Billy Joel, newly single, was embarking upon exciting new relationships when he made the 1983 album An Innocent Man. You can hear those happy experiences filtering their way into the album’s music, which pays homage to the songs and artists he loved as a kid.
Videos by American Songwriter
An Innocent Man spun out a bevy of hit singles, many of which you likely know by heart. But how well do you know the stories behind the album? These five tidbits will test you.
An Assist to the Man with No Respect
Joel has gone on record many times explaining how a rare vacation, one in which he encountered several supermodels who soon became close personal acquaintances, sparked the upbeat tone of the album. Meanwhile, the idea to go retro on the musical side of things could be traced to the recording of “Easy Money”. The producers of the film of the same name, starring Rodney Dangerfield, contracted Joel to do the title song. And the James Brown groove that Joel concocted for the song, which also appeared as the opening track on the LP, got the ball rolling for how he’d record the rest of the album.
Multiple Billys
Like many kids growing up in New York in the 50s and 60s, Joel fell in love with doo-wop. Without having to buy any instruments, a kid could create music just by singing on the street corner with his buddies. Joel wrote “For The Longest Time” with the intent of bringing in a vocal group to recreate the doo-wop vibe. But those plans fell through. Producer Phil Ramone asked Joel to simply sing all the parts to the song himself. To make it convincing, he imagined a different character for each of the different parts he sang.
Who’s This Ludwig Guy?
When you look at the credits to Billy Joel albums, you usually don’t find any other names listed as writers besides the Piano Man himself. Yet An Innocent Man lists a certain “L.v. Beethoven” as the co-writer of the song “This Night”. Joel was referring to the famed classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata formed the basis for the melody in the chorus of “This Night”. Considering his own love of classical music, Joel wanted fans to know where the beautiful tune emanated.
A Vocal Homage to Frankie
Once he knew he was going to be honoring his formative musical influences on An Innocent Man, Joel essentially assigned each song to a different act of loose genre. These signposts would dictate how each song sounded. In many cases, it’s difficult to spot the influence. For instance, the title track was meant to mimic Ben E. King, but it comes out sounding very much like a contemporary Billy Joel ballad. But there was no mistaking “Uptown Girl”, with Joel singing in a robust higher register, was meant as a compliment to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and songs like “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Rag Doll”.
That’s Models, Plural
Most people know that Joel struck up a romantic relationship with Christie Brinkley around the time that An Innocent Man was dominating the charts. She appears in the video for “Uptown Girl”, and there’s a tongue-in-cheek song titled “Christie Lee” about a femme fatale on the record. But Joel also dated Elle Macpherson around that time, which means she partially inspired some of the songs on the album. (The aforementioned “This Time” is one of them.) Many years later, he’d remember his breakup with Macpherson in the haunting track “And So It Goes”.
Photo by Calle Hesslefors/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.