In Every Chapter, We Find Billy

If I'm keeping a Jukebox Journal to help me as I write my Musical Memoir, then in every chapter, we would find Billy. It was October of my Sophomore year in High School and a bunch of us were on our way home from the Pink Floyd Laser Show. We were packed like sardines in my friend Brian’s car and, please don’t tell my kids, but I was in the hatchback. It was like 1990 something and things were just different then. Anyway, Brian had moved to California from New York about a year before and was one of the regulars in this group of friends. We were listening to very loud music, I think it was probably Master of Puppets on cassette tape. Suddenly Brian switched the tape out for Billy Joel. As soon as the rest of the crew heard the change, just about all of them, definitely all the guys in the car, started to complain, ‘Man, come on, put Metallica back on!’ I, on the other hand, jumped over the back seat and crawled all the way up to the front of the car, placing my head right in between Brian’s and the girl in the passenger seat to sing my heart out. Because Billy was on and that means singing along to the best stories ever told to music. Brian had no way of knowing but as a little girl I used to listen to my parents’ Billy Joel albums and my favorite thing to do was lay on the floor with the album lyric books, CD booklets, liner notes, anything I could get my hands on to memorize all the lyrics and look at every picture of Billy, the Band, all of it. My parents both worked at Sony and Zenith in Chicago before that and always had a pretty cool entertainment setup. When we got the first 200 disc CD player everyone was impressed and I was just excited to not have to switch out CDs as often. My dad’s music collection has always included so many of my favorite albums. I used to fall asleep to his Nat King Cole CDs just about every night. Elvis, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Julio Iglesias, all the classics, and tons of Boleros that he loved to sing along to as he played the guitar. Paul Simon and Willie Nelson were two more of my favorite musical heroes he introduced me to. So many great artists to listen to but Billy was like an obsession for me. I remember being in love with “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “Rosalinda’s Eyes”, “Vienna”, “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”, and “An Innocent Man” of course my mom’s favorites were the usual mom favorites of “Uptown Girl”, “Tell Her About It”, and “The Longest Time” and I loved singing those with her. For these reasons when I heard Billy start to play from the back of, well worse than the back, because again, I was in the hatchback, basically stuffed in the trunk of the old Hyundai. Actually, the Hyundai wasn’t really old and that piece of information doesn’t really fit in with the narrative of Brian’s usual car stories from his childhood. It’s the long-running joke that he never had a car from the same decade growing up. This time his mom bought a pretty new car, she was shocked at the deal she got, pretty proud of herself even. She thought it was a steal….because she thought she was buying a Honda! The poor Hyundai didn’t make it very long as the family car but the memories have lasted a lifetime. Back to my story… When I heard Billy start to play it felt like kismet. Brian had been what I considered a pretty good friend so I should have known or guessed he would love Billy, being from New York, but of all the NY accent jokes and hilarious stories he shared with us, I guess I missed that key piece of information. Now, singing at the top of our lungs and laughing about our newfound connection, things would never be the same. Our friendship had earned a new special badge of sorts. At the time we were both dating other people and both those relationships, if you could even call them that, didn’t make it to Christmas. Brian and I remained good friends until our senior year. It was that year, about two years later to the date of the clown car incident in fact, that so happened to be the weekend before the big Homecoming dance. Brian and I had decided we would go together and had planned to hangout with some friends to watch a movie. As we went outside to his parents' backyard, he walked over to a tape player and hit the play button. And just like the great memory we shared before, Billy began to play. That was the night we shared our first kiss. Billy has been a huge part of our lives ever since. Brian even has a signature song and of course it’s by Billy Joel. Which one you’re asking? See if you can guess. Music Trivia moment: The album is Glass Houses and the opening sound reflects what you would hear seconds after the scene takes place on the cover photo. If you know the song without looking up the album, Congratulations, you’re a real fan! That or a music trivia junkie, either way, we should hang out. Every road trip, every party, karaoke nights, so many playlists, countless concerts, weddings and so much more. Most special has to be that he was playing in the delivery room for all our children’s births. Thank you for the music Billy, you’ve been with us for the whole ride. Ups and downs, ‘sadness or euphoria’ . We love you!