‘The Office’ Paid $25,000 For Michael Scott To Sing One Billy Joel Line

The Office may be crazy for dropping a whopping $25,000 on the rights to a Billy Joel song, but the song did make the scene. So maybe they were right.

On the October 19 episode of Office Ladies, Stitcher’s The Office rewatch podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 7 episode, “WUPHF.com,” which featured a pricey Billy Joel reference.

As a refresher, the episode shines the spotlight on Ryan’s failing social media monster, WUPHF.com. The service simultaneously sends messaging blasts to home phones, cell phones, emails, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, and home screens, which sounds deeply hellish and didn’t accrue the acclaim or the funds that Ryan was hoping for. He eventually sells the WUPHF domain to the Washington University Public Health Fund for obvious reasons, but before that, Michael tries to get his employees to invest in the idea.

“She’s doing the Pam thing that Pam does with Michael, where she’s the voice of reason and sort of holds up a mirror to what’s really happening. And that’s usually the only time he can see it,” Kinsey explains.

“And he’s going to say, ‘You may be right. I may be crazy,'” Fischer says. “Which means Pam knows he wants to break into song.” For those who don’t know, the words, “You may be right, I may be crazy,” are from Billy Joel’s 1980 Glass Houses hit, “You May Be Right.” Once Michael tells Pam he thinks singing might help him feel better, she gives him permission to continue and he lets out a portion of the song’s next line: “Oh, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.”

We know The Office loves a good Billy Joel moment (cc: “Ryan Started The Fire”), so it makes sense that they took the opportunity to bring the singer’s music to the show again. But The Office‘s line producer Randy Cordray told Fischer that the show had to pay $25,000 (!!!) for the little crossover, which lasted seconds.

“Just for that little moment?” Kinsey asked. “For Steve to sing that one line of the Billy Joel song,” Fischer confirmed.

“Whoa!” Kinsey exclaimed. “What if we sang the whole song? Is it, like, per line?”

“That’s a good question. I’ll get to the bottom of that,” Fischer replied.

Considering one of Steve Carell’s musical jokes on The Office cost $60,000, $25,000 for Billy Joel seems like a steal.

Be sure to listen to the full episode of Office Ladies to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about “WUPHF.com.”