Billy Joel is a Dirty Thief!
Yesterday I was cleaning up around the house, and as is my usual practice while cleaning, I had my Itunes on shuffle. A soft piano sonata began playing, and I instantly recognized it. There were no lyrics on the track, but I began singing the lyrics that fit the melody perfectly:
"This night is mine
It's only you and I
Tomorrow
Is a long time away
This night can last forever"
I have somewhere near to 10,000 mp3's in my library at this point, so I am often surprised at what I hear while on shuffle. Many times I find myself saying "I didn't know I had that."
With this track I thought to myself, "wow, I didn't know I had an acoustic piano cover of Billy Joel's This Night."
It turns out, I don't. Not technically, anyway. What I DO have, and what I was singing along to was Beethoven's Sonata #8 in C. I think it was the second movement. The melody is note for note exactly the same as the melody of the chorus from Mr. Joel's tune. I played them back-to-back just to double check. Perfect match.
There are only so many notes out there, and therefore a finite number of combinations and different artists accidentally reproduce the same stuff all the time, right? So, maybe Billy had one of those moments, right?
I doubt it. It's a fairly complex melody, and it is exactly the same in both songs.
Not that I care. I still love Billy Joel, especially the album An Innocent Man, on which you will find This Night. I just found it funny that he stole from Beethoven. But, I guess if he was going to steal, at least he stole from one of the best.
COMMENTS
Probably not Ed. After a hundred years, the copyright becomes public domain. Joey, it takes some courage to publicly admit a love of Billy Joel.
Right, that's why Billy Joel doesn't owe anyone royalties in any case, but if he even gave credit in the liner notes, then he didn't steal anything at all.
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