


Billy Joel – Baldwin SF-10 acoustic piano, lead and background vocals.Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. It has sold over 1.06 million copies as of 2017. The song was the 19th biggest-selling single of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, selling 975,000 copies. 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. It also reached number one in the United Kingdom for five weeks, his only number-one hit in the country. "Uptown Girl" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks from November 12 to December 10, 1983. At the end of the video Joel and Brinkley ride off on a motorcycle. A poster of Brinkley can be seen in the garage as well as on a billboard above the garage advertising "Uptown cosmetics". Brinkley arrives in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce as Joel and the mechanics dance with her. The video depicts Joel and his backup singers working as auto mechanics. Christie Brinkley appears as the main character of the video and later married Joel. Joel also has said that the song was inspired by the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. 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. InspirationĪccording 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. The 12" EP has the tracks " My Life", " Just the Way You Are" and " It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (catalogue number TA3775), whereas some 7" single versions featured "Careless Talk" as a B-side. 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". " Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by the American musician Billy Joel.
