Uptown Girl

Inspiration

According to an interview with Howard Stern, Joel had originally titled the song "Uptown Girls", and it was conceived on an occasion when he was surrounded by Christie Brinkley, Whitney Houston, and his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson. According to numerous interviews with Joel, the song was initially written about his relationship with Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife, Brinkley, both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980s. Joel said that the song was inspired by the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Reception

Cash Box said that "sounding uncannily like Frankie Valli, Joel plays out the city uptown-downtown caste system, longing for a seemingly unavailable 'white-bread' lovely." Four Seasons bassist Joe Long praised the record and considered it vindication for him, as he had been forced out of the band during its 1970s renaissance when it moved away from the classic sound; Long argued that the success of "Uptown Girl" had shown the Four Seasons had not needed to make those kinds of changes.

Music video

The video depicts Joel and his backup singers working as auto mechanics. Brinkley arrives in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce as Joel and the mechanics dance with her. A poster of Brinkley can be seen in the garage as well as on a billboard above the garage advertising "Uptown Cosmetics". At the end of the video Joel and Brinkley ride off on a motorcycle. Before the song starts, footage from the music video "Tell Her About It" is seen playing on a portable TV.

In 1985, Joel said, "'Uptown Girl' I wasn't too crazy about, because they wanted me to dance. I sort of said, OK, you know, I'll give it a try. We shot it on the two hottest days of the year."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Personnel

• Billy Joel – Baldwin SF-10 acoustic piano, lead and backing vocals
• David Brown – lead electric guitar
• Russell Javors – rhythm electric guitar
• Doug Stegmeyer – bass guitar
• Liberty DeVitto – drums
• Mark Rivera – percussion, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Mike Alexander – backing vocals
• Tom Bahler – backing vocals
• Rory Dodd – backing vocals
• Frank Floyd – backing vocals
• Lani Groves – backing vocals
• Ullanda McCullough – backing vocals
• Ron Taylor – backing vocals
• Terry Textor – backing vocals
• Eric Troyer – backing vocals

Legacy and impact

Olivia Rodrigo mentioned the song and Joel in her hit single "Deja Vu", which became a top 3 U.S. hit. Rodrigo made a surprise appearance at Joel's Madison Square Garden performance on August 24, 2022, singing "Deja Vu" with Joel on piano and "Uptown Girl" as a duet with Joel.

Westlife version

| B-side = "Angels Wings"

Irish boy band Westlife covered the song for their third studio album, World of Our Own. It was released on March 5, 2001, as the 2001 Comic Relief charity single. The song was also released as the fifth single for the European Special Edition and Asian Deluxe Edition Bonus Disc of the group's second album, Coast to Coast (2000). The Westlife version is slightly shorter than Joel's version because one of the verses was not repeated. The music video was a parody of Joel's, with the members of Westlife playing workers in a burger bar. Robert Bathurst, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Ioan Gruffudd, Tim McInnerny and James Wilby play the snobby uptown customers and Claudia Schiffer is in the Christie Brinkley role.

"Uptown Girl" reached number one in Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom. It became the best-selling single of 2001 and the tenth-best-selling single of all time in Ireland. In the United Kingdom, it was the sixth-best-selling single of 2001 and the 24th-best-selling single of the decade in the UK charts, with sales of 756,215 copies. It became the band's best-selling single (paid-for and combined sales categories) in the UK and also achieved the highest first week sales (292,318 copies) of any of their singles. It has since been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments of 600,000 copies. By March 2017, the song had sold almost 800,000 copies in the country from physical and digital copies which make up 81% of the total units. By January 2019, it had 920,000 total sales. As of 30 November 2021, it has 1.1 million total sales with 67% of it or 748,000 were physical sales. This makes the single part of the list of million-selling singles in the United Kingdom and the first one for the group.

Track listing

• United Kingdom ; CD1

1. "Uptown Girl" (Radio Edit) – 3:06
2. "Angel's Wings" (2001 Remix) – 4:14
3. "Uptown Girl" (Video) – 3:14

; CD2

1. "Uptown Girl" (Radio Edit) – 3:06
2. "Uptown Girl" (Extended Version) – 5:02
3. "Behind the Scenes Footage & Band Messages"

; VHS

1. "Uptown Girl" (The Video) – 3:14
2. "The Making of Uptown Girl" (Mini-Documentary)
3. "The Bits That Didn't Quite Go to Plan ..."

; DVD

1. "Uptown Girl" (The Video) – 3:14
2. "The Making of Uptown Girl" (Mini-Documentary)
3. "The Bits That Didn't Quite Go to Plan ..."
4. "Comic Relief Weblink"
5. "Photo Gallery"

• Japan

1. "Uptown Girl" (Radio Edit) – 3:06
2. "Uptown Girl" (Extended Version) – 5:02
3. "Angel's Wings" (Original Version) – 4:02
4. "Close Your Eyes" – 4:32
5. "Uptown Girl" (Video) – 3:14
6. "Behind the Scenes Footage & Band Messages"

Charts

Weekly charts

** Video album **

** Single **

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

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