That is not to say that "Uptown Girl" is not good - it's just some of his other work (such as " Piano Man", " She's Always A Woman", and " My Life"), is, frankly, awesome.īilly Joel Hits 1981-1993, Todd Lowry, Inernational Music Publications Limited, 2003. However, despite it being one of Billy Joel's best known and best loved songs, I think that some of his others are superior. This just seems to stike a chord with me for some reason. She'll understand what kind of guy I've been, You know I can't afford to buy her pearls, Some of my favourite lyircs from this song are That's not to say he is ugly, just sort of short and geeky-looking. It probably seemed beyond his wildest dreams that he could win the affections of such a woman as Christie Brinkley, since Joel may probably be the first to admit that he may have the talent of a superstar musician, but does not have the looks. This is really the situation Joel found himself in. The song is about a "downtown man" (Joel) singing about his love for an "uptown girl" (Brinkley). The relationship was ultimately doomed to fail, and they would undergo an amicable divorce in 1994.
Joel married Christie in 1985, and their daughter Alexa Rae was born. Other songs based on this relationship are " Leave A Tender Moment Alone", and the beautiful " For The Longest Time" (both from the "An Innocent Man" album). Music technicalities aside, "Uptown Girl" is one of several songs Billy Joel wrote based on his relationship with supermodel Christie Brinkley. The rhythm is basically the same, but the chords are different: The structure in the verses is:Īs I said, the 12 bar chorus is in a different key. The same four bar chord structure is repeated throughtout the body of the song.
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The piano is very difficult to hear on the track, as it is drowned out by the full band, but it consists of simple triads played on each beat by the right hand, with left hand bass notes played in slightly syncopated rhythm. So simple in fact, it took very little effort for me, a rather poor pianist, to learn pretty much the entire song. Despite Billy Joel's phenomenal piano playing skills (when he was young, he would amaze family friends by playing great tunes on a damaged piano with half the keys broken - he would simply "play around them"!), the main piano part to "Uptown Girl" is fairly simple. The song is in the key of E-major, and shifts to the C-major key in the chorus. The lyrics are also pretty clear and easy to remember. The song is catchy, and easy and fun to sing or whistle along to. The song has backing vocal harmonies throughout, which Billy Joel drew inspiration for from Frankie Hall and the Four Seasons, a group Joel loved when he was young. "Uptown Girl" is one of those easily recognisable songs, particularly with respect to the opening harmonies, which are repeated at various points throughout the song.
This cover was ok, but fails to live up to the original, as with so many covers of great songs. The attention "Uptown Girl" recieves has recently been bolstered by the Westlife cover of it in the UK in 2001. His career had been quite successful over the previous ten years to this point, but "Uptown Girl" really caught the attention of the mass record buying public. " Uptown Girl" is probably Billy Joel's best-known song, taken from his highly successful 1983 album " An Innocent Man". After the cops set their batons to "stun", Homer tells Munchie and Seth to sing their rebel song, and breaks into a slow, heartfelt rendition of Uptown Girl. Later on in the episode, after Homer uses Munchie and Seth's marijuana crop to complete their organic juice order, the cops come to bust them.
Munchie and Seth are listening to the staple 60's acid music when Homer asks if he can put on something that will really blow their minds. When they reluctantly agree, they pile into Munchie's Saturn and hit the road. He convinces Munchie and Seth to go on an old-fashion freak-out with him. They proceed to tell him about how his mother took him to Woodstock.Īfter that, Homer decides to get back to his hippy roots. When he arrives there, he's met by Munchie ( George Carlin) and Seth ( Martin Mull). In "D'oh-in' in the Wind", when Homer is filling out a form and realizes he doesn't know his middle name, Abe (grandpa) takes him to the hippy commune that Homer's mother ran away to. Uptown Girl is also Homer Simpson's rebel song.
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