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"Piano Man"
Single by Billy Joel from the album Piano Man
B-side	"You're My Home"
Released	November 2, 1973
Format	Record
Recorded	Sept. 17-20 & 26, 1973, Los Angeles
Genre	Piano rock
Length	5:38
Producer	Michael Stewart
Certification	Gold
Billy Joel singles chronology
- "Piano Man" (1973) "Worse Comes To Worst" (1974)
Piano Man track listing
"Travelin' Prayer" (1) "Piano Man" (2) "Ain't No Crime" (3)

"Piano Man" was Billy Joel's first major hit, and is considered Joel's signature song. It is a song about people who could have done things with their lives, but did not. Piano Man has been released as a single and on several albums.

"Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of real people Joel met during his days as a lounge singer in Los Angeles, after the failure of his first album, "Cold Spring Harbor".^{[citation needed]} The song tells about people who could have done things with their lives, but did not. The tune is along the lines of a piano pop song, and begins with a jazzy piano pop melody, followed by a harmonica riff.

It was first released as the second track on Joel's Piano Man album and was later released on several greatest hits collections, including Essential Billy Joel. It is in the key of C Major and has a slow 6/8 time signature.

When originally issued as a single, the song was deemed too long by record executives (5 minutes and 38 seconds), so two verses were cut in half and spliced together for the release as a 45. Later, Billy Joel's song "The Entertainer", mentions this event by commenting, "It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long. If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit. So they cut it down to 3:05."

The song has been one of Joel's greatest hits. It peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Today it remains popular, being displayed as Joel's #1 song on the iTunes Music Store as of June, 2007. It ranks #421 on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is ranked #12 on DigitalDreamDoor's Rock Ballads.

During the first Face to Face tour featuring Elton John and Joel, ads promoted the event as "Rocket Man meets Piano Man".^{[citation needed]}

The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic on his 2003 album Poodle Hat ("Ode To A Superhero"). Yankovic's parody is about Spider-Man, and chronicles the story of his first movie.