The true story of how Billy Joel's, Piano Man, finally caught fire

Nikhil said:
Sharing this incredible read on Billy Joel's "Piano Man"!

The true story of how Billy Joel's "Piano Man" stiffed, then caught fire





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Thanks Nikhil, a wonderful write-up.

What I particularly liked about it was that there was no “my buddy Billy” element to it. Just a guy who liked a product, and leveraged all his non-existing means to push it. Great marketing story. Billy probably doesn’t even know a some kid made him a millionaire with his witty passion.


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Kuoppis said:
Thanks Nikhil, a wonderful write-up.

What I particularly liked about it was that there was no “my buddy Billy” element to it. Just a guy who liked a product, and leveraged all his non-existing means to push it. Great marketing story. Billy probably doesn’t even know a some kid made him a millionaire with his witty passion.
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Sorry for the late reply but yes that is something isn't it!

Also very interesting for me was the role radio played in the music industry back then.
Very fascinating to see the way these guys out in Fresno City did their thing.

Also makes me wonder how many artists we may have missed on out there!


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Great read! Billy owes this guy big time. I grew up in Philly and bought my first bootleg record in the late ‘70 of Billy performing in a one hour concert aired live on WMMR radio station, recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philly. I loved this record and here’s a great article recounting the concert:

Billy Joel's Radio Days: Live on the Air in Philadelphia, 1972 - Rolling Stone

The article states that the recording was released as part of a deluxe edition of Piano Man. Just listening to Billy talking about what inspired him to write Captain Jack alone makes it worthwhile. Get a hold of it and give it a listen. Highly recommended!

For those of you who stream with Tidal, I just found a link to the entire WMMR concert following the studio album:

Piano Man (Legacy Edition) by Billy Joel on TIDAL

Enjoy. It’s a treasure listening to a relative nobody on the verge of stardom.
 
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