AboutBarry Goldsbury Expertise I am 24 years old and have been a Billy Joel fan since I was a little kid. I find him to be incredibly interesting with smart lyrics and unbelieveable musicianship. I have his CD`s and a lot of knowledge on the man. If I don`t know it, I will look for it and will not stop til I have the answer for you. I`d love to help if you got a question or just want to talk about Billy. Write me.
Expert: Barry Goldsbury Date: 2/6/2006 Subject: Songs for a musical
Question Mr Goldsbury,
My name's Bianca Hennessy, I'm 15 and I'm from NSW, Australia. I'm doing a Personal Interest Project at school, and I'm wondering if you could give me a few pointers on the songs of Billy Joel.
My plan is to write the script and design the costumes, set and advertising campaign for a musical. The musical will feature songs from Billy Joel. I've never done anything like this before so I'm looking for a bit of help. We have been encouraged to contact people outside of school who are experts in their field to give us advice.
My question for you is this: If you were to create a musical play using songs from Billy, what would you include? I have a couple of his albums, as well as his greatest hits. I'd like to use a few of my favourites, but I'd like to know what songs, in your opinion, would be perfect for a musical.
Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Bianca Hennessy
Answer Hi Bianca,
Billy has a handful of what you would call "story songs", that would fit a play/musical. "Piano Man" would obviously fit. So would "Miami 2017", "Scenes From An Italian Restaraunt", "Goodbye Saigon", and even "We Didn't Start The Fire". Billy made an album in 1983 called "An Innocent Man", and the majority of this album is like a throwback to the days of 50's and 60's pop, doo-wop, R&B and such. Not all of it, but most of it. If you were to do a musical or so in that era, a number of those songs would fit in nicely. "The Longest Time" has a nice accapella feel to it, and "This Night" sounds like it belongs in a prom from 1955. Lol. These are just a few suggestions. Hope these help in some way. Thanks for writing.
