Souvenir - Billy Joel

Souvenir
Streetlife Serenade (1974)

Background Photo: The New York Times from 9/11 Museum.

And your mementos
Will turn to dust
But that's the price you pay
For every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away

"A picture postcard"

"Souvenir" is the final song with lyrics on Streetlife Serenade and serves as a sort of coda to the album. It is a nice, wistful tune about the tiny details in life that we file away, like another year of our lives filed away. And like a fine poem, it says many things in a concise, impactful, and lyrical manner, using sentimental images: "a program of the play," "a picture postcard," "your mementos." But this is not a sentimental song, the underlying theme is that such things will all turn to dust and slowly fade away, just like another year passing.

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A picture postcard
A folded stub
A program of the play
File away the photographs
Of your holiday

And your mementos
Will turn to dust
But that's the price you pay
For every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away

Every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away

Billy discusses "Souvenir" on SiriusXM radio. He says that he wanted to write a New Year's song like Auld Lang Syne.

"A folded stub"

Musically, "Souvenir" is simple and elegant, with a classical melody. Billy once explained in a Q&A session (see video, below), that the opening notes of the song are almost the same as those in Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude (Op. 28, No. 19) in D flat major. His instrumental "Nocturne" from the Cold Spring Harbor album in 1971 is also reminiscent of a Chopin composition.

"A program of the play"

In his earlier years, Billy often played "Souvenir" at the end of his concerts and on New Year's Eve (see for example the video "Live in Long Island" in 1982, below). It was an appropriate final song. Although a short song, it is one of the better songs from Streetlife Serenade.

The song also appears on the 1977 promotional album Souvenir which came out after Turnstiles was released, and which has a live version of the song from 1976. It was also used in a sentimental scene for the final episode of the television series "How I Met Your Mother" in 2014 (see video below).

Videos

Live performance of "Souvenir" from the 1982 video "Live from Long Island." It is the perfect New Year's Eve song.

Billy plays "Souvenir" at a 1995 Master Class in Nuremberg, Germany, and discusses the song and his love of classical music, including Chopin.

"Souvenir" was used in the television show "How I Met Your Mother" in the finale.

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