Billy Joel’s songs are legendary - “Piano Man,” “Just the Way You Are”, “Only the Good Die Young”, “She’s Always a Woman” and “Uptown Girl” among hundreds of others. Yet the singer-songwriter is quick to name another composer the greatest in the history of the medium.
In an interview withViennafrom 2020, recently resurfaced byFar Out Magazine, Billy Joel calls classical composer Ludwig Van Beethoven the greatest in the history of music.
Billy Joel: I still think he is the greatest composer who ever lived. To me, he was the most human composer. With Beethoven, I hear the stops and the starts and the friction and the struggles that he had when he was writing. He had to struggle. The man was deaf when he wrote most of this stuff.
How Beethoven’s Beginnings Informed Billy Joel’s Own Approach
Vienna Does Indeed Wait For You
Born in 1770, Beethovendemonstrated an aptitude for composition early in lifeafter receiving instruction from his father. He published his first work at age 13, and by age 21 had cultivated a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His First Symphony was published at age 30, even as his hearing began to deteriorate.
His disability increasingly prompted him to withdraw from social life, even as he composed piano sonatas, chamber music and even an opera. His works, including Symphony No. 9 (better known as “Ode to Joy”), have gone on to becomesome of the most well-known in classical music history.
As removed as contemporary music may seem to be from 18th Century Vienna, Beethoven’s compositional approach paved the way for artists like Joel.
Examples of Beethoven’s influence on Joel’s work include “This Night,” the sixth single from his 1983 albumAn Innocent Man. With lyrics inspired by his relationship with Australian model Elle Macpherson, the song incorporates Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8, also known as “Pathétique Sonata,” for its central melody.Joel even credits the composer as one of his songwriting collaboratorson the album’s sleeve.
How Billy Joel Has Continued To Honor Beethoven’s Work
It’s More Than Just Mere Inspiration
Joel further draws on Beethoven in his other work, even more in his compositional process than in replicating or borrowing his melodies.Far Outpoints out that Joel occasionally transitions between sections of his songs with unexpected chords but always skillfully returns to the central melody,an approach that Beethoven frequently employedin his work.
Joel would later compose actual classical pieces, such as those featured on hisFantasies & Delusionsalbum, another homage to Beethoven’s inspiration on his career.
That tenacity and commitment to creating a substantial body of work also feels like a cornerstone of Joel’s work.
Evidenced by the still-famous compositions such as “Fur Elise,” “Ode to Joy,” and “Moonlight Sonata” he created even late in his career when he’d lost his hearing, Beethoven’s creativity refused to be limited by his disability.
That tenacity and commitment to creating a substantial body of work also feels like a cornerstone of Joel’s work - a connection between the two further amplified by the fact thatJoel continues to maintain a prolific output of work late in his career, and experiment and test himself while doing so.
WhetherBilly Joeland Beethoven deserve a place next to each other on the Mount Rushmore of history’s most important pianists, the “Piano Man” has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as his classical predecessor, not just as one of Beethoven’s disciples, but also as an artist who took his inspiration and transformed it into a body of work just as enduring and influential.
