"Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by American musician Billy Joel. It was released on September 29, 1983, on his ninth studio album An Innocent Man (1983). The lyrics describe a working-class "downtown man" attempting to woo a wealthy "uptown girl."
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).[4][5] Joel also has said that the song was inspired by the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.[6]
Christie Brinkley appears as the main character of the video and later married Joel.
Success
Although "Uptown Girl" was not as successful in the U.S. as previous single "Tell Her About It", it was still a big hit. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100,[7] and number one in the United Kingdom, staying at that position for five weeks as his only number one hit in the country; 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. The song was the 19th biggest-selling single of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, selling 975,000 copies. It has sold over 1.06 million copies as of 2017.[8]
Music video
In the music video, Billy Joel plays an auto mechanic who attempts to impress a high-class uptown girl, whose car has arrived at the auto shop/gas station for gas, with the help of three other mechanics.[9]
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 television. Then, depending on the version, the next image on the television is either a blank screen or the logo of the network or TV show the video was on.[citation needed]
"Uptown Girl" (re-released as double A-side with "Angels Wings" in 2002) was recorded by Irish boy bandWestlife for their third studio album, World of Our Own. It was released on 6 March 2001 as the first single from the album. It was also 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 the Billy Joel version because one of the verses was repeated in the Billy Joel version which was not repeated in the Westlife version. On 12 May 2018, the song was performed on South Korean music programme 'Immortal Songs 2' by Baek Hyeong-hun & Ki Se-jung. Band member Shane Filan was the featured 'Legend' and judged the participants. He also performed the song on his solo tours.[citation needed]
"Uptown Girl" reached number one in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It became the biggest 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 biggest 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.[28] As of March 2017, the song has sold almost 800,000 copies in the country from physical and digital copies which make up 81% of the total units.[29] As of January 2019, it has 920,000 total sales. It is also their second most streamed song in the United Kingdom of all-time.[30]
Music video
The video for this song was directed by Stuart Gosling, who previously directed the videos for Westlife's "What Makes a Man" and "I Lay My Love on You". It was shot in a Cafe/Diner setting, called Blondie's, with the members of Westlife working there as busboys. Claudia Schiffer starred as the title character, while Robert Bathurst, James Wilby, Ioan Gruffudd, Crispin Bonham-Carter and Tim McInnerny were featured as high class customers. The video starts with Shane Filan taking the orders of the five customers while Mark Feehily passes by. One of the customers starts the Jukebox and the song starts. The video ends with Claudia Schiffer leaving the Cafe to which the band members and several other customers followed her while the Cafe closes leaving the five customers at the cafe.[31] The single was also released as a video album and certified as Platinum by BPI in UK.
^"Billy Joel Visits. 11/16/10. 7:55am". Howard Stern archive. Marksfriggin.com. November 16, 2010. Archived from the original on May 28, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^billyjoelVEVO (October 2, 2009), Billy Joel - Uptown Girl, archived from the original on December 7, 2017, retrieved November 30, 2017{{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^westlifeVEVO (February 17, 2017), Westlife - Uptown Girl, archived from the original on August 15, 2017, retrieved June 16, 2017{{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
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