Song Musings

Welcome to the first 2023 installment of Song Musings and I hope you’re off to a great start into the new year. In this weekly feature, I’m taking a closer look at tunes I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. My pick for today is It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me by Billy Joel.

Penned by Joel, the song first appeared on his seventh studio album Glass Houses released in March 1980. It also became the album’s third single in May 1980 and Joel’s first no. 1 hit in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed in that position for two weeks, spent 11 weeks in the top 10 altogether, and was the seventh biggest hit of 1980.

It’s Still Rock and Roll to me also topped the charts in Canada. Elsewhere, it climbed to no. 10 in Australia, no. 11 in Ireland, no. 14 in the UK and no. 21 in New Zealand. The tune is one of Joel’s biggest hits. He only had two other no. 1 songs in the U.S.: Tell Her About It (1983) and We Didn’t Start the Fire (1989).

The lyrics convey Joel’s criticism of the music business and press. It comments on new musical styles and trends, especially new wave, which in Joel’s opinion was a rehash of older musical styles rather than something truly new. Here’s a live version from a show on Long Island, which looks like it was captured at the time the tune came out.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

Around this time [early 1980 – CMM], Joel was often abased in the music press as a provider of middle-of-the-road dreck. Popular artists are often targets for journalist derision, but while most of these artists choose to ignore it, Joel responded in this song. The lines, “It doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, ’cause it’s always been the same old scene” and “There’s a new band in town, but you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine,” were specifically written to attack the press that was bringing him down. While you can real all you want about a singer or band, the only way you’ll really know what they sound like is by listening.

“Sometimes the press gave me a hard time, and liked giving them a hard time back,” Joel told Howard Stern in 2014. “In my neighborhood, somebody hits you, you hit them right back.” [I wonder whether such criticism may have played a role in his decision to stop releasing new pop music after his 1993 album River of Dreams. Evidently, it hasn’t done much harm to the popularity of Joel who continues to do very well on the concert circuit – CMM]…

…”Miracle Mile,” as mentioned in the line “Should I get a set of white wall tires? Are you gonna cruise a miracle mile?” is a stretch of road (about a mile long) full of various stores in Manhasset, Long Island near where Joel grew up.

After he wrote this song, Joel says he realized that the chords were the same ones Bob Dylan used on “Lay Lady Lay.” [Frankly, I don’t hear it but trust Joel as a professional musician is right about it – CMM].

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube

On This Day in Rock & Roll History: December 16

It’s been a while since the last installment of this irregularly recurring feature. While picking a random date is an arbitrary way to look at music history, I think it’s always interesting to see what comes up. As usual, the picks reflect my music taste and are not supposed to be a complete list.

1965: The double A-side non-album single Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out by The Beatles hit no. 1 in the UK on the Official Singles Chart, becoming their ninth chart-topper there. Primarily written by John Lennon, the tune was credited to him and Paul McCartney, as usual. According to Songfacts, the lyrics were the first reference to LSD in a Beatles song. Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out were also included on Yesterday and Today, a U.S. album from June 1966 that caused an uproar over its original “butcher cover,” showing The Beatles in white coats, covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. Frankly, I much prefer Day Tripper – always loved that cool guitar riff!

1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their first UK single Hey Joe, backed by Stone Free. Different recordings of the song were credited to different writers, including Billy Roberts and Dino Valenti. Some recordings have indicated it as a traditional song. The first commercial recording was made by Los Angeles garage band The Leaves in late 1965. Hendrix’s rendition is the best-known version of the song and became one of his biggest hits in the UK, reaching no. 6 on the Official Singles Chart.

1970: Credence Clearwater Revival received Gold certification in the U.S. for their singles Down on the Corner, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Travelin’ Band, Bad Moon Rising and Up Around the Bend. All songs were written by John Fogerty. CCR’s first five albums Credence Clearwater Revival (May 1968), Bayou Country (January 1969), Green River (August 1969), Willy and the Poor Boys (November 1969) and Cosmo’s Factory (July 1970) were also certified Gold. Here’s Travelin’ Band, the lead single from Cosmo’s Factory, which appeared in January 1970, backed by Who’ll Stop the Rain. Love that tune!

1972: Me And Mrs. Jones, the biggest hit for American soul singer Billy Paul, reached no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was included on Paul’s 1972 album 360 Degrees of Billy Paul. The tune about marital infidelity was co-written by prominent Philly soul songwriting team Kenny Gamble, Leon Hoff and Cary Gilbert. Songfacts notes Me And Mrs. Jones knocked I’m the Woman out of the top spot, a female-empowerment anthem by Helen Reddy.

1989: Billy Joel’s 11th studio album Storm Front, which had come out in October of the same year, reached no. 1 on the Billboard 200. The piano man’s second-to-final pop record to date was also pretty successful internationally. Among others, it topped the charts in Australia, climbed to no. 4 in Canada, and reached no. 5 in the UK and Germany. Here’s the lead single We Didn’t Start the Fire, which like the album turned out to be a big hit for Joel. The fast-paced recitation of 118 significant political, cultural, scientific and sporting events that occurred between Joel’s birth year 1949 and 1989 became one of his signature songs.

1993: Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York concert aired for the first time on MTV. Unlike other MTV Unplugged shows Nirvana chose to perform predominantly lesser-known material including various covers. Moreover, in contrast to previous performances in the series, which were entirely acoustic, Nirvana used electric amplification and guitar effects during their set. The concert was taped on November 18, 1993, at Sony Studios in New York City, less than five months prior to lead vocalist Kurt Cobain’s suicide on April 8, 1994. Here’s Nirvana’s haunting cover of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World.

Sources: Wikipedia; This Day in Music; Songfacts; Songfacts Music History Calendar; YouTube