"Tell Her About It" was the first single and video from Billy Joel's 1983 album, "An Innocent Man". Billy takes us on a time trip back to the 60's, when Ed Sullivan ruled Sunday nights. Impressionist Will Jordan plays Sullivan, but how to explain the presence of Rodney Dangerfield? Simple. Billy recorded the title song to Rodney's movie, "Easy Money", co-starring Joe Pesci. "Easy" is the first track on the album, and Rodney appearing in the video was a way of repaying the favor. From Billy's VEVO channel:
4 comments:
Another one of my favorite videos and tracks from Billy Joel!!
I remember seeing Rodney Dangerfield turning up on MTV now and then (he also did a video for his "Rappin' Rodney" song, and was promptly executed by Pat Benetar!). Even a dancing bear got more respect than he did!!
I was also impressed with the impersonation of Ed Sullivan. I was too young to have seen the show but my parents used to watch it like much of America did. The impressionist was dead on. In fact they thought Sullivan himself was doing a cameo in the video!
Thanks so much for posting it!
Ed Sullivan had passed away in 1974. To this day, Will Jordan is still doing Sullivan mimics, and he's well into his 80's!
I remember seeing some of the later Sullivans when I was much younger, toward the end of the series' run. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
I didn't know Jordan was still performing! Good for him!!
I feel like my generation missed out on the era of variety shows. The only one running during my lifetime was The Carol Burnett Show, and I was too young to stay up and watch! I caught a few reruns when it went into syndication but it was cut and compressed to a half hour and the musical numbers were gone!
My parents also loved watching Dean Martin's show. Half the fun was seeing who'd turn up behind the door he's open every week!
No one could possibly dupilicate that today (SNL doesn't count) and I wonder if there is still an audience for it.
The variety shows as we knew them growing up are long gone. With the Dean Martin and Carol Burnett shows now on DVD (and pimped via infomercials), now you have to spend some coin to revisit the memories......
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