The song Billy Joel has performed live on the most occasions
While he no longer records new music, playing live is something that Billy Joel will never give up willingly. In recent years, the New Yorker’s monthly hometown residency at Madison Square Garden has earned legendary status. Additionally, Joel still regularly plays stadiums across the globe, entertaining hundreds of thousands every year with his string of classic songs.
Despite not releasing a typical studio album in 30 years, Joel still mixes up his setlist almost nightly, keeping it fresh for his fans, many of whom have seen him perform countless times. However, they still return to watch him deliver a sermon from his piano and sing at the top of their lungs to his catalogue of songs that have soundtracked many of their lives.
Although Joel is comfortable with providing his audiences with different songs each night, there is a selection of tracks that his fans demand. ‘Piano Man’ is a number that has been with the singer-songwriter since the beginning of his musical journey, before he’d established himself as a star, and continues to be a mainstay in his setlists.
To date, Joel has performed ‘Piano Man’ on over 925 occasions, and it always provides a special moment within his shows. Due to the beloved nature of the track, it almost belongs to his fans rather than him nowadays, and it wouldn’t be a true Billy Joel concert if he didn’t play the beloved creation.
During an interview with Metro, Joel once explained the story behind the song, stating: “It was a gig I did for about six months just to pay rent. I was living in LA and trying to get out of a bad record contract I’d signed. I worked under an assumed name, the Piano Stylings of Bill Martin, and just bullshitted my way through it.”
Joel then revealed his mixed feelings toward the song, claiming to “have no idea why that song became so popular” and disregarded it as a “karaoke favourite”. He added: “The melody is not very good and very repetitious, while the lyrics are like limericks. I was shocked and embarrassed when it became a hit. But my songs are like my kids, and I look at that song and think: ‘My kid did pretty well.'”
Furthermore, during an interview with Howard Stern in 2014, Joel explained how the lyrics are the key to the success of ‘Piano Man’ because “it gets really boring” when played as an instrumental.
Despite ‘Piano Man’ not being a personal favourite of the singer-songwriter, Joel does appreciate the relationship many have with the song, hence why he never fails to include it in his sets. The track provided him with his first hit single in 1973 and changed the course of his career after he was dropped from his first record deal after his debut album flopped.
If it wasn’t for ‘Piano Man’ resonating with the general public, perhaps Joel wouldn’t have been given the time to allow his artistry to flourish further. In all truth, he’d likely have found himself back sitting at his piano stool in dimly lit bars in Los Angeles.
