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"Musical To Incorporate Billy Joel's Pop Hits"
By: Jon Wiederhorn
(June 8th, 2001)

Billy Joel said he was going to stop making pop records, but he didn't say anything about pop plays.

Joel is working with ballet star Twyla Tharp on a musical that will incorporate his pop songs with her choreography. The production will be staged without dialogue.

"I grew up hearing classical music, pop music and Broadway show music," Joel recently told VH1's Rebecca Rankin.

The project is still in the preliminary planning stages, but Joel has already talked to Broadway heavyweights James Nederlander and Emanuel Azenberg about producing.

"We're working on the possibilities, but nothing's written in stone," said Nederlander, who has produced such shows as "The King and I" and "Peter Pan."

Maybe not, but a New York workshop is currently being cast, scheduled to run for a month starting August 20th, 2001, according to a Fox News report. Auditioning cast members are being asked to perform Joel's "She's Got a Way" and two other songs.

The musical conductor for the still-unnamed project will reportedly be Stuart Malina, who has worked with the Greensboro, North Carolina, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, symphony orchestras. But while Malina will orchestrate Joel's material, he's been asked to remain faithful to the original compositions, Fox News reported.

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"You Had To Be A Big Shot"
By: Neal Travis
(June 11th, 2001)

Some of the crowd from author Rona Jaffe's birthday party in Sagaponack went on to Nick & Toni's Saturday night. The East Hampton restaurant was in a celebrity gridlock, but everyone noted that Billy Joel was dining with supposed old flame and TV personality Trish Bergin. The buzz increased when radio's tallest talker, Howard Stern (with a leggy blonde on his arm), stopped by the Piano Man's table for a chat.

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"Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles To Appear On Tony Bennett LP"
Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow Also To Be Featured On "Playing With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues"
By: Corey Moss
(June 13th, 2001)

Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Bonnie Raitt are among the artists collaborating with Tony Bennett on his upcoming album.

"Playing With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues" is due in the fall and also features k.d. lang and Diana Krall, according to the spokesperson for the project's producer, Phil Ramone (Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon).

Ramone first worked with Bennett on a similar collaboration project, Frank Sinatra's "Duets," which featured the two crooners on "New York, New York."

Bennett will spend the summer on a joint headlining tour with k.d. lang that kicks off July 25th, 2001 in Portland, Maine. The two teamed up to sing "Moonglow" for Bennett's 1994 "MTV Unplugged" appearance.

Meanwhile, Ramone has kept busy with several other projects. He recently finished producing Donny Osmond's "This Is the Moment" album and accompanying tour, as well as the debut album for tenor Michael Amante.

The producer is also writing a book based on his time in the recording studio with artists such as Elton John and Billy Joel, due later this year from Hyperion Publishing, and has been tapped to produce Diane Schuur's next album, his spokesperson said. He last worked with the jazz singer on "Friends for Schuur," which included guest vocals from Wonder and Charles.

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"Joel Floats His Ex's Boat Again"
By: Richard Johnson
(June 14th, 2001)

Billy Joel could write a how-to book on the way to win back an aggrieved girlfriend. The "Piano Man" has finally succeeded in getting back into the good graces of TV anchorwoman Trish Bergin after a campaign of affection that culminated in a generous birthday gift: a 21-foot Regulator boat, which is thought to cost upwards of $50,000.

Joel, 52, caused the split last September when Bergin, 30, urned up at Joel's home unexpectedly and found him in bed with an unidentified woman some 15 years older than her.

Bergin has subsequently dated a bevvy of men, including "Survivor" star Dr. Sean Kenniff, but has been besieged by flowers and Dom Perignon champagne from a sorry Joel ever since.

The blonde anchor and reporter for Long Island's Channel 12 - who was first introduced to Joel by his ex-wife, Christie Brinkley - rejected all of Joel's apologies and advances until she finally broke down on her birthday in late March. Joel had sent her a photo of the vessel, called "Anchor's Away," with a set of keys.

Days later, pals said the two quietly started seeing each other again. But they went public Saturday when they had dinner at the East Hampton hotspot Nick & Toni's.

The two are taking the relationship even more public tonight when Joel has Bergin by his side as he is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

"They are starting at the beginning and taking it very slowly," said a source. Bergin is said to still be mistrustful of the cheating rocker.

The recoupling is good for Bergin, because she's had a hard time keeping other men around, what with all the elaborate bouquets Joel kept sending her. The gifts so intimidated her dates, they wouldn't even call back, pals said.

As one of them put it, "Who can compete with Billy Joel?" But, a pal of Kenniff noted that, despite her protesting, Bergin got what she wanted. "Trish always wanted [Joel] back - she was just dating Sean to make him jealous," the Kenniff pal said.

Meanwhile, Joel is close to securing a permanent mooring for his own boat. After scouring almost all of Long Island - and threatening to move to Sag Harbor, Oyster Bay and the North Fork - he is close to buying a $6 million mansion on Three Mile Harbor, plus 5-acre Gull Island a few hundreds yards offshore, to preserve his privacy and view.

Joel has been homeless since selling his East Hampton mansion to Jerry Seinfeld for a whopping $32 million.

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"A Writer of Notes"
By: Glenn Gamboa
(June 14th, 2001)

Billy Joel will be honored for his ever-lasting contributions to the music industry.

Though many titles could be attached to Billy Joel, he proudly calls himself a songwriter first.

"We know it all stems from the music first," said Joel from a Manhattan studio while taking a break from preparations for recording his first classical music CD.

"Without the song, the singer has nothing to sing. The recording artist has nothing to record. The song is the first idea. It all starts with us. We're the troublemakers." Joel has stirred up a lot of trouble in his 33 years in the music business, with his tell-it-like-it-is style of in-your-face rockers. The Hicksville native also has eased many troubled souls as well with some of the most graceful and beautiful ballads of his generation.

Tonight, the Songwriters Hall of Fame will present Joel with the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor the group hands out (the award is named after the hall's founder, who wrote such classics as "Personality," "Ac-Cen-Tchu-Ate the Positive" and "Jeepers Creepers"). The group also will induct songwriters Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Diane Warren and Paul Williams into its ranks at a ceremony at the Sheraton New York Hotel.

"Billy is one of the greatest songwriters ever," said Hal David, the legendary songwriter and chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. "He is an original. He was contemporary, but his songs still sound as contemporary today. It's great to write hits, but there's one thing that's better: To have them last." Few songwriters can match Joel's string of classics - from "Piano Man" to "Just the Way You Are" to "The River of Dreams" - or the way those songs have been embraced by the American public, which has purchased more than 100 million of his albums. Such success shows Joel is able to strike a chord within people, making the songs seem universal. However, most of Joel's songs are written to specific individuals, offering listeners glimpses into his private life that can be as revealing as eavesdropping in his house.

The process he went through to create his song "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" is similar to what he went through with most of his songs.

"'Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)' was written originally as a piano piece," Joel said. "I thought it could be a good song, but I didn't know what I wanted to say with it. My daughter was still young, around 4, and she was asking me about death. This is one where you gotta give the right answer, so I sat down and wrote what I believed." In "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," Joel tries to comfort his daughter, Alexa, while also conveying the power of music, singing, "Someday your child may cry and if you sing this lullabye/Then in your heart there will always be a part of me/Someday we'll all be gone/But lullabyes go on and on."

"I wanted her to know that we're all gonna go, but if you truly love each other, a part of you goes into that person's heart," Joel said.

"She got it. I know she was afraid. But I think the language of music lessened the sting a little bit. I knew she was thinking there's gotta be a way out of this... but she got it. A lot of my songs are that way. If you are speaking directly to one specific person, it just makes for a better song." However, the personal nature of his lyrics is one reason why Joel decided to take an extended break from writing pop music.

"I wish I could write songs like Bob Dylan; I wish I could write songs like Paul Simon," Joel said. "I've always written the music first. Then what I had to do was decode my own music to figure out what I'm trying to say and then translate it. I just reached an age where emotions I have or thoughts I have or the ways I feel are not so easily expressed with my ability of putting them into words, which is why I just stopped writing words and I started writing more music."

Fans of Joel's music will finally be able to hear some of his new work when his first CD of classical compositions is set to be released this fall. He plans to head to Vienna later this month to supervise the recording of his classical piano pieces, which Joel will not be playing himself.

"People always ask me, 'How can you write it and not play it?'" he said. "But the thing is, you don't write these pieces all at once and some of them are more than 10 minutes long. To play them from beginning to end with all the nuances requires a bravura player. I play like a rock and roll piano player. I'm really not suited for it." He is suited for writing the pieces, however, quickly saying that he has no desire at this point to return to writing pop music again.

"If a great song comes to me, I'm not not going to write it," Joel said. "I may return to it someday. But what I'm doing now really isn't that much of a departure for me. A lot of stuff I've done was actually being written as a piano piece. I just arranged them in the rock and roll genre." To illustrate his point, Joel begins playing "Uptown Girl" on the piano with the ornamentation of a Haydn-inspired piece. The way his excitement grows as he plays a portion of a new piece, which has more of a dramatic, Wagnerian feel, shows that he won't likely be returning to pop music any time soon. However, Joel will continue to be a fan of pop music and one of the most well-informed musicians around.

"When you hear a good song, you have to have a great deal of respect for that," he said. "Someone like Johnny Mercer, you hear his songs and you wonder, 'How did he come up with that?' It's something songwriters do. We appreciate that. It's quite an honor to receive anything named after Johnny Mercer, and frankly I'm bamboozled as to why they're giving it to me, but it's very special to me."

Where & When:
The 32nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner will be held at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Manhattan, at 8:00 tonight. Tickets are $750 through Buckley Hall Events, (212) 573-6933.

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"Whispers"
By: Jill Martin
(June 15th, 2001)

Billy Joel and News 12 Long Island's Trish Bergin were dining when Howard Stern and leggy girlfriend Beth Ostrosky came over to the table to say hello. The two boys exchanged phone numbers... Hmmm... Maybe the "Piano Man" and the "Shock-Jock" are planning a joint venture?! On Sunday, guess who was seen sailing off into the sunset together? Billy Joel, Trish Bergin, Christie Brinkley, Peter Cook, and all the kids.

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"Artists Named to Songwriters Hall"
AP Music Writer
(June 15th, 2001)

The Songwriters Hall of Fame recognizes that songwriters need singers.

So Dionne Warwick is going into the hall even though she didn't write a word of her biggest hits, including "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" and "Walk On By."

Warwick was honored Thursday night - along with singer-songwriters Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and others - for her distinct ability to turn other people's tunes into classics.

"She's sort of had a whole idea about singing that's very original and no one's ever tried to copy it because I guess it's so unusual, and perfect for those songs," said Elvis Costello, who sang Warwick's hit "Don't Make Me Over" at the 32nd annual ceremony in New York.

The inductees included Clapton, Parton, and Nelson; songwriter Diane Warren, who's written a string of No. 1 tunes; and actor and Oscar-winning composer Paul Williams, who co-wrote songs such as "Evergreen" with Barbra Streisand and penned the Carpenters hit "We've Only Just Begun."

"It's amazing, it's such an honor. It feels amazing for your peers to induct you, and vote you in," said Warren, a Grammy winner and Oscar nominee who wrote Faith Hill's latest hit, "There You'll Be."

Besides receiving the hall of fame honor, Nelson sang one of Williams' other tunes, "Rainbow Connection" - which is also the title track to Nelson's new album. Before the ceremony, Nelson said even though singing made him famous, songwriting is the greater of his talents.

"I'd have to say I was a better songwriter than a singer," he said. "There are some great singers out there that we know about."

Joel, already an inductee, was awarded the Johnny Mercer Award, given to an inductee who has a vast catalog of songs.

"This is a special award for me because it means that my music goes beyond me. It goes to his generation," he said as he stood next to crooner Marc Anthony, who sang Joel's song "An Innocent Man" at the ceremony. "That means a lot to me that his generation is interested in singing my music."

Receiving a lifetime achievement award was singer Gloria Estefan and her producer-husband, Emilio Estefan.

"As a songwriter, this award means a lot to me, because a lot of people don't even know we write the songs," Estefan said.

An emotional Warwick received the Hitmakers award, given specially to singers, from a relative - Whitney Houston.

Houston, who is Warwick's cousin, said "when Dionne sings a song, she owns it. She is a songwriter's dream."

"I am proud to be her fellow artist, but even prouder to be her kin," Houston said.

The ceremony reunited Warwick with composer Hal Davis, the hall's chair. Davis, along with Burt Bacharach, wrote many of Warwick's most popular tunes.

"We all kind of started together, and it just blossomed into what it is today, a very mature, and very strong friendship," Warwick said before the ceremony. "That was the joy with working with both of those men."

Clapton, who has been on tour recently, was not on hand to receive his award.

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"Snaps to the Songwriters"
By: Vinny Marino
(June 15th, 2001)

The often-forgotten songwriters had their time in the spotlight Thursday night at the 32nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame. This year's honorees include Dolly Parton, Paul Williams, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and Dianne Warren, whose hits include Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

The New York event included a surprise appearance by Whitney Houston, who introduced her cousin, Dionne Warwick. "I am proud to be her fellow artist," said Houston. "But I'm even prouder to be her kin."

Honoree Billy Joel said the night capped off his lifelong dreams. "I always wanted to be a composer before I ever considered even trying to be a rock 'n' roll recording artist," said Joel. "I was writing music first, so it's all kind of come full circle here."

He's now concentrating on classical music, but says he hasn't turned his back on pop. "If I get ideas for songs, I'll write some songs, but right now my interest is in writing piano music."

The event included plenty of jams, with all of the winners joining in on the Buddy Holly song "Not Fade Away" to end the night.

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"They Never Set Out to Be Hall of Famers"
By: Martin Johnson
(June 16th, 2001)

Elvis Costello sang an impassioned version of "Don't Make Me Over," Dave Matthews did a solo acoustic rendition of Willie Nelson's "Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away" and Whitney Houston made a surprise appearance Thursday night at The National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriter Hall of Fame ceremonies at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.

The ceremonies honored Nelson, Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Dolly Parton, Diane Warren, Paul Williams, publisher Ralph Peer and patron Iris Cantor. Other performances included Marc Anthony's heartfelt take on Joel's "An Innocent Man" and Emmylou Harris' poignant reading of Parton's "To Daddy." Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior on "The Sopranos") presented a dapper version of Leo Friedman and Beth Slater Whitson's "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," marking the centennial of the first hit song (it sold a lot of sheet music). Jon Secada gave a moving presentation of the Estefans' "Out of the Dark," and Deborah Cox offered a warm spin on Warren's "There You'll Be," from the "Pearl Harbor" soundtrack.

Houston headed a star-studded cast of presenters. She introduced Warwick, who received the Hitmaker Award for her interpretative skills. Via video, Rob Thomas introduced Nelson. Paul Shaffer deliberately toned down the double-entendres in the script he was given to introduce Dolly Parton. Clive Davis introduced Warren, and Judy Collins teamed with Kermit the Frog to introduce Williams.

"This was totally out of left field," said Joel of his Johnny Mercer Award, the highlight of the evening. "I was kind of bamboozled.

"I never set out to become a rock and roll star," the Hicksville native continued. "I just wanted to write some songs, but I started out in the singer-songwriter era so people said go out and perform them. I did, and look what happened." Williams, too, fairly stumbled into his career.

"I was just an out-of-work, 27 year-old actor looking for a cheap form of therapy," said Williams of his start. "I guess it became a way of life." His self-effacing remarks typified the low-key spirit of the evening, which featured little in the way of over-the-top showmanship and garish pretensions popular music is known for. Most of the honorees seemed genuinely touched by the award.

"I'm so surprised," cackled Dolly Parton, consciously evoking the attitude of Nashville legend Minnie Pearl.

Joel has turned away, at least temporarily, from pop to concentrate on classical music. Of his upcoming release, he said, "I'm just sticking my toe in the water." Joel also mentioned that he and choreographer Twyla Tharp are discussing an upcoming collaboration. The performer added that the choice of Latin star Marc Anthony to perform his song brought his work full circle.

"I was influenced to write some of these songs by Lieber and Stoller's take on some of the great Latin bandleaders of their day, and now some of the new great Latin performers are singing my songs." The presentation of Joel's award was preceded by a video retrospective of his career, and an introduction by songwriting legend Jimmy Webb ("By the Time I Get to Phoenix"). After the presentation, Joel took to the piano and led an all-star rendition of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," featuring Cox, Williams, the Estefans and Kermit.

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"Billy Joel Ate Here...And Here...And Here..."
By: Jerry Della Femina
(June 18th, 2001)

Don't you feel sorry for poor Billy Joel?

He is one of the nicest people on the East End. Smart, talented, witty, and surely the most patient human in history. Why? Because he is a man who can hardly put a morsel of food into his mouth without having some smart restaurant publicist climb in after it into his gifted throat and then immediately phone in Mr. Joel's enjoyment of the said morsel to a news publication.

Indeed, Billy Joel has become the poster boy for every restaurant (including my own) to get the word out that celebrities frequent their joints. If Billy ate in as many restaurants every night as he has been purported to have done in the newspapers, he would make Luciano Pavarotti look gaunt.

Ten years ago my wife, the beautiful Judy Licht, and I wrote a list of predictions of things to come during a Hampton summer for Avenue Magazine. Included was the inevitable "Billy Joel ate here" sightings (such as what's in this issue's "Rear Window" column). I looked at the article yesterday and I could repeat it word for word here. Nothing, including (thank God) Billy Joel, has changed in 10 years. So here goes not merely a prediction but a guarantee of what's going to happen this summer.

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"Billy Joel Disses Christina Aguilera, Follows Own Muse"
By: Jon Wiederhorn
(June 18th, 2001)

Piano Man writing classical piano album, may return to pop music.

Pop kingpin Billy Joel is working on two new projects, and he doesn't have to sing a note or plink a piano key for either one.

The first is a classical piano album of new songs, which is being arranged by established concert pianist Hyung-Ki Joo. On June 25th, 2001, Joel will travel to Vienna, Austria, to supervise the project, which he hopes to have available for release by the fall. The tentative title is "Music for Solo Piano," but Joel isn't totally sold on the name.

"I'm thinking of calling it "Unsung," but that could be confusing because people may think that this is just old stuff without vocals. It's not. This is all new stuff," he stressed Thursday night at a press conference that followed the induction ceremony for the 32nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards, where Joel was honored with the Johnny Mercer Award.

The new record, his first in eight years, will feature songs Joel wrote over the past four years.

"The first four years the stuff really stunk and then I started getting better," he said. "You really don't want to hear the early things. There was a learning curve I went through."

In addition to working on his upcoming album, Joel is talking to choreographer Twyla Tharp about creating a Broadway musical using his old songs and her dance steps.

"We're just talking about it," Joel said. "She's got a group of dancers who are working with her, and I saw some of my stuff choreographed and I was very interested in that."

Both of Joel's new projects are noticeably removed from the realm of pop music, and the artist continues to criticize contemporary mainstream acts. At the end of the press conference, he criticized Christina Aguilera's fluctuating vocal style, first imitating her, then snapping, "Pick a note and sit on it for a while, okay?"

It's not the first time Joel has lambasted the current pop scene.

"I feel like we're in a transitional state right now," he told VH1's Rebecca Rankin in a recent interview. "There has been a lot of very popular pop music, and it's fabricated. There's a formula right now with pop, and it's aimed at a teenage demographic group. I don't know if that's what I hear music being. There's also heavy metal and rap and that's aimed at a particular demographic, too. I think there are a lot of people who are really hungry for something else."

Despite such attacks, Joel said he hasn't written off writing more songs with strong verses and catchy choruses.

"Right now, my interest is in writing piano music, but once this comes out, I may go back to writing popular music or I may continue with this instrumental music," he said. "I don't know. I'm just following the muse."

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Music Notes: 2001 "Face 2 Face" Tour Proves To Be Real Moneymaker
By: Buck Wolf & Nancy Chandross
(June 20th, 2001)

And some pop stars who first hit the charts back in the '70s are proving they're still moneymakers. The Elton John/Billy Joel tour has grossed $59.2 million for 31 shows.

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