And So It Goes

Infobox Single
Name = And So It Goes


Artist = Billy Joel
from Album = Storm Front
A-side =
B-side =
Released = 1990
Format = CD single
Recorded = The Hit Factory, Times Square Studio, New York, NY
Genre = Rock
Length = 3:38
Label = Columbia
Writer = Billy Joel
Producer = Billy Joel Mick Jones
Certification =
Last single = "I Go to Extremes" (1990)
This single = "And So It Goes" (1990)
Next single = "That's Not Her Style" (1990)
Misc =

"And So It Goes" is a ballad written by Billy Joel in 1983, though it wasn't released until six years later. It appeared as the tenth and final track of his megahit album "Storm Front". The original 1983 demo was released on the 2005 box set My Lives. Joel wrote the song at the close of his relationship with his wife Elizabeth, and expressed a great longing to be with one deeply loved person, while knowing that the relationship may at any time come to an end. In the original, Joel sings the melody simply and almost humbly, accompanied by a simple piano backdrop. The single peaked at #37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. It has been covered by many subsequent artists, including Carmen Rasmusen, the King's Singers and others. The Kings’s Singers and others have developed several vocal harmony arrangements of the song, which are often performed by high school and college choirs.

The song was featured at the end of the "Boston Legal" episode "Son of the Defender". David Archuleta performed the song for the "American Idol" season 7 final three show.

Chart positions

The expression

* In the 1969 novel "Slaughterhouse-Five", Kurt Vonnegut used the phrase "So it goes" as a transitional phrase to another subject, as a reminder, and as comic relief. Generally the phrase was used after every time someone's (or something's) death is described or mentioned in the novel.

* From 1982 to 1983, NBC News produced NBC News Overnight with anchors Linda Ellerbee, Lloyd Dobyns. They used the phrase 'And so it goes' to transit from one news story to the next.