Top 10 Melodies of the 1980s

3. “Still Rock and Roll to Me”, Billy Joel. (1980).

Surprise! And what, Billy Joel again?? Well, this song may have its sonic roots in the 1970s, but (a) it did come out in 1980, and (b) it’s Joel’s best melodic composition, so what can I do? Frank-ly, as I tend to prefer the sonic textures of the 1980s to those of the 1970s, I don’t even like lis-tening this song very much. But my God, when you look at what he’s doing in the melody, it’s ridiculous. The opening lines are classics of course, but look at how he develops them starting with “Nowadays you can’t be too sentimental.” Unexpected, textbook example of terrific melodic development. But the rat-a-tat punctuation at the end of the verse “Hot funk, cool punk, even if it’s old junk, it’s still rock and roll to me,” is a stunningly powerful exclamation point at the end of a whirlwind melodic journey. The entire verse (there’s essentially no chorus in this song) consti-tutes one of the most perfected long melodic statements in pop music history. Master craftsman at work, my friends. The “other” section, which is essentially a bridge, is equally brilliant, and as the master musician often does, Joel makes his melody extra interesting not entirely with his choice of notes, but with the chords he undergirds them with (think “…story in a magazine…”).