It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
Single by Billy Joel
from the album Glass Houses
B-side "Through the Long Night"
Released May 12, 1980
Format 7" vinyl
Recorded 1979
Genre
Length 2:57
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Billy Joel
Producer(s) Phil Ramone
Billy Joel singles chronology
"You May Be Right"
(1980)		 "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
(1980)		 "Don't Ask Me Why"
(1980)

"You May Be Right"
(1980)		 "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
(1980)		 "Don't Ask Me Why"
(1980)

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" is a hit 1980 song performed by Billy Joel, from the hit album Glass Houses. The song was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks, from July 19 through August 1, 1980. The song spent 11 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980 according to American Top 40. The song is an examination of the themes of a musician's declining fame and changing public tastes that were expressed in his 1975 hit "The Entertainer".

The single eventually reached Platinum status from the RIAA for sales of over 1 million copies in the United States.[3]

Content

The song is a cynical look at the music industry as a publicist/manager begs the protagonist to remain hip for the younger crowd ("What's the matter with the car I'm driving?" / "Can't you tell that it's out of style?"), and the protagonist's refusal to change, claiming his music will remain relevant regardless of his appearance. The song was a reaction by Joel at the new music genres that were around in the late 1970s (punk, funk, new wave). It was inspired by Joel reading a review about a particular (unnamed) band, and realizing that he had no idea what their music sounded like. The song also includes the line "Alright Rico!" to kick off the saxophone solo performed by Richie Cannata.

Music video

The music video for the song depicted Joel mixing elements of new wave, punk, and funk as he records a music video. The video version differs from the album version in that Joel performs the main vocal live to the prerecorded album track.

Personnel

Soundtrack appearances

The song appears on the game Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore.[4]

Pop rock musician Drake Bell covered the song in 2014 on his rockabilly album Ready Steady Go!.[5] Kid Rock covered it as a demo in 1992 but rewrote the lyrics and changed the title to "It's Still East Detroit To Me" as a hardcore punk song. "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of the song called "It's Still Billy Joel to Me"; it was never released officially, although he did play it live in the early 1980s. Rap metal band Hed PE quoted the chorus in the 2000 song "Crazy Legs" but changed some of the words to "Everybody's talking about that new sound crazy but it's still hip hop to me"

Charts

See also

References

  1. ↑ Thomas, Stephen. "Glass Houses - Billy Joel". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  2. ↑ Brusie, David (October 28, 2014). "With Glass Houses, Billy Joel attempted to overhaul his image". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gold & Platinum - RIAA". RIAA.
  4. ↑ Allgame - Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore - Credits Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  5. ↑ Collar, Matt. "Drake Bell - Ready Steady Go! Review". Allmusic. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ InfoDisc, Daniel Lesueur, Dominic Durand, Lesueur. "InfoDisc : Bilan des Ventes par Artiste". Infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  7. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – It's Still Rock and Roll to Me". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Canadian 1980 Top 100 Singles". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "Top 100 Hits of 1980/Top 100 Songs of 1980". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
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