“Only the Good Die Young” by Billy Joel

Billy Joel put "Only the Good Die Young" on The Stranger, his fifth album, in 1977, and when it went out as a single the following year it kicked up a real fuss. It's a teenage come-on aimed at a Catholic girl, sung by a boy convinced her strict religious upbringing is the only thing standing between them; Joel drew it from a high school crush of his own, Virginia Callahan.

Religious groups called it anti-Catholic and leaned on radio stations to pull it, which only made more people want to hear it. Joel said the point was lust, not blasphemy, and noted that the kid in the song never actually gets the girl. Musically it's pure bounce: Joel pounding the piano, Liberty DeVitto's drums skipping along, Doug Stegmeyer on bass and Richie Cannata on sax and organ, all polished up by Phil Ramone.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.