ItвЂ™s good to see him getting a fair shake by many here as itвЂ™s pretty much a requirement to be a Serious Music Critic in America that Thou Must Hate Billy Joel, including writing at least one article about why the man and his fans represent everything that is wrong with popular music over the past 40 or whatever yearsвЂ¦. Not entirely surprised to see this song and BJ in general be so polarizing in the comments. В« CULTURE CLUB вЂ“ вЂњKarma ChameleonвЂќ THE FLYING PICKETS вЂ“ вЂњOnly YouвЂќ В» Comments В« 1 2 3 All Those endless runs of вЂњoh-oh-whoasвЂќ are the main reason to listen to the song, and theyвЂ™re a tip off as to where itвЂ™s really coming from, in spirit if not in music: not the street heat of Frankie Valli but the lusty lads-together innocence of the Beach Boys.

It isnвЂ™t a record about bedding an uptown girl or wanting to bed an uptown girl, itвЂ™s a record about remembering wanting to bed an uptown girl, and boasting to your blue-collar buds that thatвЂ™s what you were gonna do, and wanting to have blue-collar buds to boast to! The video makes this explicit with Christine Brinkley as pin-up come to life, but itвЂ™s in the song too, in the husky, hearty interplay of those cascading backing vox, whose prominence makes it obvious that the guys вЂ“ not the girl вЂ“ are the chief audience for JoelвЂ™s talk. Of course Billy Joel is smart enough to realise this, and вЂњUptown GirlвЂќ works because itвЂ™s history written by the winners. ThereвЂ™s nothing at stake in вЂњUptown GirlвЂќ вЂ“ how could there be? Rock and roll moved uptown long ago.

The street music вЂ“ doo-wop and rockвЂ™nвЂ™roll вЂ“ that вЂњUptown GirlвЂќ draws energy from was able to speak so powerfully to sexual and social codes partly because the act of addressing those codes head-on was itself a breach of them. Billy Joel pays tribute to the music of his childhood, and so inevitably thereвЂ™s something childish about вЂњUptown GirlвЂќ: its instant singability makes it sound like a Grease outtake, except there was more sex and chemistry in GreaseвЂ™s flirtatious goofery.

Girl in billy joel uptown girl video