''Piano Man'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American recording artist

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man (song), Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo ...

, released on November 9, 1973, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The album emerged from legal difficulties with Joel's former label, Family Productions, and ultimately became his first breakthrough album. The

title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title. Title track may al ...

, a fictionalized retelling of Joel's experiences with people he met as a lounge singer in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, peaked at on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. " Travelin' Prayer" and " Worse Comes to Worst" peaked at No. 77 and 80 on the Hot 100, respectively, while the album itself peaked at on the US ''Billboard'' 200. The album was certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

in 1975, but Joel received only $8000 in

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

(US$ in dollars).

Legacy edition

Columbia Records released a two-disc legacy version of ''Piano Man'' in November 2011. This edition included a slightly truncated live 1972 Philadelphia 93.3 WMMR FM radio broadcast of early songs that Joel performed and recorded at the Philadelphia-based Sigma Sound Studios. This radio broadcast was extremely important to the success of Joel's music career because, after the show was recorded, the live recording of "

Captain Jack Captain Jack may refer to: People * Calico Jack (1683–1720), a pirate in the 18th century * Captain Jack (Hawaiian) (died 1831), Naihekukui, commander of Kamehameha's fleet and father of Kalama * Captain Jack (fl. 1830s on), Kaurna man in c ...

" was played by the station and quickly became "the most requested song in the station's history". Once the popularity of this live recording was known, people working for

heard the recording and signed Joel to the label.Archived a
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Wayback Machine
The radio broadcast included three songs ("Long, Long Time", "Josephine" and "Rosalinda") that were never on any of Joel's studio albums.

Track listing

Original release

All songs written by

2011 Legacy Edition bonus disc

Disc 2: Live at

Sigma Sound Studios Sigma Sound Studios was a recording studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.. It was founded in 1968 by recording engineer Joseph Tarsia. Located at 212 North 12th Street in Philadelphia, it was one of the first studios in the United States to ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, April 15, 1972 #"Introduction by Ed Sciaky" – 0:29 #"Falling of the Rain" – 2:33 #"Intro to Travelin' Prayer" – 0:17 #"Travelin' Prayer" – 3:11 #"Intro to Billy the Kid" – 0:50 #"The Ballad of Billy the Kid" – 5:36 #"Intro to She's Got a Way" – 1:03 #"

She's Got a Way "She's Got a Way" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, originally released on his first studio album, '' Cold Spring Harbor'' (1971) and as a single from that album in some countries. It was also featured as a single from the 1981 ...

" – 3:08 #"Intro to Everybody Loves You Now" – 1:19 #"

Everybody Loves You Now "Everybody Loves You Now" is a song written by Billy Joel. It was first released on his 1971 debut album ''Cold Spring Harbor (album), Cold Spring Harbor'' and was also released as a b-side to his singles "She's Got a Way" and "Tomorrow Is Today. ...

" – 2:56 #"Intro to Nocturne" – 0:59 #"Nocturne" – 2:46 #"Station ID and Intro to Turn Around" – 1:31 #"Turn Around" – 3:26 #"Intro to Long, Long Time" – 1:19 #"Long, Long Time" – 4:46 #"Intro to Captain Jack" – 1:19 #"Captain Jack" – 6:56 #"Intro to Josephine" – 1:40 #"Josephine" – 3:23 #"Intro to Rosalinda" – 0:33 #"Rosalinda" – 3:03 #"Tomorrow Is Today" – 5:11

Personnel

Adapted from the AllMusic credits. *

– vocals, acoustic and electric pianos, organ, harmonica *

Michael Omartian Michael Omartian (born November 26, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, keyboardist, and music producer. He produced number-one records in three consecutive decades. He has earned 11 Grammy Awards nominations and won three. He sp ...

–

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, arrangements (tracks 1-4, 6-10) *

Jimmie Haskell Jimmie Haskell (born Sheridan Pearlman, November 7, 1926 – February 4, 2016) was an American composer and arranger for motion pictures and a wide variety of popular artists, including Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Steely Da ...

– arrangements (track 5) * Richard Bennett – guitars *

Larry Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorde ...

– guitars *

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...

– guitars *

Eric Weissberg Eric Weissberg (August 16, 1939 – March 22, 2020) was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist, whose most commercially successful recording was his banjo solo in "Dueling Banjos," featured as the theme of the film ''Deliver ...

–

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

* Fred Heilbrun – banjo *

Wilton Felder Wilton Lewis Felder (August 31, 1940 – September 27, 2015) was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Wan ...

– bass guitar *

Emory Gordy Jr. Emory Lee Gordy Jr. (born December 25, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter and music producer. A former member of Emmylou Harris' backing band The Hot Band, he is best known for his association with country singer Patty Loveless, to whom ...

– bass guitar *

Ron Tutt Ronald Ellis Tutt (March 12, 1938 – October 16, 2021) was an American drummer who played concerts and recording sessions for Elvis Presley, the Carpenters, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, and Jerry Garcia. Early life Born in Dallas, Texas, United ...

– drums (tracks 1–9) *

Rhys Clark Rhys Edward Clark (born 17 September 1946 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a New Zealand drummer who, since moving to the United States in 1970, has played with such artists as Hoyt Axton, Freddy Fender and, most notably, Billy Joel. Biograp ...

– drums (track 10) * Billy Armstrong – violin * Laura Creamer – backing vocals * Mark Creamer – backing vocals * Susan Steward – backing vocals Live at Sigma Sound Studios, April 15, 1972 * Billy Joel – piano, harmonica, vocals * Al Hertzberg – acoustic and electric guitars *

Larry Russell __NOTOC__ Larry Russell (October 14, 1913 – February 14, 1954) was an American composer working mostly in the motion picture industry. He is widely remembered as being one of three writers of the song " Vaya Con Dios", which has been recorded ov ...

– bass guitar * Rhys Clark – drums * Dennis Wilen – producer Production * Michael Stewart – producer * Ron Malo –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

– remastering * Beverly Parker – design * Bill Imhofe – illustration

Reception

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

mused that ''Piano Man'' "represents a new seriousness and flexibility" for Joel, comparing it to the stylings of

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. Reviewing the album, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' stated that it shows that Joel has a "fine shot at establishing himself as consistent quality AM artist with large scale songs and dynamic performing range.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Billy Joel albums 1973 albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Michael Stewart (musician) Albums arranged by Michael Omartian Albums arranged by Jimmie Haskell