Songoftheday 8/30/12 - But you will come to a place where the only thing you feel are loaded guns in your face...

Billy Joel - "Pressure"

from the album The Nylon Curtain (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (three weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 8

Today's Song of the Day is by "Piano Man" Billy Joel, who grew up in New York which shines through in his music throughout the years. After trolling around in a few bands like the Hassles and Attila, and doing bar gigs in the early 70s, Joel was signed to a small indie label and released his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor in 1971. After switching to Columbia Records, his sophomore work, Piano Man, brought him into the national spotlight, and scored Billy a top-40 hit with the title track in 1973 (it also made the top-5 on the adult-contemporary chart.)

After a couple more albums, Joel achieved his critical peak with 1977's The Stranger. That album spun off four top-40 singles in the US, including the #3 pop/#1 adult-contemporary "Just The Way You Are", gracing wedding playlists until eternity. During the late 70s, Joel scored a bunch a hits in the soft-rock vein, until 1980 came around and Joel toughened his music for the Glass Houses LP, and in returned topped the pop charts for the first time with "It's Still Rock N Roll To Me" as well as the adult-contemporary chart with "Don't Ask Me Why".

After a success live album in 1981 (Songs From The Attic), Joel's next effort, The Nylon Curtain, was more adult and filled with middle-age angst. The first single, "Pressure" set the paranoic and solitary tone of the album, and was written by Joel and produced by Phil Ramone, who helmed Billy's Grammy-winning 52nd Street album and himself won a producer of the year Grammy in 1981.

"Pressure" became Joel's tenth top-20 hit on the pop chart, and made the top-10 on both the US rock radio list and the Canadian pop chart. The Nylon Curtain also became his fifth straight top-10 album.

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Canadian rap group Swollen Members (!) incorporated Billy's song in their track of the same name in 2006...

 Up tomorrow: A Supreme likes 'em built.