“Zanzibar” by Billy Joel

"Zanzibar" is the barroom stretch of Billy Joel's 52nd Street, released in October 1978, and it started life as music and a title with nothing to say. Joel liked the name Zanzibar but hadn't worked out what to do with it, until producer Phil Ramone heard the tune and pictured people staring up at a television in a bar. So the island went out and a sports bar called Zanzibar came in.

The lyric is all ball games, booze and a guy angling for the waitress, dropping Muhammad Ali, Pete Rose and the then-champion Yankees along the way and turning a baseball phrase into a pickup line. Freddie Hubbard sits in on trumpet and Mike Mainieri on marimba and vibraphone, giving it a smoky, after-hours glow, with Ramone and Jim Boyer mixing. It has turned up on several of Joel's live albums since.

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