Shameless (song)

"Shameless" is a song written by American singer Billy Joel and recorded on his 1989 album Storm Front. His version peaked at #40 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts. Two years later, the song was covered by country music artist Garth Brooks on his third studio album, 1991's Ropin' the Wind. Brooks' rendering of the song was his seventh Number One hit on the Billboard country charts in late 1991. It also reached #71 on the UK Singles Chart.

In 1993, on stage in Boston, Billy Joel introduced the song by saying, "I want[ed] to write a song, like a Jimi Hendrix song, you know. Back in the sixties, he was one of my idols, Jimi Hendrix." ^[1] Billy Joel also mentioned the Hendrix inspiration at a talk in Nurenberg, in 1995. ^[2]

Background and production

Garth Brooks version

The song features harmony vocals by Trisha Yearwood. Garth provided the following background information on the song in the CD booklet liner notes from The Hits:

"Shameless" was the longest shot we took with a song. I was talked into becoming a member of a CD club... you know, the 40,000 CD's for a penny deal. With those clubs they write you with the selection of the month. If you don't write back and cancel, then they send it to you and charge you for it. I was on the road for six months with no one to check the mail and came home to find six compact discs in my mailbox. Storm Front by Billy Joel was one of them. I hadn't listened to Billy Joel since the late seventies, probably since Glass Houses. I fell in love with the album and fell back in love with Billy Joel's music. One of his songs really captured me, a song called "Shameless." I kept watching it, and when he did not release it as a single, we contacted his people in the hopes that we could cut it. His people sent us a letter acknowledging that he knew who I was and was very honored that I was cutting it. That was quite a compliment for me then, as it is now. My hope is that Billy, as writer, hears this cut and says, "Yeah, man, the guy's got balls."^[3]

Garth Brooks performed "Shameless" with Billy Joel during Joel's Last Play at Shea concerts in 2008, and after Brooks performed it in his Central Park concert in 1997, Joel came out on stage and they sang a duet of "New York State of Mind." In 2011, Joel and Brooks performed the song together again when Brooks was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame by Joel.

Reception

Garth Brooks version

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described Brooks' rendering of the song favorably in his review of the album, saying that Brooks "made his '70s rock influences more explicit" by "transform[ing] the song from a rock power ballad into contemporary country."^[4]

Chart positions

Billy Joel version

Chart (1989)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	40

Garth Brooks version

Chart (1991)	Peak position
Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)^[5]	23
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)^[6]	1
Dutch Singles Chart^[7]	43
UK Singles Chart^[8]	71
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)^[9]	1

Year-end charts

Chart (1991)	Position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)^[10]	38

Preceded by "Someday" by Alan Jackson	Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number-one single November 16–23, 1991	Succeeded by "Forever Together" by Randy Travis
Preceded by "Anymore" by Travis Tritt	RPM Country Tracks number-one single November 30-December 7, 1991	Succeeded by "Forever Together" by Randy Travis

References

↑ youtube Billy Joel 'Shameless' Live Soundboard 1993 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVVZgDF2Wb4
↑ you tube Q&A: Like Garth Brooks' 'Shameless?' (Nuremberg 1995) Pt11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zslo3qO3Nuw
↑ Garth Brooks - The Hits: transcription from the CD booklet (bar code 7-2438-29689-2-4)
↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Ropin' the Wind review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
↑ "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 2028." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. January 18, 1992. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
↑ "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 7779." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. November 30, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
↑ http://www.swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Garth+Brooks&titel=Shameless&cat=s
↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/garth%20brooks/
↑ "Garth Brooks – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Garth Brooks.
↑ "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1991". RPM. December 21, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.

External links

Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Billy Joel

Studio albums	Cold Spring Harbor Piano Man Streetlife Serenade Turnstiles The Stranger 52nd Street Glass Houses The Nylon Curtain An Innocent Man The Bridge Storm Front River of Dreams Fantasies & Delusions

Live albums	Songs in the Attic KOHЦEPT 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert 12 Gardens Live Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert

Compilations	Greatest Hits, Vol. 1–3 Souvenir: The Ultimate Collection The Ultimate Collection The Essential Billy Joel Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel My Lives The Hits

Singles	"Piano Man" "You're My Home" "Worse Comes to Worst" "Travelin' Prayer" "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" "The Entertainer" "Just the Way You Are" "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" "Only the Good Die Young" "She's Always a Woman" "Vienna" "The Stranger" "My Life" "Big Shot" "Honesty" "Until the Night" "All for Leyna" "You May Be Right" "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" "Don't Ask Me Why" "Sometimes a Fantasy" "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (Live) "She's Got a Way" (Live) "Pressure" "Allentown" "Goodnight Saigon" "Tell Her About It" "Uptown Girl" "An Innocent Man" "The Longest Time" "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" "This Night" "Keeping the Faith" "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" "The Night Is Still Young" "Modern Woman" "A Matter of Trust" "This Is the Time" "Baby Grand" "Back in the U.S.S.R." (Live) "We Didn't Start the Fire" "Leningrad" "I Go to Extremes" "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" "That's Not Her Style" "And So It Goes" "Shameless" "All Shook Up" "The River of Dreams" "All About Soul" "No Man's Land" "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" "To Make You Feel My Love" "Hey Girl" "All My Life" "Christmas in Fallujah"

Other songs	"Captain Jack" "Root Beer Rag" "New York State of Mind" "Prelude/Angry Young Man" "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" "Zanzibar" "Big Man on Mulberry Street"

Tours	An Innocent Man Tour Face to Face 1994 Face to Face 1995 Face to Face 1998 Face to Face 2001 Face to Face 2003 Face to Face 2009 Face to Face 2010 Billy Joel in Concert

Film	The Last Play at Shea

See also	Discography Movin' Out Billy Joel Band The Hassles Attila Alexa Ray Joel Christie Brinkley Katie Lee "Movin' Out" (Glee)

Book Category Music portal

Garth Brooks singles

Garth Brooks	"Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" "If Tomorrow Never Comes" "Not Counting You" "The Dance"

No Fences	"Friends in Low Places" "Unanswered Prayers" "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House" "The Thunder Rolls" "Wild Horses" (released in 2001)

Ropin' the Wind	"Rodeo" "Shameless" "What She's Doing Now" "Papa Loved Mama" "The River"

The Chase	"We Shall Be Free" "Somewhere Other Than the Night" "Learning to Live Again" "That Summer"

In Pieces	"Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)" "American Honky-Tonk Bar Association" "Standing Outside the Fire" "One Night a Day" "Callin' Baton Rouge" "The Red Strokes"

Fresh Horses	"She's Every Woman" "The Fever" "The Beaches of Cheyenne" "The Change" "It's Midnight Cinderella" "That Ol' Wind"

Sevens	"Longneck Bottle" "She's Gonna Make It" "Two Piña Coladas" "You Move Me" "Do What You Gotta Do" (released in 2000)

The Limited Series	"To Make You Feel My Love"

Double Live	"It's Your Song"

Greatest Hits (as Chris Gaines)	"Lost in You" "It Don't Matter to the Sun" "That's the Way I Remember It"

Scarecrow	"When You Come Back to Me Again" (released in 2000) "Wrapped Up in You" "Squeeze Me In" (with Trisha Yearwood) "Thicker Than Blood" "Why Ain't I Running"

The Lost Sessions	"Good Ride Cowboy" "Love Will Always Win" (with Trisha Yearwood) "That Girl Is a Cowboy"

The Ultimate Hits	"More Than a Memory" "Workin' for a Livin'" (with Huey Lewis) "Midnight Sun"

Man Against Machine	"People Loving People" "Mom"

Guest singles	"Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy (with Chris LeDoux; uncredited) "In Another's Eyes" (with Trisha Yearwood) "One Heart at a TIme" (charity single) "Burnin the Roadhouse Down" (with Steve Wariner) "Where Your Road Leads" (with Trisha Yearwood) "Katie Wants a Fast One" (with Steve Wariner) "Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?)" (with George Jones)

Other songs	"Hard Luck Woman" "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" "The Call" (with Trisha Yearwood)

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