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Billy Joel - The Longest Time

Billy Joel - The Longest Time Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: An Innocent Man
Released: 1983

The Longest Time Lyrics

Oh, oh, oh
For The Longest Time
Oh, oh, oh
For the longest
If you said goodbye to me tonight
There would still be music left to write
What else could I do
I'm so inspired by you
That hasn't happened for the longest time

Once I thought my innocence was gone
Now I know that happiness goes on
That's where you found me
When you put your arms around me
I haven't been there for the longest time

Oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
Oh, oh, oh
For the longest
I'm that voice you're hearing in the hall
And the greatest miracle of all
Is how I need you
And how you needed me too
That hasn't happened for the longest time

Maybe this won't last very long
But you feel so right
And I could be wrong
Maybe I've been hoping too hard
But I've gone this far
And it's more than I hoped for

Who knows how much further we'll go on
Maybe I'll be sorry when you're gone
I'll take my chances
I forgot how nice romance is
I haven't been there for the longest time

I had second thoughts at the start
I said to myself
Hold on to your heart
Now I know the woman that you are
You're wonderful so far
And it's more than I hoped for

I don't care what consequence it brings
I have been a fool for lesser things
I want you so bad
I think you ought to know that
I intend to hold you for the longest time

Writer/s: BILLY JOEL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Longest Time

This song would be considered "next-to" a cappella - it contains only one actual instrument, that being a bass guitar. Everything else is voice, finger snaps and claps.

The song is a tribute to the Doo-Wop sounds of the '50s that Joel loved, complete with lyrics about being crazy in love with a girl. The song began, however, as a classical piano piece Joel was working on, which is also how is song "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" came about.

Joel did all the vocal tracks himself, which required him to cover a lot of range. The original plan was to bring in a vocal group to sing it with him, but that didn't work out. Joel's producer Phil Ramone told Billy that their best option was for him to do it all himself.

On the TV show Family Guy, this song was used in a flashback to discuss the invention of singing. It showed several cavemen sitting around grunting, until they all spontaneously break out into this song.

The song got a lot of airplay in Philadelphia, where Joel was always a very popular artist. It was even played on Soul stations there, and the song became a favorite of the guys who would later form the vocal group Boyz II Men. When Howard Stern hosted a Billy Joel town hall special in 2014, Boyz II Men performed this song. They explained that when they were going to high school, most of the selections for acapella groups were much older songs, but this one was "the most contemporary song we could sing and still be cool."

In the music video, directed by Jay Dubin, Joel sits alone after his high school reunion, class of '59, and recalls the good old days with his doo-wop group. Fans have been wondering about the janitor in the clip for years. Was he an old-school doo-wop star making a sly cameo? Dubin told us the answer , along with an unfortunate reminder of black stereotypes in the '80s:

"No, that's all bulls--t," he said of the rumors. "This is how that guy gets hired: There was this black guy who got us all this talent on one of the other music videos, I think 'Tell Her About It.' I remember he used to come in the office all the time saying, 'Hey, you got any work for me?'

[Producer] Jon Small said, 'No, but I need an older guy who looks like a janitor.' He said, 'No problem.' He gets on the phone: 'Uncle Willy? you want to be on TV?'

'Yeah, Uncle Willy'll do it.' He says to Jon, 'How much?' Jon says, 'A hundred dollars.' He says, 'Uncle Willy, I'll make you fifty dollars!' He took fifty and gave Uncle Willy fifty. That's all I remember about that. [Laughing]

Who the guy was, I have no idea. Was it racist? Absolutely. Back then, 8 out of 10 janitors at the local schools were black. They wanted to do that.

All I had to do was make sure the pictures looked good, he was in sync, and it was edited well. That was all I had to do. It was easy."

This is the only song with the word "Longest" in the title ever to chart on the Hot 100.

Billy Joel - This Night

Billy Joel - This Night Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: An Innocent Man
Released: 1983

This Night Lyrics

Didn't I say
I wasn't ready for romance?
Didn't we promise
We would only be friends?
And so we danced
Though it was only a slow dance,
I started breaking my promises right there and then

Didn't I swear
There would be no complications?
Didn't you want
Someone who's seen it all before?
Now that you're here
It's not the same situation,
Suddenly I don't remember the rules anymore

This Night is mine
It's only you and I
Tomorrow is a long time away
This night can last forever

I've been around
Someone like me should know better
Falling in love
Would be the worst thing I could do
Didn't I say
I needed time to forget her?
Aren't you running
From someone who's not over you?

How many nights
Have I been lonely without you?
I tell myself
How much I really don't care
How many nights
Have I been thinking about you?
Wanting to hold you
But knowing you would not be there

But this night you're mine
It's only you and I
I'll tell you to forget yesterday
This night we are together

This night is mine
It's only you and I
Tomorrow is a long time away
This night can last forever

This night
Ooh
Ooh

Tomorrow is such a long time away
This night can last forever

Writer/s: JOEL, BILLY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

This Night Song Chart

The chorus is an adaptation of a passage from the Beethoven sonata "Pathetique." "L. V. Beethoven" is credited in the album notes. (thanks, Jen - Urbana, IL)

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: An Innocent Man
Released: 1983

Uptown Girl Lyrics

Uptown Girl
She's been living in her uptown world
I bet she's never had a backstreet guy
I bet her momma never told her why

I'm gonna try for an uptown girl
She's been living in her white bread world
As long as anyone with hot blood can
And now she's looking for a downtown man
That's what I am

And when she knows what
She wants from her time
And when she wakes up
And makes up her mind

She'll see I'm not so tough
Just because
I'm in love with an uptown girl
You know I've seen her in her uptown world
She's getting tired of her high class toys
And all her presents from her uptown boys
She's got a choice

Uptown girl
You know I can't afford to buy her pearls
But maybe someday when my ship comes in
She'll understand what kind of guy I've been
And then I'll win

And when she's walking
She's looking so fine
And when she's talking
She'll say that she's mine

She'll say I'm not so tough
Just because
I'm in love
With an uptown girl
She's been living in her white bread world
As long as anyone with hot blood can
And now she's looking for a downtown man
That's what I am

Uptown girl
She's my uptown girl
You know I'm in love
With an uptown girl
My uptown girl
You know I'm in love
With an uptown girl
My uptown girl
You know I'm in love
With an uptown girl
My uptown girl
You know I'm in love
With an uptown girl

Writer/s: JOEL, BILLY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Uptown Girl Song Chart

Billy Joel married the supermodel Christie Brinkley less than two years after this song was released, but he wasn't even dating her when he started writing the song - he was actually dating another supermodel: Elle McPherson. Asked about his relationship with Elle on The Howard Stern Show in 2010, Joel explained: "We dated on and off. We weren't like engaged or anything. We just kind of dated. She was 19."

Joel went on to explain that he and Elle parted ways when she went off to Europe, which is around the time he started dating Brinkley. He reworked the lyrics, and by the time he finished the song, it was about Brinkley.

On Australian TV in 2006, Joel said: "The song was originally called 'Uptown Girls' not 'Uptown Girl.' I know its associated with Christie but when I started to write that song I had recently divorced prior to meeting her, all the sudden I'm a rock star and divorced. All these women were going to go out with me."

As he explained to Howard Stern, Billy Joel was on vacation in the Caribbean when he was playing the piano, looked up, and saw Elle McPherson, Christie Brinkley and Whitney Houston (who was more a model than a musician at that point) standing over his piano in wonderment watching him play. Joel thanked his creator for his good fortune, and began dating Elle. His first attempt at the song had the lyrics, "Uptown girls, I've been around the world." The music was more of a classical piece when it started.

Joel is from Long Island, New York, and always considered himself a working-class, regular guy. This song reflects his surprise at his ability to attract such beautiful, glamorous women. In a 1987 interview with Q magazine, Joel said: "The fact that I can attract such a beautiful woman as Christie should give hope to every ugly guy in the world!"

The whole album, especially this song, was a musical tribute to '60s pop music. Specifically, this one is done in the style of The Four Seasons, with Joel trying to sound like Frankie Valli . He had their song "Rag Doll" in mind both musically and lyrically; on that track Valli sings about a poor girl that he loves anyway. In fact, he loves her "just the way she is."

Christie Brinkley was in the video, playing the Uptown Girl. Joel portrayed a mechanic working on her car. The clip was directed by Jay Dubin, who also helmed Joel's videos for "Tell Her About It" and "The Longest Time."

Brinkley and Joel remained married for nine years. She drew the cover art for his 1993 album River of Dreams. They eventually separated due to Joel's busy schedule.

This was Joel's only #1 single in the UK. It's also one of his best-selling in the US.

In an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer decides to hang out with the band of hippies his mother was once part of in the 1960s, Homer breaks into singing a fragment of this song at one point. (thanks, Vincent - Fayetteville, AR)

In 2001 the Irish boy band Westlife covered "Uptown Girl," topping the UK charts for a week. It was recorded as the official song for the 2001 BBC Comic Relief charity appeal. Screenwriter Richard Curtis, one of the founders of the Comic Relief campaign, knew supermodel Claudia Schiffer's agent and obtained her cooperation to be the Uptown Girl in the video, which mimicked Billy Joel's original that featured his model wife Christie Brinkley. In addition to Schiffer and Westife themselves, the video also featured the actors Tim McInnery, James Wilby, Ioan Gruffudd, Robert Bathurst and Crispin Bonham Carter as a chorus of city workers.

The owner of the Rolls Royce in this video tried to pull a fast one on Jay Dubin's team. The director said in our interview : "The guy who owned the car was a little crazy. His radiator went out. His radiator had a leak in it and he was trying to shake us down. He said he needed a new radiator, and a Rolls Royce radiator was $2,000. So I remember my guy, Bruce, that handled that went up to him and said, 'Hey, no problem at all. I'll give you $2,000, but before I give you money, you've got to take the old radiator out of the car and give it to me.' And he goes, 'What do you mean?' Bruce said, 'I'm buying a $2,000 radiator for you, I'm taking the old one.' And suddenly the problem with the car went away."

This song is a topic of discussion in the 2015 movie Trainwreck, where Bill Hader plays a surgeon who is dating Amy Schumer's character. When Hader operates, he listens to this song; the two have this exchange:

Schumer: Why Billy Joel? Why "Uptown Girl"?

Hader: I love that song.

Schumer: That's probably the worst Billy Joel song. I'm pretty sure even
Billy Joel hates that song.

Hader: He shouldn't, it's great.

Later in the film, Hader is stitching up Schumer's equally churlish father, played by Colin Quinn, who wonders why he is humming this song. They share Billy Joel stories:

Quinn: That's the only thing that'll save you. I like Billy Joel. I saw him at Nassau Coliseum. Nylon Curtain tour.

Hader: That's awesome. I saw him with Elton John at Shea Stadium. It was great.

Quinn: Of course you did. Nothing better than down to earth blue collar Billy Joel with Elton John, the Queen of England.

At the end of the film, after a dance number that brings Hader and Schumer back together, another Billy Joel song plays: "A Matter Of Trust."