One Final Serenade: Songs of Billy Joel
 Download "Nobody Knows But Me"
Oh, Mama thinks I'm talking to myself again
I know she thinks I'm out of my mind But I'm really talking to my secret friend We get along just fine Billy Joel wrote and recorded "Nobody Knows But Me" in 1982 for the children's album, In Harmony 2. The album featured some of the top recording artists of the time like Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Janis Ian, Kenny Loggins, Carly Simon, and Teddy Pendergrass, and several others performing rock and pop songs for kids. The album was produced by David Levine and Lucy Simon (who is Carly Simon's sister) and won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children. Springsteen contributed his version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" to the album.
The song is a fun, free-wheeling rock song, but for kids. It is about having an invisible or secret friend, like many kids do, that nobody else sees, hears, or knows. There is something mildly creepy, however, about the line "But my friend is sitting on the edge of the bed, Talking to me every night." A child having an imaginary friend is fine, a child seeing apparitions (think Poltergeist, Dark Water, or The Sixth Sense) is not. * * * * *
Billy talks about his children's song "Nobody Knows But Me," from SiriusXM radio. Click player below.
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I got a friend that nobody knows
Nobody knows but me I got a friend that nobody knows Nobody knows but me Oh, Mama thinks I'm talking to myself again I know she thinks I'm out of my mind But I'm really talking to my secret friend We get along just fine I got a friend that nobody hears Nobody hears but me I got a friend that nobody hears Nobody hears but me Oh, I always go to sleep when my Daddy says I kiss him and turn out the light But my friend is sitting on the edge of the bed Talking to me every night Everybody says it's just a stage I'm in Everybody says I'm just a kid But they've never traveled to the places I've been Or done the crazy things that my friend and I did Well, I got a friend that nobody sees Nobody sees but me I got a friend that nobody sees Nobody sees but me I got a friend that nobody knows Nobody knows but me I got a friend that nobody knows Nobody hears Nobody sees Nobody's spoken to And nobody can Nobody knows but me "Nobody Knows But Me" from In Harmony 2 (1982), and which is also on My Lives (2005) and The Complete Albums (2011).
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