Billy Joel visited The Tonight Show to promote (as if he needed to promote) his record-setting 31st consecutive performance at Madison Square Garden. And like typical Billy Joel (I assume), the downtime between commercials was met not with silence, but with a suggestion of some doo wop. Joel’s backup band, fellow guest J.K. Simmons and Jimmy Fallon all agreed to try their hand at one of Billy’s great ’80’s songs, “The Longest Time”, and it went… Well, it went.
Fun fact: Billy Joel recorded all of the vocal tracks on the original recording of “The Longest Time.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have that type of creative control with this impromptu rendition, but once Fallon, Simmons (who was totally game) and the rest of the crew got warmed up, “The Longest Time” didn’t seem so long after all. Fallon, who usually has an acceptable voice, if not an impression of various singing voices, stepped up to the plate and did his best.
Hats off to Jimmy. Maybe his vocals weren’t warmed up. It was the middle of the night after all (it was actually probably the afternoon). Sorry, River of Dreams jokes/references don’t come often and they must be taken when they can.
After the doo was wopped, Fallon and Joel recruited Questlove and the Roots to cover the Rolling Stone’s “Beast Of Burden.” Jimmy has a pretty nice Mick Jagger impression, eh?