Only the Good Die Young
| "Only the Good Die Young" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "Get It Right the First Time" |
"Only the Good Die Young" is a song from Billy Joel's 1977 pop rock album, The Stranger. The song was controversial for its time, with the lyrics describing a boy who tries to convince a Catholic girl who is a virgin to have sex with him.[1]
Song information
The song was inspired by a high school crush of Billy Joel's, Virginia Callahan. The boy/narrator believes that the girl is refusing him because she comes from a religious Catholic family and that she believes sex before marriage is sinful.[2] He sings,
- "You Catholic girls start much too late,
- but sooner or later it comes down to fate.
- I might as well be the one."
The song became a prototypic example of the Streisand effect when religious groups perceived it as "anti-Catholic",[3] and pressured radio stations to remove it from their play lists.[2] "When I wrote 'Only the Good Die Young', the point of the song wasn't so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust," Joel told Performing Songwriter magazine. "The minute they banned it, the album started shooting up the charts." In a 2008 interview, Joel also pointed out one part of the lyrics that virtually all the critics missed – the man in the song failed to get anywhere with the girl, and she kept her chastity.[4]
Demo version
A demo, included in the box set My Lives, features a slower, reggae version of the song. Joel reprised the song's motif in this version with a church organ. Joel has stated publicly that he changed the reggae beat to a shuffle beat at the request of his longtime drummer, Liberty DeVitto, who hated reggae music.[5]
In popular culture
The cast of Glee covered the song in season 2 episode 3 "Grilled Cheesus", performed as a solo by Mark Salling as Noah 'Puck' Puckerman.
Track listing
7" single (1977)
- "Only the Good Die Young" – (3:54)
- "Get It Right the First Time" – (3:32)
Chart positions
| Chart (1977) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Singles Chart[6] | 18 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[2] | 24 |
References
- ^ Sagert, Kelly Boyer (2007). The 1970s. New York: Greenwood Press. p. 177. ISBN 0-313-33919-8.
- ^ a b c Dean, Maury (2003). Rock N' Roll Gold Rush. Algora. p. 242. ISBN 0-87586-207-1.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ The Story Behind Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young”. PerformerSongwriter.com archive. Retrieved April 24, 2013
- ^ Interview with Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2008
- ^ YouTube: Billy Joel tells how "Only The Good Die Young" came to sound the way it does crediting Liberty Devitto
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.4602a&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=o44utr2skf3ci9l36vl9mglvm5
