Last year, the great Succession episode “Too Much Birthday” told the story of Kendall Roy, the most tragic of the show’s many tragic rich fail-kid characters, throwing himself an insanely lavish 40th-birthday party. That episode opens with Jeremy Strong, the great and famously intense actor who plays Kendall, singing Billy Joel’s 1979 ballad “Honesty.” On the show, it’s Kendall Roy rehearsing for a party stunt. He ultimately changes his plans to go fuckin’ nut-nut, so we never see him singing that song in front of an actual audience. But today, we do get the studio version of Strong singing “Honesty.”
Today, HBO released the soundtrack for season three of Succession. Most of the album is the score, from the great film composer Nicholas Britell — a score so good that Pusha T rapped over Britell’s opening theme in 2019. But the album also includes a studio version of Kendall Roy’s Billy Joel cover. That means the Kendall version of “Honesty,” like Kendall’s party-stunt rap song “L To The OG,” has now been granted a proper release.
The cover seems to be Jeremy Strong singing to Britell’s piano accompaniment. It’s not great, but that’s the point. This absolutely seems like something that some absurdly rich middle-aged man would actually release to the public, on some JD & The Straight Shot shit. Below, watch that Succession scene and listen to the studio version of the cover.
The Succession season-three soundtrack is out now via Republic.
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