Billy Joel...Hang it up PLEASE...

[Laura]

Honestly, I'm fairly tired of some of these "divas" getting up there and sounding like screeching cats.

Yeah, like the singer who performed before the AFC championship game this year. Bleah. Chris Daughtry did a great job of it at the NFC game, though.

As for Billy Joel, I couldn't hear much because everyone was talking, but it sounded fine to me. Nothing fancy or annoying. I guess I'll check youtube later and see what was so horrible.

 

[JR6ooo4]

He did it the same way he did it when I saw him play Yankee Stadium. He just plays the song and sings it-in a key that allows normal people to sing along. I thought that was the point, that the anthem is to be sung by all who attend, not by the "star". Some of the folks that have sung it at events like this seemed to be more interested in showing off rather than leading the crowd.

YA!
What happened to "Ladies and Gentlemen please rise and join blah blah recording star blah blah in singing the national anthem!"

as apposed to "just keep eating doritos and take one last bathroom break before the game"

Mikeeee

 

[ButchJohnson]

Yep, just don't think his style of singing and writing is very apt for the National Anthem which really requires a super singer type. He's more of a laid back bluesy style, not really suited for the anthem. I thought Prince did pretty good. I really tripped on him doing the Foo Fighters, I think I'm going to start a new thread on that.

 

[helenabear]

YA!
What happened to "Ladies and Gentlemen please rise and join blah blah recording star blah blah in singing the national anthem!"

as apposed to "just keep eating doritos and take one last bathroom break before the game"

Mikeeee

As I was listening to different people doing the National Anthem on Youtube, I wondered the same thing.

I listened to Billy Joel and other than him messing up on one of the first notes on the *piano* he sounded like Billy Joel singing the Nat'l Anthem. Nothing showy, nothing horrid, just doing it respectfully.

I just listened to the one y'all were raving about and Whitney Houston was out of tune... you just couldn't hear it over the loud orchestra

One of the best vocally and most sincerely sounding version I have heard of is Josh Groban's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv5gh4BsGec

pity our National Athem wasn't written as such a pretty tune before

 

[DawnCt1]

That is your opinion, it's not fact Dawn. I'm a trained musician and he did NOT change keys, he DID hit the high notes and he DID add his own trademark style to it. Perhaps you are not familiar with Billy Joel. Maybe you could treat us to your own rendition? I loved the flyover, didn't you?

I did love the flyover. With regard to Billy Joel, it doesn't matter to me if he hit every note, it still sounded awful and that is my opinion...which I obviously share with a few others.

 

[ButchJohnson]

I might be a little more sympathetic if it wasn't for the fact that he really came across pretty arrogant in the NFL channel pre-game interviews he did. Nothing rising to the level of say a Gene Simmons or David Lee Roth, but kind of a laid back arrogance, like why would you ask ME a question like that, don't you know I'm Billy Joel the greatest singer/piano man in existence?

 

[Keggy]

DH and I both thought Billy Joel did great! I couldn't believe all of the water on the piano!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I don't mind that he didn't screech. But I did not think it was a good rendition. It sounded like a "jump the shark" rendition. I do like that he played the piano (keyboard) though. That part was beautiful.

It sounded like he either had a cold--or his singing voice is just aging and getting old.

ETA: I do not think it comes close to being as bad as Rosanne though who didn't sing it well and when the audience didn't like it, she really began dishonoring it. And it was much better than the "drunken sailor" rendition of last year by Neville. Just didn't seem to be the same Billy I am used to hearing from his wonderful songs of yesteryear.



As for the flyover--I am thorougly impressed with the camera man--that was a complicated shot where timing was everything and he (or she) followed them perfectly.

 

[ckay87]

I thought Billy Joel sounded like Billy Joel. And he has come to a point in his amazing career that that is enough.

He is more of a musician/performer than a vocalist and always has been. Maybe they ought to stick to the master vocalists (Whitney) to perform the anthem in order to please the masses?

 

[CinderellaIam]

As I was listening to different people doing the National Anthem on Youtube, I wondered the same thing.

I listened to Billy Joel and other than him messing up on one of the first notes on the *piano* he sounded like Billy Joel singing the Nat'l Anthem. Nothing showy, nothing horrid, just doing it respectfully.