And half of December already gone!
Oh, dear. I'm more than a little behind with the Christmas songs this year, I'm afraid. Well, you can always take a look at last year's selections when I don't post (starting from here and going on through), right? It's the internet, everything is here forever! But I do have something new for you today--"new" as in "a song I haven't posted about before," that is. Here's what Billy Joel called "the only Christmas song I ever wrote"--"She's Right On Time":
Video posted by Gabriel Braine (Official video over here.)
It's one of Joel's more obscure songs, off his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, but in 2017 he listed it as one of his Top 5 songs on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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As I wrote in my Memorial Day post, Billy Joel is Jewish. His mother was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from England, and his father was a German Jew that came to the US through Cuba, because of US quotas restricting the immigration of German Jews fleeing Hitler. Joel started piano lessons (at his mother's insistence) at age 4, which gave him a solid base (and love for) classical music, and started playing at a piano bar while still in high school. He joined his first band at age 15, recorded his first album (Cold Spring Harbor) at age 22, and had his first top 40 hit, "Piano Man," in 1974, at age 25. That started what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame calls
He's won six Grammys, is a Kennedy Center Honoree and Gershwin Award Winner, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, was honored with the Songwriter's Hall of Fame's Johnny Mercer Award in 2001, and has sold over 150 million records--and if you have a chance to buy a ticket to one of his live concerts grab it, because they sell out fast!
It's one of Joel's more obscure songs, off his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, but in 2017 he listed it as one of his Top 5 songs on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
As I wrote in my Memorial Day post, Billy Joel is Jewish. His mother was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from England, and his father was a German Jew that came to the US through Cuba, because of US quotas restricting the immigration of German Jews fleeing Hitler. Joel started piano lessons (at his mother's insistence) at age 4, which gave him a solid base (and love for) classical music, and started playing at a piano bar while still in high school. He joined his first band at age 15, recorded his first album (Cold Spring Harbor) at age 22, and had his first top 40 hit, "Piano Man," in 1974, at age 25. That started what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame calls
a staggering run of hit singles. Between 1974 and 1993, Joel placed at least one single in the Top Forty in every year but three. To date, thirteen of Joel's forty-two hits have made the Top Ten, and three of them--"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (1980), "Tell Her About It" (1983) and "We Didn't Start the Fire" (1989)--reached Number One.
He's won six Grammys, is a Kennedy Center Honoree and Gershwin Award Winner, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, was honored with the Songwriter's Hall of Fame's Johnny Mercer Award in 2001, and has sold over 150 million records--and if you have a chance to buy a ticket to one of his live concerts grab it, because they sell out fast!
Way impressive! Are there any as talented with such a solid musical background around today?
ReplyDeleteAnd a deceptively excellent singer, too!
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