Billy Joel started his solo career in music intending to become a songwriter, not a rock star. At the time in the early 1970's, people in the industry advised him that if he wanted to become a songwriter, he should release an album so that singers could hear his songs and possibly record them or ask Billy to write more songs. Billy did put out an album (Cold Spring Harbor in 1971) and many more, and within several years he became of the world's most successful musicians, selling over 50 million records around the world. But despite his widespread popularity and incredible skills as a performer and musician, he has always been a songwriter at heart. Billy was admitted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.
This website, Famous Last Words, celebrates the lyrics of Billy Joel and provides the lyrics of his songs for commentary, research, and reference purposes. Each song in this website has a link to our sister site, One Final Serenade, where commentary on each song can be found, and we also encourage you to submit your own commentary here as well. Unlike other lyrics sites which are commercial and feature thousands of artists and songs along with ubiquitous and annoying advertisements, this site has no such ads and is focused on just one artist.
This website, Famous Last Words, celebrates the lyrics of Billy Joel and provides the lyrics of his songs for commentary, research, and reference purposes. Each song in this website has a link to our sister site, One Final Serenade, where commentary on each song can be found, and we also encourage you to submit your own commentary here as well. Unlike other lyrics sites which are commercial and feature thousands of artists and songs along with ubiquitous and annoying advertisements, this site has no such ads and is focused on just one artist.
With this website, I wanted to convey something akin to the experience of opening up a vinyl LP record, putting it on the stereo, and just sitting for hours listening to the music and reading the lyrics and liner notes, free from today's technological distractions like a marketing text message suddenly popping up on your screen. Today, people have too much information vying for their attention through the tiny screen of a smartphone. People no longer take the time to just savor music and read the lyrics or liner notes, in fact, liner notes are irrelevant as music is usually streamed or downloaded directly. But we should all turn off our phones and disappear for a while, lose a day or two, and remember that Vienna waits for you.
On a personal note, I also created this website to pass on my love of music, and Billy Joel's music in particular, to my two beautiful and talented daughters. Listening to my daughters sing, play guitar and piano, write their own lyrics, and just enjoy each other's company through music is one of the greatest joys in my life. They grew up listening to Billy Joel and are both musically inclined (girls, do you remember that night I gave you a Billy Joel lyrics quiz at Grandpa and Grandma's house and we stayed up until 4 a.m.?) I hope they will continue to enjoy music for the rest of their lives. My mother did the same for me. She loved music and made sure that my siblings and I took music lessons. She never had the time to play piano as much as she wanted to, but always made time to take us to lessons or sit beside us as we practiced. She passed on her love of music to us and to her grandchildren, even buying a piano for my girls when they were young. Music is love.
BETA UNDER CONSTRUCTION - IN PROCESS Photos: Finally, a word on the photographs appearing on this site. I have tried to give photo credits whenever I could find the correct information. [TO BE EDITED] Many of the photos are standard publicity photos or covers for singles that the record company (usually Colubiia Records) released in order to promote an album or song. I understand that such publicity photos are release with a public license allowing others to use these photos in connection with promoting or commenting about the album or song. Many of the photos on this site are also from Getty Images Embed which has a great feature that allows others to embed certain photos on their websites. Because the hypertext link to such photos from Getty Images does not work on the Weebly menu cover photo, in those cases I added another image of the photo that does contain the link. For other photos, I obtained the permission of the photographer. For a few photos, these appear to be Joel family photos posted on social media.. And for other photos, I was unable to determine who took the photo or who is the licensor of the rights to the photo. In those cases, I put a question mark in the photo credit. I invite any one who has information about such photos, including the photographer or image licensing company to e-mail me at [email protected] and I will give credit and a link, or remove the photo.
Photo: Jim Houghton/Columbia Records Publicity Photo (1977)
DISCLAIMER: This is an unofficial Billy Joel fan site that is not affiliated, endorsed, or sponsored by Billy Joel, Sony Music, Columbia Records, Maritime Music, or any similar entity. All music and lyrics by Billy Joel are copyright by Joel Songs, Sony Music, or various affiliated organizations, and are provided here for research and references purposes, and commentary. To visit the Official Billy Joel site, go to BillyJoel.com. Otherwise, other text and layout are copyright this site, Famous Last Words.