“Piano Man” by Billy Joel

"Piano Man" is the title song of Billy Joel's 1973 album, and it's a story song pulled straight out of his own life. After his debut, Cold Spring Harbor, went nowhere, Joel, trying to get clear of his contract with the New York company Family Productions, spent 1972 and 1973 playing lounges in Los Angeles. What he saw from the piano bench became the song: the bar and its regulars, sketched by the guy at the keys.

Michael Stewart produced it and Michael Omartian arranged it, and it's built to sway like a room full of people who've had one too many. Joel plays piano and blows harmonica between verses, Omartian adds accordion, and a crack session crew, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks and William Bennett on guitars, Wilton Felder on bass, Ron Tutt on drums and Bobbye Hall on percussion, keeps it gentle and warm, somewhere between soft rock and folk.

Released as a single in 1974, it climbed to 25 on Billboard's Hot 100 that April and gave Joel his first major hit. Once The Stranger made him a star, it became the song everybody knew him by. The Grammy Hall of Fame took it in 2013, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2015.

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