"Only the Good Die Young" is a song from Billy Joel

Billy Joel

William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

's 1977 pop rock

Pop rock

Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...

 album, The Stranger

The Stranger (album)

The Stranger is the fifth studio album by musician Billy Joel, released in 1977 . While his four previous albums had been moderate chart successes, this was his breakthrough album, and is generally regarded by critics as his magnum opus, spending six weeks at #2 in the U.S. album charts...

. The song was controversial

Controversy

Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...

 for its time, with the lyrics describing a boy who tries to convince a Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 girl who is a virgin to have sex with him.

Song information

The girl's name, "Virginia," is a play on "virgin." The boy/narrator believes that the girl is refusing him because she comes from a religious Catholic family and that she believes sex before marriage is sinful. He sings, "You Catholic girls start much too late,/ but sooner or later it comes down to fate./ I might as well be the one." Perceived as "anti-Catholic", the song was banned by many radio stations. "When I wrote 'Only the Good Die Young', the point of the song wasn't so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust", Joel told Performing Songwriter magazine. "The minute they banned it, the album started shooting up the charts." In a 2008 interview Joel also pointed out one part of the lyrics that virtually all the critics missed – the man in the song failed to get anywhere with the girl, and she kept her chastity.

Demo version

A demo, included in the box set My Lives

My Lives

My Lives is a box set compilation of demos, outtakes, B-sides, soundtrack cuts, live recordings and album cuts by American singer/songwriter Billy Joel. It was released on November 22, 2005...

, features a slower, reggae version of the song. Joel uses a church organ in the song, aiding the general theme of the song. Joel has stated publicly that he changed the reggae beat

Riddim

Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm," but in dancehall/reggae parlance it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song. Thus, a dancehall song consists of the riddim plus the "voicing" sung by the deejay. The resulting song structure may be taken for...

 to a shuffle beat at the request of his longtime drummer, Liberty DeVitto

Liberty DeVitto

Liberty DeVitto is an American rock drummer. He is best known as the drummer for Billy Joel, but has also played with the NYC Hit Squad and has been a session drummer on recordings of other artists.-Career:...

, who hated reggae music.

Chart positions

Chart (1977)	Peak position
Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....	18
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	24

Pop culture references

• Def Leppard
  Def Leppard
  Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
  
   referenced this song in their song "Only the Good Die Young"
• On the October 5, 2010 episode
  Grilled Cheesus
  "Grilled Cheesus" is the third episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the 25th episode overall. It was written by Brad Falchuk, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and premiered on the Fox network on October 5, 2010...
  
   of Glee
  Glee (TV series)
  Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
  
  , the song is covered
  Cover version
  In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
  
   by the character Puck (Mark Salling).