(The Hit Hammer Requests are requests from people who want me to review songs that did NOT hit #1, but still charted on the Hot 100. Right now, there is only one request per person, but if you're reading this, and you haven't already sent me a request, feel free to do so. I will try to do a request once a week, while still continuing my main project of reviewing each #1 song on the Hot 100)
Billy Joel - "The Longest Time"
Peak Date: May 11, 1984
Peak Position: #14
#1 Song At That Time: "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by Phil Collins
Requestor: Michele Gors
Doo-wop had long since been forgotten about by the time the 1980's rolled around. I talk all the time about the Beatles, and how they ruined a lot of careers and genres in the music industry, and doo-wop was one of those genres. Doo-wop was a style of music that originated in New York in the 1940's. It mostly originated from African American youth, and featured no instruments. The guitar parts, bass lines, and other instrumentation that you would normally find in songs were replaced by scatting and other backing vocal parts by the group, while one member sang lead. The genre was mostly popular in the late 1950's and its popularity carried over into the 1960's before the British Invasion killed it. That was until 1984, when Billy Joel brought it back to life for a brief time.
"The Longest Time" is unique in its own ways, but it's far from being among Joel's most celebrated songs. He had three #1 hits in the 80's, and in 1973, he gave us "Piano Man", which is probably his signature song. ("Piano Man" made it to #25 on the Hot 100. Honestly, that's a big disappointment because "Piano Man" rules. It's a 9) However, "The Longest Time" still does well for itself. It's the only instance I can think of where doo-wop made some kind of a comeback. It was on his album An Innocent Man, which included songs that were inspired by Joel's own inspirations. "The Longest Time" was a hat tip to Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, one of the greater doo-wop groups of all time.
The song came out during MTV's hey day of music videos, so of course, "The Longest Time" has its own video attached to it. It takes place after a 25th anniversary high school reunion, with Joel playing the part of a middle-aged man reminiscing on his high school nostalgia. All of a sudden his old friends from high school come out of nowhere, and they start singing the song. Joel, without missing a beat, joins in and starts singing lead. There's points where the guys at their current age start interacting with their high school selves. The music video is kind of weird, but it's still some fun. Joel can play the part of a guy in his 40's and a high schooler very well, which isn't something I'd imagine to be very easy to accomplish.
What's funny about "The Longest Time" is that it's very clearly a doo-wop song, but it still sounds modern for its time. It doesn't sound like something that came out of the 50's. Joel puts his own jazzy twist on the song, and the backing vocalists aren't backing vocalists at all. Joel multi-tracked the hell out of the song, meaning all the voices you hear are Joel. The strategy is very similar to what Neil Sedaka did on his 1962 #1 hit "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". The song isn't anything that will blow you away, and it's not what I'd call a masterpiece, but it's still a nice little flashback to what music was like before the Beatles turned the world upside down. Joel's other vocal parts blend in together perfectly. It creates a pretty cool song. For those who follow the regular Hit Hammer series, I can guarantee you that we will hear from Joel again.
GRADE: 8/10
(Of course I was going to get a request from my mom at some point. So, thank you mom!)
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