It's Still Billy Joel to Me | 10 Question Music Match Quiz

Answer: New York State of Mind

"New York State of Mind" was written by Billy Joel and released on his 1976 album "Turnstiles". While it was never released as a single, it has nevertheless become one of his most popular songs, particularly among Joel's fans. When he wrote the song, he was coming back home to New York after having lived three years in Los Angeles.

In fact, he was literally on a Greyhound bus from the Hudson River Line when the ideas for the song came to him. Many of the songs on the "Turnstiles album, such as "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", are focused on his transition and homecoming.

The song has been covered by a number of singers, including Elton John, Tony Bennet, and Mel Torme.

Answer: The River of Dreams

"The River of Dreams" appears on Billy Joel's 1993 album "River of Dreams", the only album of original material released by Joel in the 1990s. The song was releases as a single in the United States in September of 1993 and peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and number one on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart. It was also nominated for a 1994 Grammy Award for Record of the Year but lost to Whitney' Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You".

The record of the song contains a dramatic momentary pause toward its end, and during Joel's live performance of the song during the 1994 Grammy Award ceremony, he lengthened the pause significantly while he made comments about how "valuable advertising time" was slipping by. This he did intentionally to protest the network's or the producers' decision to cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance of his Grammy Legend Award so that stations could cut to commercials.

Answer: It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" appears on Billy Joel's very popular "Glass Houses" album, which was released in 1980. The song was released as a single in July of 1980 and spent two weeks at position number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. If you examine the lyrics to the song, you'll notice that some lines are in quotation marks while others are not. The words are meant to represent a conversation between two individuals: a singer/musician and his manager/agent. The manager/agent is trying to persuade the singer/musician that he needs to do what he can to remain significant to the younger crowds, but the singer/musician can't understand why the music can't just sell itself. Why can't it just be about the music?

Billy Joel got the idea for the song from reading a review of a new band. The review explained all these reasons why the band was a good band but never said a word about the sound of their music. As the song says, "All you need are looks and a whole lotta money".

Answer: Uptown Girl

"Uptown Girl" is a single from Billy Joel's 1983 album "Innocent Man" that reached position number three on the United States' "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and peaked at number one on the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand charts. Joel has claimed that the original title of the song was "Uptown Girls" because he was inspired by an occasion during which he was in the company of not only Christie Brinkley but also Whitney Houston and Elle MacPherson.

Then, it evolved to just "Uptown Girl" to be about Elle MacPherson, with whom he was in a relationship at the time.

However, he eventually was in a relationship with Christie Brinkley, whom he married, and the completed song ended up being about her. Brinkley appears in the video of the song "Uptown Girl", and she also created the artwork on the cover of Joel's "River of Dreams" album.

Answer: Piano Man

"Piano Man" is the very first single ever released by Billy Joel. It has been and probably will ever be his signature song. It was released on November 2, 1973, as a single with the beautiful "You're My Home" for a B-Side. Days later, the album "Piano Man" was released, and, of course, the song is one of its tracks. The song has become such a prominent part of American culture that it has been preserved in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

The song is a fictionalized narrative of a typical night that Billy Joel experienced on a number of occasions when he worked in a piano lounge in Los Angeles--The Executive Room. He had moved to L.A. to get away from a messy conflict he had with a record producer back in New York. While hiding out there, he used the name Bill Martin rather than Billy Joel as his legal full name is William Martin Joel. The characters in the song are all representations of real people. There was really a Paul who worked in real estate and would come to the Executive Room at night to work on a novel he was writing, and the "waitress . . . practicing politics" is a reference to Elizabeth Weber, who was married to Joel and moved to L.A. with him (she was working in the Executive Room as a waitress).

Answer: Only the Good Die Young

"Only the Good Die Young" is one of the tracks from Billy Joel's 1977 album "The Stranger". The song was considered controversial because of a teenaged boy's desire to deflower a teenaged girl and because the song was considered an attack on Catholicism. Because of these issues, a few groups tried to censor the song to prevent its begin played on radio stations around the country.

However, the attempts to ban the song only made the song more sought after and more popular, and the song climbed up the charts and the album sales increased. Joel argues that the song's detractors aren't really paying attention to the lyrics; the guy does not convince the girl to sacrifice her virginity. Nevertheless, the guy's words do poignantly expose the hypocrisy and lifelessness of those who perhaps misunderstand the purpose of their own faith. Joel also claims that the song was inspired by his own high school crush, Virginia Callahan.

Answer: My Life

"My Life" originally appears on Billy Joel's 1978 album "52nd Street". It peaked at number two on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart and number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Many may recognize the song from its use in the early 1980s as the opening theme song to ABC's "Bosom Buddies", the sitcom that starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, who played two commercial artists who pretend to be women so they can live in an all-female apartment because it's the cheapest place they can find to live.

Interestingly, the album recording includes backing vocals from two members of the band Chicago--Peter Cetera and Donnie Dacus.

Answer: Just the Way You Are

Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" is also one of the tracks from his 1977 album "The Stranger". It was Joel's first top-ten hit in the United States, reaching number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and number one on the "Billboard" Easy Listening chart. Furthermore, it won two Grammy awards in 1979 for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Joel claims that the melody and chord progression for the song came to him in a dream and the lyrics were inspired by his relationship with his first wife, Elizabeth Weber. However, after they divorced, he did not play the song in concert for quite a long while--not until some time in the 2000s.

Answer: You May Be Right

"You May Be Right" is another song from Billy Joel's 1980 album "Glass Houses". As a single, it reached number seven on the United States' "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. It failed to chart in the United Kingdom but did reach number six on the Canadian "Singles" chart.

"You May Be Right" begins with the sound of glass shattering, and because of this, it usually occurs, quite appropriately, as the opening song on "Glass Houses".

Answer: Movin' Out

"Movin' Out" appears on Billy Joel's 1977 album "The Stranger" and, as a single, reached position number 17 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The song has a subtitle or parenthetical title "Anthony's Song", and the first word of the song, of course, mentions "Anthony" as the guy who's making a decision to "move out". Joel claims that Anthony is not anyone in particular that Joel knew or knows in real life; instead, Joel claims that Anthony represents "every Irish, Polish, and Italian kid trying to make a living in the U.S.".