Conchords, Kimmel, "Idol" Grab Emmy Noms

A pair of Flight of the Conchords songs will compete for an Emmy at this year's awards ceremony for television excellence. Both "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)" and "Inner City Pressure" from the band's self-titled HBO series were nominated in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category. The duo will have some serious competition though, as the viral hit "I'm F***ing Matt Damon," performed by Sarah Silverman and the Bourne Identity star for Jimmy Kimmel Live, was also picked among the five finalists. Another f***ing song was also nominated in the Outstanding Picture Editing of Clip Packages for Talk, Performance, Award or Reality Competition Series. In that category, "I'm F***ing Matt Damon" and Kimmel's response-song "I'm F***ing Ben Affleck" will curiously compete against the "David Cook Goes Home" segment from this year's American Idol. AI was the beneficiary of many nods, including Outstanding Reality Competition Program, Outstanding Sound Editing, Outstanding Technical Direction and Outstanding Host for Ryan Seacrest.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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