There is one song the music supervisor of Billions must really love as it popped up enough in the Showtime drama’s latest episode — Billions, Season 7, Episode 9, “Game Theory Optimal“.
That song is Billy Joel’s ‘I’ve Loved These Days‘, the nostalgic piano-driven song that played at the beginning of the episode as we see shot after shot of New York City bars, restaurants, cafes, shops and hotels.
It plays again towards the end as Wendy, Wags and Taylor get in the elevator and then head to the meeting, and finally ends the episode by playing it out over the end credits.
It is a song that seems to signal a dying era for most of the people populating Billions.
Something we are also likely to see as the next seven episodes close out the soon-to-end now-seven season show.
Now as we indulge in things refined
We hide our hearts from harder times
A string of pearls, a foreign car
Oh we can only go so far
On caviar and cabernet
(full lyrics via Genius)
When was Billy Joel’s ‘I’ve Loved These Days‘ released?
‘I’ve Loved These Days‘ was released by the now almost legendary singer, songwriter back in May of 1976 on his fourth studio album Turnstiles.
An album that is also appropriate for the opening of this week’s Billions, as it was written by Joel to celebrate his return to New York City.
Something Billions also seems to do in its intro, with its snapshots of some of the city’s most iconic places.
The song itself is actually a sad look back at Joel’s somewhat wasted years in L.A., and the excessive life he lived while there, before going back to New York and a less decadent lifestyle made more sense to him.
The Turnstile album the song comes from was a moderate hit for the American singer, charting at #122 on the Billboard 200, and at #12 on the Australian charts.
Listen to Billy Joel’s ‘I’ve Loved These Days‘ as heard playing several times on this week’s episode of Billions, in the video and via the singer’s Turnstiles album.
As for Billions itself, the drama series will come to its final end on Showtime on October 29th.
RELATED: You can listen to many, many more songs from Billions, and learn more about them, on Leo Sigh