One Final Serenade: Songs of Billy Joel
From An Innocent Man (1983)
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The music video for "Uptown Girl" was very popular and featured Christie Brinkley with Billy Joel. © 1983 Sony Music Entertainment.
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I'm gonna try for an uptown girl
If it didn't become so popular, "Uptown Girl," might have been known simply as a novelty song, an homage to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and loving tribute to Christie Brinkley. As it is, however, the song became a huge hit and is often derided by Billy's critics as somehow being symbolic of what is "wrong" with Billy Joel, or his fans. The criticism is unfair. "Uptown Girl" is an intentional one-off. It was a deliberate attempt to mimic Frankie Valli's falsetto, and a clever counterpoint to Valli's "Rag Doll." It works both musically and lyrically. In contrast to "Rag Doll," in "Uptown Girl" it is the guy who is on the wrong side of the tracks, he is a "downtown man" trying to a woo an "uptown girl." Billy accounts himself well in the song. People who don't like "Uptown Girl" don't like Frankie Valli, but "Uptown Girl" is more like Frankie Valli than anything else that Billy wrote. In fact, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons sang the song at the Grammy Legend Award ceremony honoring Billy and others in 1991. 
"And now she's looking for a downtown man . . . ."
Although many fans assumed the song was about Christie Brinkley, Billy's original lyric and title was "uptown girls," plural, a reference to the many dates he went on following his divorce. At some point later, after he and Christie began dating the song evolved into "Uptown Girl." No matter, the sentiment and the joy in the song is clear.
The music video for "Uptown Girl" is a classic. It features both Billy and Christie Brinkley doing some simple dance steps. In the video, Billy is a grease monkey at a run-down garage when Ms. Brinkley's limousine pulls in for a fill-up. Billy and his mates begin serenading the uptown girl, and soon she gives in to his working class charms.
Billy on "Uptown Girl" from SiriusXM in 2016.
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Uptown girl
She's been living in her uptown world I bet she never had a back street guy I bet her mama never told her why I'm gonna try for an uptown girl She's been living in her white bread world As long as anyone with hot blood can And now she's looking for a downtown man That's what I am And when she knows what She wants from her time And when she wakes up And makes up her mind She'll see I'm not so tough Just because I'm in love With an uptown girl You know I've seen her in her uptown world She's getting tired of her high class toys And all her presents from her uptown boys She's got a choice Oooh... Uptown girl You know I can't afford to buy her pearls But maybe someday when my ship comes in She'll understand what kind of guy I've been And then I'll win And when she's walking She's looking so fine And when she's talking She'll say that she's mine She'll say I'm not so tough Just because I'm in love With an uptown girl She's been living in her white bread world As long as anyone with hot blood can And now she's looking for a downtown man That's what I am .... oh, oh, oh Uptown girl She's my uptown girl Don't you know I'm in love With an uptown girl My uptown girl Don't you know I'm in love With an uptown girl My uptown girl Don't you know I'm in love With an uptown girl My uptown girl She's an uptown girl Vertical Divider
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The music video was one of the most popular videos of the time as that genre was exploding onto the scene, and no doubt helped propel the song to #3 on the US charts and #1 on the UK charts. Eighteen years later in 2001 the UK group Westlife did a cover version of the song that went to #1 in the UK. The Westlife music video also featured a supermodel, Claudia Schiffer. In the UK, the song was associated with Princess Diana as she danced to it at the Royal Opera House on Christmas as a surprise gift to Prince Charles. The late Anthony Bourdain had expressed his disdain for this song, but Bourdain was friends with Billy. Bourdain once said of Billy: "If I come over to your house for lunch and you’re playing 'Uptown Girl' and boogying around the pool, I’m turning around and heading back to my house. But I like him [Billy] personally a lot." The song was also used in the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck in 2015. While "Uptown Girl" is not a deep as "Summer, Highland Falls" or "Vienna," it works very well within the context of the album. And the music video remains a guilty pleasure even today. |
"Don't you know I'm in love with an uptown girl . . . "
Billy discusses "Uptown Girl" on a call-in radio program (K-Rock 92.3) in 1989.
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Videos
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Live version of "Uptown Girl" from Billy's An Innocent Man tour, in Wembley Arena (1984).
Billy and Christie Brinkley each discuss how they met and their relationship in this excerpt (starting at 16:44) from MTV Rockumentary in 1990.
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Billy discusses learning the dance steps for the "Uptown Girl" video and making videos generally on New York Hot Tracks in 1984. He also talks about the filming at 7:25.
Billy discusses the inspiration for the music and lyrics to "Uptown Girl." Aside from the mock Asian accent at 1:12, it's an entertaining discussion.
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Billy has said that the melody for "Uptown Girl" is actually like a classical piece. Here, Richard Joo plays the song as Mozart sonata, from A&E's In His Own Words in 2001.
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Frankie Vallie and The Four Seasons "Rag Doll". One line is "I love you just the way you are."
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