On This Day in 1983, Billy Joel Accomplished a Career First (And Only) With a “Joke” Song That Helped Vindicate This 1960s Doo-Wop Group

In early November 1983, Billy Joel landed his first and, at the time of this writing, only No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom with a song that he originally penned as a sort of “joke” at his own expense. The song was catchy, certainly, but not necessarily akin to the other sonic offerings of the early 80s. This track sounded positively midcentury, pulling inspiration from a 1960s doo-wop group whose members would later say they felt “vindicated” by Joel’s success.

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Joel first released “Uptown Girl” on his ninth studio album, An Innocent Man. The track, which would quickly become a signature song, fit the rest of the album’s theme, which centered on early American rock ‘n’ roll and pop. In fact, Joel has said on multiple occasions that he stylized his song directly after Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the 1960s group behind falsetto-laden hits like “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man”. At a time when other artists were leaning into the futuristic sounds of the 1980s, Joel’s return to the bubblegum pop of two decades earlier was a breath of fresh air.

Valli’s bandmates noticed, too. Joe Long, the former bassist for the Four Seasons, talked about what “Uptown Girl” meant to him in a 2016 interview with NJ.com. “It sounded exactly like a classic Four Seasons song,” Long said. “It was a huge hit.” The bassist said Joel’s success was the proof he needed to show that “the Seasons never went away. [Our sound] was always viable.”

Billy Joel Wrote “Uptown Girl” As a Sort of Joke About Himself

Billy Joel was living the good life in the 1980s. With massive hits like “Piano Man” and “Movin’ Out” already under his belt, the Long Island-born singer-songwriter was enjoying the peak of his career thus far. This success also meant he was rubbing elbows with plenty of other famous celebrities, including supermodels with whom he became romantically involved. Around the time Joel was working on “Uptown Girl”, he was casually dating Australian model Elle Macpherson. Shortly after that, he began dating (and later married) American model Christie Brinkley. While stranger pairings have undoubtedly happened, Joel’s dating history surprised even him.

During a 1995 Q&A session, Joel talked about waking up the morning after going on dates with these women who literally built their careers on how beautiful they were, looking at his reflection in the mirror, and laughing about how lucky he was that a guy like him could woo women like that. “Uptown Girls” started as a sort of “joke” at his own expense, he explained. These well-to-do, conventionally attractive women were the uptown girls he sang about in the song’s catchy, doo-wop-esque chorus. (Emphasis on girls—the song’s original title was plural, not singular.) After becoming more serious with Brinkley, Joel settled on the singular “Uptown Girl” and continued to work on the song with her in mind. She also stars in the song’s music video.

If Joel was laughing at himself when he wrote “Uptown Girl”, he must have doubled over when he learned that the song garnered him his first and only No. 1 hit in the U.K. almost two months after its release. The song remains a beloved staple in his catalogue today.

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