Piano Man (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Piano Man
Type = Album
Artist = Billy Joel


Released = November 2, 1973
Recorded = 1973
Genre = Rock, Piano rock
Length = 42:51
Label = Columbia
Producer = Michael Stewart
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:oi5zefrkhgfo link]
Last album = "Cold Spring Harbor"
(1971)
This album = "Piano Man"
(1973)
Next album = "Streetlife Serenade"
(1974)

"Piano Man" is a rock album by Billy Joel, released in 1973. The title track is one of Joel's signature tracks and a seminal song in piano rock. It remains a concert standard, and is the source of Joel's nickname. "Piano Man", Joel's second album and his first with Columbia Records, emerged out of legal difficulties with his former label and became his breakthrough album.

The album was strongly influenced by Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection and has a western theme in much of the music and lyrics. Lyrically, this is most noticeable in The Ballad of Billy the Kid, musically in Captain Jack, Stop in Nevada and The Ballad of Billy the Kid (All of which make heavy use of the pentatonic scale - a staple of country music) and instrumentally in Travelin' Prayer.

The single "Piano Man", a fictionalized retelling of Joel's days as a lounge singer in Los Angeles, peaked at #25 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and at #4 on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. "Travelin' Prayer" and "Worse Comes to Worst" peaked at #77 and #80, respectively, on the Pop Singles chart, while the album hit #27 on the Pop Albums chart. ("Travelin' Prayer" would later earn Dolly Parton Grammy, when she covered it in 1999.)

Track listing Montalbano

On vinyl editions, the two sides are listed as "One Side" (tracks 1-5) and "Another Side" (tracks 6-10) instead of the usual "Side One" and "Side Two."

All songs by Billy Joel.

ide One

#"Travelin' Prayer" – 4:10
#"Piano Man" – 5:37
#"Ain't No Crime" – 3:20
#"You're My Home" – 3:14
#"The Ballad of Billy the Kid" – 5:35

ide Two

#"Worse Comes to Worst" – 3:28
#"Stop in Nevada" – 3:40
#"If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)" – 3:35
#"Somewhere Along the Line" – 3:17
#"Captain Jack" – 7:15

Personnel

*Billy Joel – harmonica, keyboards, piano, Vocals
*Larry Carlton – guitar
*Eric Weissberg – banjo
*Billy Armstrong – violin
*Richard Bennett – guitar
*Rhys Clark – drums
*Laura Creamer – vocals
*Mark Creamer – vocals
*Wilton Felder – bass, keyboards
*Emory Gordy, Jr. – bass
*Fred Heilbrun – banjo
*Michael Omartian – accordion
*Dean Parks – guitar
*Susan Steward – vocals
*Ron Tutt – drums

Production

*Producer: Michael Stewart
*Engineer: Ron Malo
*Remastering: Ted Jensen
*Arranger: Michael Omartian
*Design: Beverly Parker
*Illustration: Bill Imhoff

Charts

Album

Singles