"Uptown Girl" | ||||
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![]() Artwork for U.S. and Canadian singles, also used for the Japanese release with its native language | ||||
Single by Billy Joel | ||||
from the album An Innocent Man | ||||
B-side | "Careless Talk" | |||
Released | September 19, 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1983 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:18 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Billy Joel | |||
Producer(s) | Phil Ramone[5] | |||
Billy Joel singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Uptown Girl" on YouTube |
"Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by American musician Billy Joel from his ninth studio album An Innocent Man (1983), released in September 1983 as the album's second single. The lyrics describe a working-class "downtown man" attempting to woo a wealthy "uptown girl". 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),[6] whereas some 7" single versions featured "Careless Talk" as a B-side.[7]
"Uptown Girl" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks from November 12 to December 10, 1983.[8] It also reached number one in the United Kingdom for five weeks, his only number-one hit in the country. It was the second-best-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. The song was the 19th-best-selling single of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, selling 975,000 copies. It has sold over 1.2 million copies as of 2023.
1960s doo-wop meets 1980s pop-rock in an endlessly-singable ragtag love story...