Shameless (Billy Joel song)

1991 single by Billy Joel

"Shameless"

Single by Billy Joel
from the album  Storm Front
B-side| "Stormfront (live)"
Released| January 1991
Recorded| 1988–89
Genre| Rock, new wave
Length| 4:26
Label| Columbia
Songwriter(s)| Billy Joel
Producer(s)| Mick Jones
Billy Joel singles chronology
| "And So It Goes"
(1990)  | "Shameless"
(1991)  | "All Shook Up"
(1992)

|
|

"Shameless"

Single by Garth Brooks
from the album  Ropin' the Wind
B-side| "The Dance"/"Rodeo"/"The Thunder Rolls"
Released| October 21, 1991
Genre|

* Country
* country rock

Length| 4:20
Label| Liberty
Songwriter(s)| Billy Joel
Producer(s)| Allen Reynolds
Garth Brooks singles chronology
| "Rodeo"
(1991)  | "Shameless"
(1991)  | "What She's Doing Now"
(1991)

|
|

"Shameless" is a song written by American singer Billy Joel and recorded on his 1989 album Storm Front. His version peaked at No. 40 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts. Two years later, the song was covered by country music artist Garth Brooks on his third studio album, 1991's Ropin' the Wind. Brooks' rendering of the song was his seventh No. 1 hit on the Billboard country charts in late 1991. It also reached No. 71 on the UK Singles Chart.

In 1993, on stage in Boston, Joel introduced the song by saying, "I want[ed] to write a song, like a Jimi Hendrix song, you know. Back in the sixties, he was one of my idols, Jimi Hendrix."[1] Joel also mentioned the Hendrix inspiration at a talk in Nuremberg, in 1995.[2]

## Background and production[edit]

### Garth Brooks version[edit]

The song features harmony vocals by Trisha Yearwood, Brooks's later wife. Brooks provided the following background information on the song in the booklet liner notes from his compilation, The Hits:

> "Shameless" was the longest shot we took with a song. I was talked into becoming a member of a CD club...you know, the 40,000 CD's for a penny deal. With those clubs, they write you with the selection of the month. If you don't write back and cancel, then they send it to you and charge you for it. I was on the road for six months with no one to check the mail and came home to find six compact discs in my mailbox. Storm Front by Billy Joel was one of them. I hadn't listened to Billy Joel since the late seventies, probably since Glass Houses. I fell in love with the album and fell back in love with Billy Joel's music. One of his songs really captured me, a song called "Shameless." I kept watching it, and when he did not release it as a single, we contacted his people in the hopes that we could cut it. His people sent us a letter acknowledging that he knew who I was and was very honored that I was cutting it. That was quite a compliment for me then, as it is now. My hope is that Billy, as writer, hears this cut and says, "Yeah, man, the guy's got balls."[3]

Brooks performed "Shameless" with Joel during Joel's Last Play at Shea concerts in 2008, and after Brooks performed it in his Central Park concert in 1997, Joel came out on stage and they sang a duet of "New York State of Mind." In 2011, Joel and Brooks performed the song together again when Brooks was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame by Joel.

## Critical reception[edit]

### Garth Brooks version[edit]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described Brooks' rendering of the song favorably in his review of the album, saying that Brooks "made his '70s rock influences more explicit" by "transform[ing] the song from a rock power ballad into contemporary country."[4]

## Chart positions[edit]

### Billy Joel version[edit]

Chart (1992)  | Peak
position

|

Australia (ARIA)[5] | 133
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[6] | 40

### Garth Brooks version[edit]

Chart (1991)  | Peak
position

|

Australia (ARIA)[7] | 103
Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[8] | 23
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[9] | 1
Dutch Singles Chart[10] | 43
UK Singles Chart[11] | 71
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[12] | 1

"Shameless" entered the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on October 19, 1991.[13]

### Year-end charts[edit]

Chart (1991)  | Position

|

Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[14] | 38

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Billy Joel 'Shameless' Live Soundboard 1993". Retrieved 27 March 2022 - via YouTube.
2. ^ "Billy Joel - Q&A: Do You Like Garth Brooks' "Shameless"? (Nuremberg 1995)". Retrieved 27 March 2022 - via YouTube.
3. ^ Garth Brooks - The Hits: transcription from the CD booklet (bar code 7-2438-29689-2-4)
4. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Ropin' the Wind review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
5. ^ "Bubbling Down Under Week Commencing January 20, 1992". Bubbling Down Under. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
6. ^ "Billy Joel Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
7. ^ "Bubbling Down Under Week Commencing June 15, 1992". Bubbling Down Under. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
8. ^ "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 2028." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. January 18, 1992. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
9. ^ "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 7779." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. November 30, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
10. ^ "Garth Brooks - Shameless". Swisscharts.com.
11. ^ "Artists". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
12. ^ "Garth Brooks Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
13. ^ "Billboard" (PDF). Americanradiohistory.com. 1991-10-19. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
14. ^ "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1991". RPM. December 21, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.

* v
* t
* e

Billy Joel

Studio albums|

* Cold Spring Harbor
* Piano Man
* Streetlife Serenade
* Turnstiles
* The Stranger
* 52nd Street
* Glass Houses
* The Nylon Curtain
* An Innocent Man
* The Bridge
* Storm Front
* River of Dreams
* Fantasies & Delusions

Live albums|

* Songs in the Attic
* Kontsert
* 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert
* 12 Gardens Live
* Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert

Compilations|

* Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II
* Souvenir: The Ultimate Collection
* Greatest Hits Volume III
* The Complete Hits Collection: 1973–1997
* The Ultimate Collection
* The Essential Billy Joel
* Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel
* My Lives
* The Hits

Singles|

* "She's Got a Way" / "Everybody Loves You Now"
* "Piano Man" / "You're My Home"
* "Worse Comes to Worst"
* "Travelin' Prayer"
* "The Ballad of Billy the Kid"
* "The Entertainer"
* "I've Loved These Days" / "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"
* "Just the Way You Are" / "Vienna"
* "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"
* "Only the Good Die Young"
* "She's Always a Woman"
* "The Stranger"
* "My Life"
* "Big Shot"
* "Honesty"
* "Until the Night"
* "All for Leyna"
* "You May Be Right"
* "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
* "Don't Ask Me Why"
* "Sometimes a Fantasy"
* "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (Live)
* "She's Got a Way" (Live)
* "Pressure"
* "Allentown"
* "Goodnight Saigon"
* "Tell Her About It"
* "Uptown Girl"
* "An Innocent Man"
* "The Longest Time"
* "Leave a Tender Moment Alone"
* "This Night"
* "Keeping the Faith"
* "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"
* "The Night Is Still Young"
* "Modern Woman"
* "A Matter of Trust"
* "This Is the Time"
* "Baby Grand"
* "Back in the U.S.S.R." (Live)
* "We Didn't Start the Fire"
* "Leningrad"
* "I Go to Extremes"
* "The Downeaster 'Alexa'"
* "That's Not Her Style"
* "And So It Goes"
* "Shameless"
* "All Shook Up"
* "The River of Dreams"
* "No Man's Land"
* "All About Soul"
* "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)"
* "To Make You Feel My Love"
* "All My Life"
* "Christmas in Fallujah"
* "Turn the Lights Back On"

Other songs|

* "Captain Jack"
* "Los Angelenos"
* "Root Beer Rag"
* "New York State of Mind"
* "Prelude/Angry Young Man"
* "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)"
* "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"
* "Zanzibar"
* "Laura"
* "Scandinavian Skies"
* "Big Man on Mulberry Street"

Tours|

* The Nylon Curtain Tour
* An Innocent Man Tour
* The Bridge Tour
* Storm Front Tour
* River of Dreams Tour
* Face to Face Tours
* 1994
* 1995
* 1998
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2009
* 2010
* Billy Joel in Concert

Films|

* Oliver & Company
* The Last Play at Shea

See also|

* Discography
* Movin' Out
* Billy Joel Band
* The Hassles
* Attila
* Alexa Ray Joel
* Christie Brinkley
* Katie Lee
* "Movin' Out" (Glee episode)

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Garth Brooks singles

Garth Brooks|

* "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)"
* "If Tomorrow Never Comes"
* "Not Counting You"
* "The Dance"

No Fences|

* "Friends in Low Places"
* "Unanswered Prayers"
* "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House"
* "The Thunder Rolls"
* "Wild Horses" (released in 2001)

Ropin' the Wind|

* "Rodeo"
* "Shameless"
* "What She's Doing Now"
* "Papa Loved Mama"
* "The River"

The Chase|

* "We Shall Be Free"
* "Somewhere Other Than the Night"
* "Learning to Live Again"
* "That Summer"

In Pieces|

* "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)"
* "American Honky-Tonk Bar Association"
* "Standing Outside the Fire"
* "One Night a Day"
* "Callin' Baton Rouge"
* "The Red Strokes"

Fresh Horses|

* "She's Every Woman"
* "The Fever"
* "The Beaches of Cheyenne"
* "The Change"
* "It's Midnight Cinderella"
* "That Ol' Wind"

Sevens|

* "Longneck Bottle"
* "She's Gonna Make It"
* "Two Piña Coladas"
* "You Move Me"
* "Do What You Gotta Do" (released in 2000)

The Limited Series|

* "To Make You Feel My Love"

Double Live|

* "It's Your Song"

Scarecrow|

* "When You Come Back to Me Again" (released in 2000)
* "Wrapped Up in You"
* "Squeeze Me In" (with Trisha Yearwood)
* "Thicker Than Blood"
* "Why Ain't I Running"

The Lost Sessions|

* "Good Ride Cowboy"
* "Love Will Always Win"

The Ultimate Hits|

* "More Than a Memory"
* "Workin' for a Livin'" (with Huey Lewis)

Man Against Machine|

* "People Loving People"
* "Mom"

Gunslinger|

* "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance"
* "Ask Me How I Know"

Fun|

* "All Day Long"
* "Stronger Than Me"
* "Dive Bar" (with Blake Shelton)
* "Shallow"
* "That's What Cowboys Do"

Guest singles|

* "Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy" (with Chris LeDoux; uncredited)
* "In Another's Eyes" (with Trisha Yearwood)
* "Burnin the Roadhouse Down" (with Steve Wariner)
* "Where Your Road Leads" (with Trisha Yearwood)
* "Katie Wants a Fast One" (with Steve Wariner)

Other songs|

* "Hard Luck Woman"
* "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy"

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group
* MusicBrainz work

|

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