How This 1982 Deep Cut Channeled John Lennon and Eerily Reflected His Death

John Lennon’s murder in December 1980 sent shockwaves around the world, from his most insular group of loved ones to his colleagues around the world to the countless fans who came to know him through his work as a Beatle, Plastic Ono Band member, and solo artist. Billy Joel was among the contemporaries who also doubled as Lennon fans. This admiration inevitably bled into Joel’s music, culminating in a 1982 deep cut he felt was channeling the late rock ‘n’ roller.

In a 2026 interview with Rick Beato, the “Piano Man” singer recalled the recording process for “Laura”, which appeared on his eighth studio album, The Nylon Curtain. What might have started as a subconscious lean in Lennon’s direction turned into a full-blown channeling, according to Joel. “The vocal delivery was very much like John,” he said. “He had been shot just recently when I was writing the song.”

“It sounded, to me, like John Lennon,” Joel continued. “I was channeling him. My producer, Phil Ramone, says, ‘You know, you sound an awful lot like John Lennon.’ I said, ‘You know what? It feels right to me.’ I was trying to channel John with that.”

Billy Joel Channeled John Lennon on This Eerily Related Track

Billy Joel channeled John Lennon in more ways than just his vocal timbre on his 1982 track “Laura”. On the one hand, Joel’s titular character is obviously a toxic presence in the narrator’s life. Although there’s a suggestion of intimacy, whether romantic or platonic, in the storyline, the narrator makes it clear that Laura is doing more harm than good in his life. This kind of parasocial attachment could be translated to the disillusionment John Lennon’s murderer, Mark David Chapman, felt about the musician.

On the other hand, Joel wrote “Laura” about his mother. (He would later say the lyric that mentioned Laura holding onto an umbilical cord should have given it away.) Lennon had similarly gut-wrenching songs about his mother, namely, “Mother” from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

“I wonder if I ever would have written ‘Laura’, which had some quirky late-Beatles touches, right down to the la la’s and the guitar break, if I hadn’t first heard how deep John went with his song ‘Mother’,” Joel mused, per Fred Schruers’ Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography.

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