Billy Joel -- Pressure

 

Welcome to this week's Reminiscings of Youth and I'd like to welcome Billy Joel for the third time to a ROY after his romantic "Rosalinda's Eyes" and the sad-if-wise karaoke favourite "Honesty". 

This time though, I'm going to go with his frantic September 1982 single "Pressure". Now, I'd heard The Piano Man for years before this hit on the radio through the songs that I've already mentioned but also "Piano Man" itself and "Just The Way You Are" (which I will definitely include as a ROY perhaps on Valentine's Day 2022). However, what really had me paying attention to Joel and got me to go from just an interested listener to a big fan was "Pressure". In fact, the very first 45" single by Joel that I bought from Sam The Record Man was this song (it's just too bad that this didn't have the extended version on the music video).

Joel may be known as The Piano Man but he's also been called a musical chameleon for his ability to absorb different styles and musicians whether it be Mick Jagger and rock on "You May Be Right", Ray Charles on "New York State of Mind" or Ronnie Spector on "Say Goodbye to Hollywood". Then there is his whole love letter to doo-wop via the "An Innocent Man" album. But with "Pressure", I think that this was Joel's venture into New Wave with those crazed synthesizers.

Everything about "Pressure" works: the propulsive synth riff that sounds like it originally got lifted from some classical piece and then filtered through computers, the insane circus-y interlude, the crashing drums, Joel yelling out the title and then half-oozing the verses as if he were being put under sedation following yet another psychotic break. From what I've read about the song on Wikipedia, Joel was under some pressure getting tracks for "The Nylon Curtain" where "Pressure" would reside when his secretary suggested (probably very gently) about singing on the nature of pressure itself from all sources.

The music video by Russell Mulcahy for "Pressure" was the first exposure that I got of the song...I think it was on Casey Kasem's "America's Top 10", and it just added to the psychological nuttiness of it all. I think that it was downright Kafkaesque and it totally sold me on the song. "Pressure" hit No. 9 in Canada and No. 20 Stateside. In Japan, it got as high as No. 78. Since then, it's been brought back through an episode of that dark superhero series "The Boys", but I also remember it being used for a montage sequence before a Major League Baseball playoff series on TV, and it was incredible. I think that it would be the ideal song for any sport playoffs broadcast.

"Pressure" may have only gotten up to No. 78 on Oricon but what were No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 on the Oricon Singles chart in September 1982? Unfortunately, I can't include Toshihiko Tahara's（田原俊彦）"Ninjin Musume"（NINJIN娘）which came in at No. 3 since at this writing, I haven't covered it yet.

1. Aming -- Matsu wa (待つわ）

2. Hiromi Go -- Aishuu no Casablanca （哀愁のカサブランカ）

4. Seiko Matsuda -- Komugi Iro no Mermaid (小麦色のマーメイド）