Uptown Girl

This article is about the song. For the similarly named film, see Uptown Girls.

"Uptown Girl"
Single by Billy Joel
from the album An Innocent Man
Released	September 29, 1983
Format	Vinyl (7")
Recorded	1983
Genre	Pop rock, New wave
Length	3:18
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Billy Joel
Producer	Phil Ramone
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Billy Joel singles chronology
"Tell Her About It" (1983) "Uptown Girl" (1983) "An Innocent Man" (1983)

"Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by musician Billy Joel, first released in 1983 on his album An Innocent Man. The lyrics describe a working-class "downtown man" attempting to woo a wealthy "uptown girl."

Success

Although "Uptown Girl" was not as successful in the U.S. as "Tell Her About It," the first single released from An Innocent Man, the single was still a big hit for Joel. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard charts in the US, and #1 in the UK, staying at that position for 5 weeks; it was the second biggest selling single of 1983 in the United Kingdom behind only Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon", which Joel had knocked off the number one position on November 1, 1983; in 1988, Rolling Stone ranked "Uptown Girl" #99 on their list of the 100 most important singles of the period 1963-1988. The song was the 19th biggest selling single of the 1980s in the United Kingdom.

Inspiration

According to numerous interviews with Joel, the song was initially written about his relationship with his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife Christie Brinkley (both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980's).Joel also has said that the song was inspired by the pop music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Music video

Christie Brinkley appears as the main character of the video and later married Joel.

The title character in the music video was played by Christie Brinkley. Joel and Brinkley married in 1985 and divorced in 1994. Subsequently, the song was missing from the setlist during Joel's 1994 "River of Dreams" tour.

Different versions of the music video opening were produced, in which an auto mechanic is watching the end of Joel's previous hit "Tell Her About It" on a small TV. Then, depending on the version, the next image on the TV is either a blank screen or the logo of the network or TV show the video was on. The only logos known to be used are MTV and Friday Night Videos. A fourth version, which skipped the prologue segment, aired on Night Tracks, America's Top 10 and other music video shows. This is also the version posted on the music video website Vevo.

Chart positions

Chart (1983)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	1
Austrian Singles Chart	18
Canadian Singles Chart	4
Dutch Top 40	10
German Media Control Charts	18
Irish Singles Chart	1
Japan Oricon Singles Chart	64
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
Norway Singles Chart	3
UK Singles Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	3
U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	2
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	22

Preceded by "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club	UK Singles Chart 5 November 1983 (5 weeks)	Succeeded by "Only You" by The Flying Pickets
Preceded by "They Don't Know" by Tracey Ullman	Irish Singles Chart 12 November 1983 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Love of the Common People" by Paul Young
Preceded by "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club	New Zealand Singles Chart 11 December 1983 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Come Back and Stay" by Paul Young
Preceded by "Reckless (Don't Be So)" by Australian Crawl	Australian Singles Chart 5 December 1983 (1 week)	Succeeded by "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

End of year charts

End of year chart (1983)	Position
UK Singles Chart	2

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified
UK	Gold	1 November 1983	400,000

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes version

"Uptown Girl/Billy"
Single by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
from the album Have a Ball
Released	November 1, 1996
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	January 1996
Genre	Punk-rock
Length	2:22
Label	Epitaph Records
Producer	Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes singles chronology
"Take Me Home, Country Roads/Denver" (1986) "Uptown Girl/Billy" (1986) "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard/Paul" (1986)

in 1996 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered the song for their 1997 album Have a Ball. Their version is often mistakenly accredited to Weezer due to incorrectly named files available on the Internet. To the published version of the one with the B-side Only the Good Die Young Billy as Single and unlike the original, this version is very influenced by punk.

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Uptown Girl/Billy"	Billy Joel	2:22

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
2.	"Only the Good Die Young"	Billy Joel	3:55

Westlife version

"Uptown Girl"
Single by Westlife
from the album World of Our Own
Released	March 5, 2001
Format	CD
Recorded	Rokstone Studios, London
Genre	Teen pop, Dance-pop
Length	3:06
Label	BMG
Producer	Steve Mac
Certification	Platinum (UK) Gold (SWE)
Westlife singles chronology
"I Lay My Love on You" (2001) "Uptown Girl" (2001) "When You're Looking Like That" (2001)
Alternative cover UK CD2

"Uptown Girl" is the fifth single released from Irish pop band Westlife's third studio album, World of Our Own (2001). It was released as 2001's Comic Relief charity single, and reached number one on in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The single was released early thru the group's second album Coast to Coast (2000). The song became the 23rd best-selling single of the 2000s in the UK, with sales of 756,215 copies. It became the band's biggest-selling single in the UK, and also achieved the highest first week sale (292,318 copies) of any of their singles. The song was the sixth best-selling single of 2001 in the UK. "Uptown Girl" has since been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 600,000 copies. As of October 2011, the song had sold almost 800,000 copies.

Music video

The video for this song was shot in a Cafe setting with Claudia Schiffer as the title character, while Robert Bathurst, James Wilby, Ioan Gruffudd, Crispin Bonham-Carter and Tim McInnerny were featured as high class customers.

Tracklisting

• 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"

DVD

1. "Uptown Girl" (Video) - 3:14
2. "Behind The Scenes Footage & Band Messages"

• 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"

Chart performance

Chart (2001)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	6
Austrian Singles Chart	12
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)	5
Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia)	2
Denmark Singles Chart	2
Dutch Top 40	2
Finnish Singles Chart	13
French Singles Chart	8
German Media Control Charts	8
Irish Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	10
Japanese Oricon Singles Chart	64
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	4
Norway Singles Chart	3
Swedish Singles Chart	2
Swiss Singles Chart	13
UK Singles Chart	1
UK Radio Airplay Chart	9

Chart successions

Preceded by "It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy featuring Rikrok	Irish IRMA number one single 10 March 2001 (6 weeks)	Succeeded by "Survivor" by Destiny's Child
Preceded by "It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy featuring Rikrok	UK number-one single March 11, 2001 (1 week)	Succeeded by "Pure and Simple" by Hear'Say

End of year charts

End of year chart (2001)	Position
Irish Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	6
Chart (2000–2009)	Peak position
UK Top 100 Songs of the Decade	23

Other cover versions

• A cover of the song was recorded by Aaron Carter as a child and his older brother Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys fame.
• German singer/band leader Max Raabe and Palast Orchester covered the song in cabaret/big band style for his 2002 album Super Hits 2.
• Tinchy Stryder did a rap version on his mixtape Back U Know, the track featured Wiley.
• A Folk / Acoustic version of the song appears as a hidden track on Allan Moon's EP from 2006.
• John Barrowman covered the song on his CD Music Music Music.
• The song was performed on an episode of the TV show, Glee, titled The First Time.

External links

• Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" music video on YouTube / ⒞1983 Sony BMG channel
• Westlife's "Uptown Girl" music video on YouTube / ⒞2001 Sony BMG channel