Piano Man - Billy Joel

"It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about their life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnivore
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?""

Here's the thing - I love Billy Joel more than I love most of my friends. There. I said it. Now it's out in the open.

Billy Joel is a freakin' genius, and his first major hit "Piano Man" launched him to stardom, earning him the nickname Piano Man and ensuring this song is one of his staples at every concert and on many albums.

Released in November 1973, "Piano Man" is a first-person observance of a bar piano player, telling the stories of the regulars in his bar. Listening to the song, you learn about Davy "who's still in the navy" and the old man "makin' love to his tonic and gin". Billy Joel acknowledged that each character in this song is based on a real person - either a friend of his, or a stranger in a bar that he saw all too often.

Because this song is immensely popular and widely recognized, it is obviously a karaoke classic. It it also one of the first songs I learned with I was a small kid riding around in my dad's old beat-up car listening to classic rock.