They agree to license the song, then donated all the money - very publicly - to its striking workforce

IN the years since, there have been endless request to license the song [Tubthumping]. Almost always, the band say no. On specific occasions, they do make exceptions. One year, the US car company Chrysler offered them £100,000 to use the track on a TV ad. The band knew there'd been a long-running dispute at Chrysler's Detroit plant, it's workers striking for better wages, improved conditions. They agree to license the song, then donated all the money - very publicly - to its striking workforce. 'Chrysler were infuriated,' Whalley notes.

N. Duerden, Exit stage left: the curious afterlife of popstars (2022), 262-3

I know some artists struggle with the idea of being relevant, [but] I stopped buying that a long time ago

In 1993, Billy Joel released his last album, River of Dreams, and aside from one further album of classical piano pieces, has felt no compulsion to write anything else. He still enjoys playing his catalogue live, he's sold hundreds of millions of records, and he's proved his worth. What else is there to say?

'I know some artists struggle with the idea of being relevant, [but] I stopped buying that a long time ago,' Joel told Billboard magazine in 2019.

N. Duerden, Exit stage left: the curious afterlife of popstars (2022), 14