Musical Interlude - Vienna

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Once considered a deep cut from Billy Joel's discography, the 1977 song "Vienna" is seeing a resurgence among young women.

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN

When Billy Joel released his fifth studio album, “The Stranger,” in 1977, the song “Vienna” flew mostly under the radar.

It wasn’t one of the four singles released in North America, merely a B-side to the hit “Just the Way You Are.” As the album catapulted Joel to critical and commercial success, “Vienna” seemed destined to remain a deep cut from his discography.

But over the years, the bluesy number endeared itself to listeners to become a cult favorite — it’s now among Joel’s top three streamed songs on Spotify alongside “Uptown Girl” and “Piano Man,” and an official music video was just released this past April.

The force behind the song’s slow-burn resurgence appears to be, at least in part, teenage girls and women in their 20s and 30s.

Across social media, young women wax poetic about the decades-old track and their emotional attachment to it. “No one understands a woman in her 20s the way billy joel did in 1977 when he wrote Vienna,” one woman declared on TikTok. Another shared that the song inspired her to embark on a solo adventure to the Austrian capital. More than a few have gotten the song’s lyrics and other “Vienna”-inspired imagery tattooed on their bodies.

Per one meme, “girlhood is sobbing to Vienna.”

Despite the fact that it was written nearly 50 years ago, “Vienna” is resonant and relevant as ever for a generation of young women. Joel (who counts the track among his favorites) has theorized that the song’s appeal to young women stems from its appearance in a pivotal scene in the 2004 rom-com “13 Going on 30.” The film, starring Jennifer Garner, tells the story of a disillusioned teenager who wants nothing more than to fast forward to adulthood — only to realize that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

“That’s a movie that was popular with girls, and girls are who most of the enthusiasm for the song comes from. Beyond that, I’m not sure,” he said in a 2018 interview with Vulture. “It’s a coming-of-age song: ‘Slow down you crazy child.’ So I guess it resonates with younger people. It’s a fun one to play.”