5:17
52nd Street, 1978
Written by Billy Joel
A jazzy Billy Joel number, with louche lyrics and enough harmonic feel and jazzy arrangements that if you didn't know better, you might swear it was by Steely Dan. Freddie Hubbard provides two terrific trumpet breaks in the middle and the end. The narrator is in a sports bar watching Muhummad Ali fight on a black and white TV, hoping to score with a waitress, couched in terms of a beleaguered baseball metaphor ("Me, I'm trying just to get to second base / And I'd steal it if she only gave the sign / She's gonna give the go ahead / The inning isn't over yet for me"). It’s a wonderfully odd combination of sophisticated musicianship and extremely uncomplicated male lust.
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