The Entertainer (song)


"The Entertainer" is a single by singer Billy Joel released as the only single from his 1974 album Streetlife Serenade. The song peaked at #34 on the US charts, a Top 40 hit for Joel that year. The song is a cynical and somewhat satirical look at the fleeting fame of a musician and fickle public tastes ; this theme would be examined in the later song "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me".
Another verse in the song references the shortening of Joel's song, "Piano Man", from 5 minutes and 38 seconds to 3 minutes and 5 seconds to fit a radio slot, referenced by the lyrics "It was a beautiful song, / but it ran too long / If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit / So they cut it down to 3:05." Additionally, the timing printed on the label of the 7" release of "The Entertainer" was 3:05, although the actual 45 length was 3:11. In the single version, Verse 3 is edited out, and Verse 2 contains a steel guitar in its second half, which is actually featured in the second half of the third verse in the album version; indeed, on the single mix, the instrumental crescendo of the album version is anticipated by bringing the fuller instrumentation of Verse 3 under the vocals of Verse 2. As a result of this, the slightly emptier original instrumentation of Verse 2 and the vocals of Verse 3 are completely omitted, while the instrumentation of Verse 3 does appear, but earlier.
On some of the singles released for "The Entertainer" the song was b-sided with "The Mexican Connection".
Billboard regarded it as one of the "best cuts" from Steetlife Serenade.

Chart history