Songoftheday 3/15/15 - We walked on the beach beside that old hotel, they're tearing it down but it's just as well...

"This Is The Time" - Billy Joel
from the album The Bridge (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from "The Piano Man" himself, singer/songwriter Billy Joel, whose swerve back to adult rock from his retro classic An Innocent Man album had already netted him a pair of #10 pop hits in America with "Modern Woman" and "A Matter Of Trust". The third single from the Bridge album, "This Is The Time", sounds like it was written for graduation times, with its sense of over-importance in the "now" and who you're with, and it resonated among the hip urban set (aka the parents of future hipsters...). With his grand piano substituted by all synths, it had the cold feel of maturity to contrast the lyrics.

"This Is The Time" became the third top-40 pop hit from The Bridge in January of 1986. The single went all the way to #1 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart and crossed over to #32 on the Mainstream Rock list in Billboard magazine. The record was also a top-40 hit in Canada and Italy, the latter most likely due to its being the theme to that country's version of the soap opera Guiding Light. And although it was the one that didn't make the top-10, "This Is The Time" has proven to aged the best out of the album's hits.

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Here's Billy using a piano instead of the synths like on tour behind the album in 1986...

and finally, again live in 2008 with John Mayer...

Up tomorrow: the Acid Queen sings about a couple.