Isaac Hayes' Cause of Death Ruled a Stroke

The cause of death of soul singer Isaac Hayes has been ruled a stroke, according to the family's physician. However, no autopsy has been performed, and both the medical examiner and the Memphis health department have filed an official cause of death or issued a death certificate. The family initially believed an unspecified "medical condition" was to blame for Hayes' death. Click below for more on the life and legacy of Hayes.

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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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