Tell Her About It

Album

An Innocent Man

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Soul

Composer(s)

Billy Joel

Entered Chart

Jul 30, 1983

Peak Date

Sep 24, 1983

Released

July 18, 1983

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Columbia 38-04012

B-Side

"Easy Money"

In his biography The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man, Billy Joel talks about when he first started dating Christie Brinkley. He says that she was the first person he could ever just talk to, and they would spent hours just talking - this was the basis for "Tell Her About It." It's simply about an a-ha moment for Joel when he realized that you could actually have a soul mate. Joel and Brinkley met in 1982, married in 1985 and divorced in 1994. >> The song has an early '60s feel, which is something they played up in the video, which shows Joel performing on The Ed Sullivan Show as "BJ and the Affordables." The comedian Rodney Dangerfield also appears in the video, getting no respect. Joel wrote the theme song for Dangerfield's movie Easy Money, which also appears on An Innocent Man. Jay Dubin, who also directed Joel's clips for "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time," directed the music video. Dubin told us the idea for an Ed Sullivan Show spoof was an easy sell, despite the singer's reputation for being a reluctant video star: "I went to Billy Joel after we did the [Live from Long Island] concert special. I said, "Hey Billy, wouldn't it be great if you were like all those great guys, and you were on the Ed Sullivan Show? You know: 'Now, Mr. William Joel.' He says, 'Okay, do it.' Simple as that. Done." The video gives the date of the Ed Sullivan spoof as Sunday, July 31st, 1963, 8:34 pm. In 1963, July 31st fell on a Wednesday - it was harder to find these things out in 1983. This was used on the TV series The Deuce in the 2019 episode "You Only Get One." When Joel was in the middle of recording his '60s send-up album, he realized he was missing a key musical influence from the decade: The Supremes. "They had a million hits, The Supremes," he recalled in a 2016 Sirius XM interview. "They were always giving advice to girls… and I thought, Okay, I'm gonna write a song like that, and I'll be Diana Ross."

Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh

Listen boy, I don't wanna see you let a good thing slip away (slip away)
You know I don't like watching anybody make the same mistakes I made
She's a real nice girl and she's always there for you
But a nice girl wouldn't tell you what you should do

Oh, listen boy, I'm sure that you think you got it all under control
You don't want somebody tellin' you the way to stay in someone's soul
You're a big boy now and you'll never let her go (you know you'll never let her go)
But that's just the kind of thing she ought to know

Tell her about it, tell her everything you feel
Give her every reason to accept that you're for real
Tell her about it, tell her all your crazy dreams
Let her know you need her, let her know how much she means

Ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

Listen boy, it's not automatically a certain guarantee (certain guarantee)
To ensure yourself, you've got to provide communication constantly
When you love someone, you're always insecure
And there's only one good way to reassure

Tell her about it, let her know how much you care
When she can't be with you, tell her you wish you were there
Tell her about it, every day before you leave
Pay her some attention, give her something to believe

'Cause now and then she'll get to worrying
Just because you haven't spoken for so long
And though you may not have done anything
Will that be a consolation when she's gone?

Listen boy, it's good information from a man who's made mistakes
Just a word or two that she gets from you could be the difference that it makes
She's a trusting soul, she's put her trust in you (you know she put her trust in you)
But a girl like that won't tell you what you should do

Tell her about it, tell her everything you feel
Give her every reason to accept that you're for real
Tell her about it, tell her all your crazy dreams
Let her know you need her, let her know how much she means

Tell her about it
Tell her how you feel right now
Just tell her about it
The girl don't want to wait too long
You got to tell her about it
Tell her now and you won't go wrong
You got to tell her about it
Before it gets too late
You've got to tell her about it
You know the girl don't want to wait
You got to tell her about it
You got to tell, tell, tell her about it
Now, tell her about it
Woo, woo