American pop rock singer songwriter Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man‘ was that song playing on the new season of the BBC One/HBO Max thriller The Tourist this week in that strange scene as Helen dances with Detective Slater to the song — The Tourist, Season 2, Episode 3.
It continues playing as Helen moves Slater closer to the knife and then, as she grabs it and acts as if she is going to stab him.
The pop rock track is one of several cool songs featured on the second season of the drama, with all of them showing up in quirky and quite weirdly cool scenes.
When was Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man‘ first released?
Although the track is now known as Joel’s signature song, it was initially released way back in late 1973 as the title track from the American singer’s second studio album of the same name.
It was a song Joel wrote based on the people he used to see when he worked as a piano player in various L.A. lounges and bars, long before he became famous.
Upon release, ‘Piano Man‘ became Billy Joel‘s first big hit, charting at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100, #16 on the Cash Box Top 100 and #4 on the Easy Listening chart.
The song also ranked high on charts in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Canada, and has been certified Gold, Platinum or several times Platinum in all five countries including the United States.
It has since gone on to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry as the track has been deemed to be “culturally important”, and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Nowadays, Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man‘ is such a classic song, it has been streamed almost 800 million times on Spotify alone, with the HD version of the song’s original music video also grabbing almost 250 million views on YouTube.
Listen to Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man‘ as heard on the new season of The Tourist in that music video, and via his album of the same name on Spotify.