And So It Goes

"And So It Goes"
Single by Billy Joel
from the album Storm Front
Released	October 1990
Studio	The Hit Factory, Times Square Studio, New York, United States
Genre	Soft rock
Length	3:38
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Billy Joel
Producer(s)	Billy Joel Mick Jones
Billy Joel singles chronology
"That's Not Her Style" (1990) "And So It Goes" (1990) "Shameless" (1991)

"And So It Goes" is a song written by Billy Joel in 1983, though it was not released until six years later. It appeared as the tenth and final track of his 1989 studio album Storm Front. The original 1983 demo was released on the 2005 box set My Lives.^[1] Joel wrote the song about a doomed relationship with model Elle Macpherson. Their relationship was dramatic, as Macpherson was only a teenager while Joel was reaching his mid-30s. Joel dated Macpherson for a brief time shortly before becoming involved with model Christie Brinkley, who would ultimately become his second wife. The song was inspired by the Scottish ballad Barbara Allen, and is unique for Joel as it is written in iambic tetrameter.^[2] In the original demo version of "And So It Goes," Joel sings the melody simply, accompanied by a simple piano backdrop, in a style very reminiscent of a hymn. On the 1989 album version, Joel sings and plays all the instrumentation (piano and synthesizers). The official video is from a live performance in front of a concert audience.

The single peaked at No. 37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart in 1990. It has been covered by many subsequent artists (see "Cover Versions" below). The King’s Singers and others have developed several vocal harmony arrangements of the song, which are often performed by high school and college choirs.^[3][4]

The song was featured throughout the Boston Legal episode "Son of the Defender".^[5]

Cover versions[]

• The song is the 18th track on Betty Buckley's 1996 An Evening at Carnegie Hall album.^[6]
• Alan Cumming performed it in his cabaret show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, as broadcast on PBS in late 2016.
• Former New York Yankee Bernie Williams covered the song on his jazz album, The Journey Within.
• The band Marianas Trench has covered the song live^[7] and they recorded the song for the "Director's Cut" edition of their album Masterpiece Theatre.
• American bagpiper Jori Chisholm covered the song on his debut solo album, Bagpipe Revolution.
• Singer and former American Idol competitor Carmen Rasmusen has covered the song previously.^[8]
• Singer Sara Gazarek covered it on her Return to You album.^[9]
• The King’s Singers covered it on their album, Good Vibrations in an arrangement by Bob Chilcott.^[10]
• David Archuleta performed the song for the American Idol season 7 final three show.
• Independent singer/songwriter Kevin Wong covered it on his album, The Pink in the Grey.^[11]
• Jennifer Warnes covered the song on her 2001 album The Well.^[12]
• Australian independent guitarist Tommy Emmanuel performed an acoustic instrumental version of the song for his 2008 live album Center Stage
• Karrin Allyson covered the song on her 1996 album Collage and with cello accompaniment on her 2009 album By Request: The Best of Karrin Allyson (compilation). The cello part was written by Bill Mclaughlin.
• Canadian Band Marianas Trench [Josh Ramsay, Mike Ayley, Matt Webb, Ian Casselman] did an acapella cover of this song on the director's cut version of their 2010 album Masterpiece Theatre.
• Swedish singer Helen Sjöholm covered this song on her 2010 Billy Joel tribute album Euforia – Helen Sjöholm sjunger Billy Joel, an entire album of Billy covers performed in Swedish by Helen, all of them written by artist Tomas Andersson Wij. Helen's version was called 'Varje sår söker et sår', which translates to 'Each wound looks for a wound'.
• Mitchel Forman covered the song with vocalist Steven Santoro on his 2011 album Sing Along with Mitch.
• covered the ballad at their concerts at The Stockholm Concert Hall in 2012.
• Les Sirènes Female Chamber Choir covered the song in the Finals of the Choir of the Year 2012.
• covered this song on the album 'And So it Goes' 2012.
• The a cappella group Six Appeal covered this song for their 2013 album Plan A.
• Canadian singer/songwriter Laila Biali covered this song on her album Tracing Light.
• On GENERAL HOSPITAL, Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) covered this song during the Nurses Ball (5/24/2017).
• Renato Russo covered the song in his 1994 album The Stonewall Celebration Concert.
• On the 19th of December 2020, Swedish singer Tove Styrke covered Helen Sjöholm's version of Varje sår säker ett sår during the last episode of the 11th season of the TV4 show Så mycket bättre.

Charts[]

The expression[]

• In the 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut used the phrase "So it goes" as a transitional phrase to another subject, as a reminder, and as comic relief. Generally the phrase was used after every time someone's (or something's) death is described or mentioned in the novel.
• From 1982 to 1983, NBC News produced NBC News Overnight with anchors Linda Ellerbee, Lloyd Dobyns. They used the phrase 'And so it goes' to transit from one news story to the next.
• In 1920 Carl Sandburg published the poem, "Accomplished Facts," in Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920, edited by William Stanley Braithwaite. In line 13 of the poem, the phrase, "So it goes." begins to be a refrain in the poem.

References[]