When I played Billy Joel’s It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me on Friday, at least two people mentioned this song as being their favourite Billy Joel song, so … how could I not play it here?  Annnnnndddd … I haven’t ever played this one before, so it’s not a redux!!!

According to SongFacts …

This is the opening track to Billy Joel’s album Glass Houses. Before the song starts, there is the sound of shattered glass to match the cover picture of Joel throwing a rock into the window of an all-glass house, a parody of the saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” This was Joel’s statement to his critics.

According to producer Phil Ramone, it took a lot of effort to achieve the shattered-glass effect. “We didn’t want a typical glass-break effect,” he explained in his 2007 book, Making Records: The Scenes Behind The Music. “We wanted the kind of sound that comes when a large plate glass window breaks, and there’s a split-second delay between the crack and the entire sheet crumbling to the ground.”

They placed sheets of glass on cinder blocks and smashed them with various types of hammers but none of them produced the right sound. Ramone was about to toss a few five-gallon jugs of drinking water down a stairwell – something he’d seen an engineer do to get a glass-breaking effect – when another engineer told him what the problem was: The glass was too thin. To achieve a bloodcurdling shatter, he needed to suspend panes of glass that were more than a quarter-inch thick.

“The following day I ordered the right glass,” Ramone recalled. “When it was delivered, I placed a piece over two wooden horses and smashed it from above. I miked the hell out of it; there were microphones all over the studio – above, below, to the right and left sides, far and near. It took nearly thirty sheets of glass, and the best-sounding take came on the last piece, with one crack of the hammer.

The time and expense was worth it: The harrowing glass-break we captured gave Glass Houses the pluperfect kickoff it deserves.”

The glass house featured on the cover was Joel’s own home in Cove Neck on Long Island. That explains why he didn’t actually throw the rock!

Joel tends to prefer his more obscure songs over his hits, but “You May Be Right” is one of his favorites. Speaking with Stephen Colbert in 2017, he listed it as one of his Top 5.

This song did well in Canada and the U.S., ranking #6 & #7 respectively, but doesn’t seem to have made a dent anywhere else.

You May Be Right

Billy Joel

Friday night I crashed your party
Saturday I said, “I’m sorry”
Sunday came and trashed me out again
I was only having fun
Wasn’t hurting anyone
And we all enjoyed the weekend for a change

I’ve been stranded in the combat zone
I walked through Bedford Stuy alone
Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I’m insane

You may be right
I may be crazy
Oh, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for
Turn out the light
Don’t try to save me
You may be wrong for all I know
But you may be right

Well, remember how I found you there
Alone in your electric chair
I told you dirty jokes until you smiled
You were lonely for a man
I said, “Take me as I am”
‘Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while

Now think of all the years you tried to
Find someone to satisfy you
I might be as crazy as you say
If I’m crazy then it’s true
That it’s all because of you
And you wouldn’t want me any other way

You may be right
I may be crazy
Oh, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for
It’s too late to fight
It’s too late to change me
You may be wrong for all I know
But you may be right

You may be right
I may be crazy
Hey, but It just may be a lunatic you’re looking for
Turn out the light
Oh, don’t try to save me
You may be wrong for all I know
You may be right

You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right
You may be wrong but you may be right

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Billy Joel

You May Be Right lyrics © Impulsive Music