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1990 single by Billy Joel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Downeaster 'Alexa'" is a song by Billy Joel from his eleventh studio album Storm Front (1989), released as the album's fourth single. It peaked at No. 57 in the Billboard Hot 100 and was included on Joel's Greatest Hits Vol. 3 album in 1997. The song was named for his boat, which in turn was named after his daughter Alexa Ray Joel.
| "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Single by Billy Joel | ||||
| from the album Storm Front | ||||
| B-side | "And So It Goes" | |||
| Released | May 1990[1] | |||
| Studio | The Hit Factory, Times Square Studio, New York, NY | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 3:44 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Billy Joel | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Billy Joel singles chronology | ||||
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The violin solo is played by virtuoso Itzhak Perlman.[2] The music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan.[3]
The song is sung in the persona of an impoverished fisherman off Long Island and the surrounding waters who, like many of his fellow fishermen, is finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet and keep ownership of his boat, a type known as a downeaster.[4]
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[5] | 126 |
| Canadian Singles Chart[6] | 25 |
| Japanese Singles Chart (Oricon)[7] | 6 |
| UK Singles Chart | 76 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 57 |
| US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 18 |
| US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | 33 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[8] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
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