside from working on the occasional duet with Ray Charles or Cyndi Lauper, most of Joel’s work was meant to be done all on his own. He understood what his tunes sounded like, and while one of his songs being sung by Houston would have certainly been interesting, was there anyone really expecting him to write a tune that had the same kind of range as she did?
Absolutely not. Houston was the kind of talent that you get once or twice every single generation, and even though Joel completely shut her out the first time he saw her, it wasn’t like he couldn’t learn from his mistakes. He understood what made a great singer, and if anything, the fact that Houston became a big star reminded him to keep his ears open for whenever someone new came along.
