Pat Finnerty’s Pure Billy Joel Observations

The magic of Billy Joel is how he’s always ripping somebody off.

For the kids, you can kind of think of him as the Bruno Mars of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

For the adults, this explains why you kind of like at least one Bruno Mars song.

The only place there’s no obvious ripoff/tribute/obvious kind of borrowing going on, according to Pat Finnerty’s research, is “Pressure.”

If you’re still stuck on the rip off bit - Finnerty kills me - he explains,

Billy Charles (“New York State of Mind”)

Billy Jagger (“You May Be Right”)

Billy McCartney (“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”)

Billy Costello (“It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me”)

Billy Valli (“For The Longest Time”)

Billy Sting (I didn’t know this one! “Running on Ice”)

But, for all those obvious knock-offs, hat-tips, and song-jacks - “Pressure” stands alone.

Finnerty can’t crack it. He does crack the “Succession” theme song. But he can’t crack anything but Billy Joel as he digs in.

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