The lyric “You’re the piano...” is completed by “man” in Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”
Released in 1973, “Piano Man” was inspired by Billy Joel’s time playing piano at the Executive Room bar in Los Angeles. The song presents a series of fictionalized or adapted characters in a bar, including a bartender, a businessman, and a novelist who is described as real estate novelist.
The title character is the pianist entertaining the room, while the chorus is sung by the patrons asking him to perform. Joel’s waltz-like arrangement gives the song a strong barroom singalong quality.
Although the song is closely associated with Joel, its story is not a literal autobiography in every detail. It combines observations from his work as a lounge pianist with invented narrative elements, which helped make the setting broadly relatable.