"There was never a tour booked this summer!" says Billy Joel, responding to internet claims that he pulled the plug on a summer tour with Elton John. He continues, "Obviously, this has the smell of a really juicy story: 'Why did they cancel? Did Billy and Elton have a fight? What's going on?' The truth is, there's nothing going on. I had made up my mind a long time ago that I wasn't going to work this year."

Though the duo are currently performing together on their recurring "Face 2 Face" Tour, these shows - which swept up the West Coast, and continue until March 11th, 2010 in Buffalo - are make-up shows, rescheduled from canceled 2009 dates. Joel insists that rumors about 2010 summer tour were leaked by insiders at certain venues around the country. He explains, "There were a couple stories that came out that we were supposed to play Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, and I think Pittsburgh was mentioned. Booking agents hold real estate. They like to research what's available when, to see if they can put together a series of dates. Then they'll come back to the artist and say, 'Look, if you wanted to, you could play such and such and such.' These rumors probably came from somebody at one of those venues who had to be a big shot and call the local newspaper and say, 'Hey, Billy and Elton are going to play here this summer.'"

Elton John even perpetuated the story himself. In a recent interview, he was quoted saying, "Billy just wants to take a year off. I'm so disappointed because when we came to Wrigley Field last year, it was like playing in the church of baseball." Joel responds, "Elton and I don't really sit down and discuss our future plans with each other. We see each other backstage and we hang out and kibitz and talk about music and life. When Elton did that interview, he'd just found out from his booking agent that I wasn't going to be working this summer, and therefore Elton's quote puts a spin on it that I'd changed my mind all of a sudden, or suddenly decided to cancel the tour, which is nonsense. There was never a tour booked!"

Before their February 22nd, 2010 show in Denver, Joel approached John about his comments to the press. "When I saw him backstage, I said, 'Elton, what were you told about this supposed summer tour?' He goes, 'Well, I just found out you weren't going to be working this year, and I was heartbroken because I was looking forward to doing it.'" In his statement to the press, John also seemed to convey that their hugely successful "Face 2 Face" Tour - which has brought in big crowds since 2004 - would be ending for good in Albany. "We'll probably pick it up again," says Joel. "It's always fun playing with him." He insists there is no bad blood. In Denver, their conversation ended thusly: "Elton said, 'Are you mad at me?' I said, 'No, I'm not mad, I just want to clarify what's going on here.' Everything's fine."

Joel says the thought of retirement looms in his mind, but he's always drawn back to the stage. "I see pictures of myself onstage, and I look at them and say, 'There has to be some kind of mandatory retirement age for doing this gig,' and then I watched the Super Bowl and saw The Who and I figure, 'Well, I guess there is no mandatory retirement age.' 'I hope I die before I get old,' - that went out the window. It's always possible that I'll tour again, whether it's with Elton or on my own. I love my job. For now I'm going to stop, but I won't sit around for the rest of my life and rot."

Joel claims last year was a rough one. "There was an incident with my daughter that was very shocking," he says of daughter Alexa's suicide attempt. "I got divorced. I worked a lot. I promised myself more personal time this year. I'm going to Italy, and I'll probably go to Paris. I'll probably take my boat to New England and hang out on the coast. I'll ride my motorcycle. I'll just be a bum."

With ex-wife Katie Lee living on her own in the Perry Street townhouse they once shared (now for sale for $12.9 million, though a recent New York Times Magazine article suggests that she may stick around to shoot her cooking show there), Billy Joel has found someplace else to stay when he's in Manhattan. City records reveal that the musician just closed on a new $3.3 million pied-à-terre in Nolita. He snagged a discount while at it, too; the original asking price for the 1,607-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath in a luxe condo conversion on Elizabeth Street was $3.375 million. Stribling's Mary Ellen Cashman and Sean Turner were the listing agents; when reached, Turner declined to discuss any deals made there.

Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" has taken him downtown to 211 Elizabeth Street in Nolita, where he just bought a $3.3 million apartment. For a superstar like Joel, the two-bedroom, 1,607-square-foot condo is a pretty modest purchase, and it looks like the musician is buying it for his daughter, Alexa Ray Joel. She was spotted moving out of her West Village digs in January.

We hope this means that things are looking up for Alexa Ray, a talented singer/songwriter herself, who has said that she wants to help girls combat "heartbreak-related depression," something she's experienced. She was hospitalized after downing a handful of pills in December 2009. Sources close to her said she was troubled after breaking up with musician boyfriend Jimmy Riot. But her life seems to have improved since: She will be featured in Prell shampoo ads like her mom, Christie Brinkley, did almost 25 years ago.

There are still three units on the market, priced between $2.35 million and $2.45 million, at 211 Elizabeth Street. The 15-unit new development was created by design firm Roman & Williams.

The decision for Paul McCartney to play "Let It Be" as the final song at Shea Stadium came from a last-minute conversation backstage with Billy Joel while fans were still screaming after Joel delivered "Piano Man."

That's just one of the many behind-the-scenes revelations from "Last Play at Shea," the documentary chronicling the life of Shea Stadium and Billy Joel's final concerts there in 2008. The film is set to make its world premiere Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

"It was poetic," Joel said of the decision, adding that having McCartney bookend the musical history of the stadium was "the perfect ending" for Shea.

"It was really this thing coming full circle," McCartney added.

Though the 90-minute film, directed by Paul Crowder for Maritime Films, focuses on Joel's historic concerts at Shea and uses his music to tell the stories of the stadium, "The Last Play at Shea" is more about the history of the place and its impact on the area and those who called it home. "It's a dump," said Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry, "but it's our dump."

Using historical footage and animation, the documentary puts Shea into the broader context of the rise of the suburbs and how Long Island, in general, and Joel, specifically, reflected that shift in American life. That backdrop is designed to give lifelong fans of the Mets and Joel a new way of looking at the events that have already been woven into the fabric of their lives.

Of course, what lifelong fan of the Mets wouldn't want to relive the triumphant '69 World Series and the miraculous Game Six of the '86 Series on the big screen?

Joel tries to put his own miraculous climb from The Hassles to playing Shea with his idol McCartney into context, as well. "I'm a kid from Levittown," Joel said. "I don't even look like a rock star...I don't believe this is going on."

Other revelations:

Sting decided to go solo from The Police while they performed at Shea in '83 because playing there was "Everest."

Billy Joel's longtime drummer has settled a lawsuit accusing his former boss of depriving him of royalties from many of his biggest albums, the singer's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Liberty DeVitto was Joel's principal drummer from 1975 to 2005, performing on such albums as "The Stranger," "52nd Street," "Glass Houses" and "Storm Front," as well as in Joel's touring band.

In his May 2009 lawsuit, DeVitto alleged that Joel breached agreements to pay him unspecified royalties based on sales of 11 albums that were recorded between 1975 and 1990, and which collectively sold more than 100 million units worldwide.

Joel's recording company, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., was also named as a defendant.

What do the Mets and Billy Joel have in common, other than a propensity for sudden crashes? More than you'd think, according to a documentary premiering tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Alexa Ray Joel is turning over a new leaf. Hospitalized after taking Traumeel, a homeopathic medication, in December, Alexa Ray tells People she's feeling much better - inside and out. The 24 year-old singer underwent rhinoplasty earlier this month, and says she's overjoyed by the results. "I was thinking about getting this for years," says Joel. Her nose, she adds, "always bothered me a little bit. I was self-conscious of pictures taken from the side. To some people that's vain, but at the end of the day, we all want to feel pretty." But the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley says she's done with plastic surgery. Says Joel, "Would I do anything else to my body? No. It's not ten procedures like Heidi Montag. For me, that's a little extreme, but to each her own." As for the timing of the surgery - just four months after her overdose scare following a break-up - Joel says this was the right time for her. "Would it have been smart to get this procedure last year?" she asks. "No. I didn't know who I was." And now? "I feel really good."

Last night (Sunday, April 25th, 2010), I went to see the world premiere of "The Last Play at Shea" at the Tribeca Film Festival. I don't normally like to write a review of a film until I have seen it more than once, taking notes on it the second and third time. I'm breaking from my own tradition here because I want to get the word out about this film. It's extraordinary.

Billy Joel's hit "She's Always A Woman" could return to the charts after 33 years following its appearance in a television advertisement for British Retailer, John Lewis.

A version of the song by Fyfe Dangerfield, lead singer of cult band The Guillemots, is to be made available from iTunes after it was used in the £6 Million campaign to promote the store's "Never Knowingly Undersold" customer service promise.

The commercial was viewed 130,000 times in six days on YouTube.com, taking both the 29 year-old singer and the retail giant by surprise.

A spokeswoman for Birmingham-born Mr. Dangerfield said the number of requests for the track had been "phenomenal" and that managers had taken the decision to make it available for download through iTunes from Tuesday, May 4th, 2010.

She added: "It is being rush released on iTunes because of the demand and is being picked up on a daily basis by radio stations around the UK."

The 90-second advertisement, created by agency Adam & Eve, shows a woman going through stages of her life with John Lewis products.

Craig Inglis, director of marketing at John Lewis, said: "Whilst we expected the advertisement to have impact, we've been overwhelmed by the volume of responses and how deeply it has affected people. We have received numerous letters and emails."

The song is featured on Billy Joel's 1977 album, "The Stranger."

The advertisement also includes two members of John Lewis' staff, delivery drivers Brian Rees and Noel Breen, who are seen delivering a sofa to the main female character when she moves into her first home.

Billy Joel may look like a mob lawyer these days, but his voice still rings and his backside rarely touches the piano bench during "Last Play at Shea," a feel-good account of Joel's two-night stand at that bygone home of New York sports heroics. Chronicling the histories of Joel, the Mets and Shea Stadium itself, helmer Paul Crowder jams the proverbial 90 pounds of film into a five-pound bag, giving it as many structural infirmities as the old ballpark. Still, the film's sentiments are so warm, no one will care; its music and feeling should lend it wide appeal, probably via cable.

Joel occupies an almost singular position among popular songwriters of the last half-century; Paul Simon is probably his closest American counterpart, and Simon wouldn't have been the man for Shea Stadium. No, you needed a Lawn Guyland guy (though Queens, where Simon hails from, is officially on Long Island), which made Joel the natural choice for those last concerts in the park on July 16th, 2008 and July 18th, 2008. (The Mets would play their last home game that September.)

It wasn't just about geography, however: Overwrought, theatrical and stadium-friendly, Joel's songs provided just the right sloppily emotional goodbye that made for tears and smiling among the Nassau-Suffolk audience, many of whom can be seen, children in tow, waving their longneck Budweisers at the stage while being serenaded with "Captain Jack," "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" or "New York State of Mind." It was the perfect music for the end of an era, even if an entire song isn't quite heard throughout the film.

But Crowder has a lot on his plate. "The Last Play at Shea" isn't just about Joel, but also Shea, and it provides an evolutionary recap of how baseball-deprived Queens was ripe for the Mets when the then-hapless, 2 year-old team limped into the new stadium in 1964.

Taking us back to Gotham "master builder" Robert Moses and his creation of the modern suburb (without noting anything about Moses the neighborhood destroyer), Crowder lays out the subsequent development of Long Island as a blue-collar bastion; Joel's place in it; his history as an artist; and the way the stadium etched itself in the pop-cultural imagination, mostly through some terrific footage of The Beatles' legendary 1965 concert at Shea, with commentary by Paul McCartney (who recalls once again that the band couldn't hear anything but the screaming). Complicated as the movie's structure is, somehow, it works.

Joel, clearly not afraid to sweat in public, hosted a number of colleagues onstage during the two nights rendered here, including some who'd actually played there in the past, such as Roger Daltrey of The Who, and some who just fit, like Tony Bennett - who, it must be said, upstages Joel grandly on "New York State of Mind."

But Joel loves it, and comes across throughout as a supremely down-to-earth, gimlet-eyed, charismatic everyman, even when the film addresses his personal foibles; at one point, ex-wife Christine Brinkley recalls, among other things, how Joel was massively swindled by an ex-manager he had refused to fire. (In one truly hilarious sequence, ex-CBS Record topper Walter Yetnikoff recalls how he retrieved Joel's early copyrights from an unscrupulous ex-manager; it's like something out of "The Godfather.") But the film's portrait of Joel is one of enormous sincerity and genuine amazement at his good fortune in having the opportunity to perform the last shows at Shea Stadium (before a two-night crowd of 110,000).

From the shooting to the soundtrack, production values are extraordinary.

Billy Joel has himself a new pop hit on the British charts, a success that was completely unplanned.

New York's Long Island is usually visited for Brooklyn and Queens (at its western tip) or the fancy beach resorts at the Hamptons (out east). But what about the middle, in those neither-here-nor-there towns off the Long Island Expressway? The best way to find out what's there is using the area's best guidebook: the songs of Billy Joel.

Recently I staged a "Billy Joel Roadtrip" contest and Sherry Wasserman, Andrew Hickey ("The Brooklyn Nomad") and Matt Watt joined me to dig up a few Billy sites worth steering to. Here's a handful of the stand-outs:

Christiano's, Syosset

Without a doubt, the top "Joelky" attraction in these parts - and a suitable stop-off for a bite if you're driving between Manhatttan and the Hamptons - is this little Italian restaurant that claims to be the restaurant from Billy Joel's 1977 saga classic, "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant." It's been around for decades - and now under new ownership from Joel's former sprinkler-installer Michael Elardo. It's quite a scene inside, with karaoke, a "Wall of Joel" including a local article, and bottles of red and white lining the walls of the restaurant.

But is it really the one? David Fricke, in the liner notes of the 30th Anniversary Edition of "The Stranger," says Billy Joel claims it's actually the now-closed Fontana di Trevi in Manhattan. I'm not sure. On the second CD of the same album, recorded in June 1977 at Carnegie Hall (near that restaurant's former site), Billy Joel himself dedicates the song to Christiano's! Who knows? Who cares? But if you stop off, you'll never hear that song the same way again.

20 Meeting Lane, Hicksville

Practically lost in the back lanes between Hicksville High (where Billy finally got his diploma in 1992) and Holy Trinity (the Catholic school that likely inspired "Only The Good Die Young"), an impressionable Billy Joel grew up in this house, learned to play piano, watched The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and rehearsed for a gig at the 1964 World's Fair. If you stop to take a photo, look across the street - his former neighbor Bob Hess is probably on his way out to photograph you. He's a nice guy. He pointed out the house used to be red. I asked if many visitors come by. "Here? No, very, very few."

West Village Green, Hicksville

Brenda & Eddie, those enduring characters of Billy Joel's "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," strut these grounds as the "king and queen of the prom," then tried to return after their divorce and life's realities set in. But, as Billy Joel sings, "you can never go back there again." He's right. (Particularly since it's now called "Neighborhood Park").

Backed to the green, the Shoppe (4 West Village Green) - previously known as "Curiosity Shoppe" - is a place Billy used to drink at early on in his career. "Johnny A" is renovating it - the new version (with Billy Joel's fake "first piano") should open in June 2010. I will go back there again.

Nunley's Carousel, Garden City

Billy Joel rode this 1912 carousel as a tot, and chipped in money (and a song) for its restoration. After several years of silence, it reopened to the public in 2009 in its new location at the historic Mitchell Field of the so-called "Cradle of Aviation." It’s $2 a ride. But note this, Billy Joel's horse "Penny" doesn't go up/down. One staffer guessed, "maybe Billy Joel was scared of it moving when he was little."

"Miracle Mile," Manhasset

Billy pokes fun at posturing by asking, in his 1980 song "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," "should I cruise the Miracle Mile?" It's actually Northern Boulevard in Manhasset, north of the Long Island Expressway - lined with high-end boutiques. One local told me, "It always was a shopping area, but it's much more uppity now than it used to be."

Cold Spring Harbor

Before "The Boss" touted uncool New Jersey - with his 1973 debut "Asbury Park" - Billy Joel already was giving nods to Long Island. The cover of his 1971 debut, "Cold Spring Harbor," was shot on the now demolished Eagle Dock overlooking the pretty bay. If you want to pick up the CD locally, SoundTraks is the closest option - a few miles east in Huntington Village (ask Anthony to sign your copy as he did for me). As far as Billy Joel spotting around here, Anthony suggested, "if you see a dumpy, old, bald guy, drunk as hell, getting into a fancy car…it's probably him."

Actually Billy Joel's home is on nearby Centre Island, a gated community north of Oyster Bay, where he onced dredged for oysters as a lad. And he's trying to sell his place. Anyone have $50 million to spare?

Billy Joel was a lifesaver for his model ex-wife Christie Brinkley when she was going through her divorce from Peter Cook - he often babysat the couple's kids.

Joel and Brinkley remained close friends after their divorce in 1994 and she admits she would have been lost without her ex, who is godfather to her two kids by Cook.

She tells the new issue of Ladies Home Journal, "Billy's great. He's godfather to Jack and Sailor, and you know there have been times when I have had to spend time with lawyers or whatever and he's babysat.

Billy Joel docked his 36-foot fishing boat, "Alexa," at Huntington Harbor's Prime restaurant for lunch with the vessel's namesake, daughter Alexa Ray Joel and his pet pug, "Sabrina"...

The 61 year-old singer/pop-star has had a hugely successful career spanning almost 40 years, but still has trouble accepting his fame. He came from a humble family background, and says the lavish life he now lives makes him feel like an imposter.

Billy Joel attributes Phil Ramone as integral to his success, so it seems fitting he would induct the legendary producer into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York.

Joel says Ramone guided him on a lot of songs that may not have been hits. He says he takes Ramone's advice because he knows what he's talking about.

Ramone was honored Thursday night with the Hitmaker Award, tailored for those responsible for a number of hit songs over an extended period.

Ramone says he's always been fascinated by Joel.

Their relationship began with Joel's 1977 breakout album, "The Stranger."

There's a new blonde on the back of Billy's bike.

Billy Joel and a woman he called "my girlfriend" arrive at his Sag Harbor home Saturday in a scene similar to he one he shot 27 years ago - with ex-wife Christie Brinkley - for the video of "Uptown Girl."

Yesterday, as Joel loaded his Triumph bike onto his boat, he told a photographer his "girlfriend" was surprised by the attention.

He did not identify the new love in his life.

It looked like a scene right out of the 1950s at Billy Joel's oceanfront home in the Hamptons this weekend. His estate was home to the Cinema Society/Dior Beauty and Moet's outdoor screening of "Grease Sing-A-Long." Guests got decked out in poodle skirts, leather jackets and rolled-up jeans for the occasion. Among them were John Leguizamo, Donna Karan, Gayle King, Pete Yorn, Nacho and Delfina Figueras and Dylan Lauren, who was said to have some of the best moves of those who danced along to the show's final two songs.

Billy Joel ex-wives Christie Brinkley and Katie Lee nearly bumped into each other at the after-party for the Cinema Society screening of "Dinner For Schmucks" Saturday night - but, despite being within a few feet of each other, the atmosphere couldn't have been more relaxed. The two beauties turned heads at the party at an East Hampton beachfront mansion, also attended by Katie Couric, Donna Karan, and Charlotte Ronson and one of the movie's stars, Paul Rudd, who stuck close to his wife as he got admiring glances from many women. But it was Christie who made the most dramatic exit. After losing her valet ticket for her silver Mercedes-Benz, and being asked to describe it, she said: "I'm the one with the rack," prompting giggles from her and other guests waiting for their cars.

Billy Joel plans to premiere his documentary "Billy Joel: The Last Play at Shea," which chronicles the final concerts at Shea Stadium, at Citi Field on August 21st, 2010.

When it came time to document his historic "The Last Play at Shea" concerts in 2008, Billy Joel was thinking about "Jaws."

Tune in to the "New York Nightly News" with Chuck Scarborough this Wednesday night as the legendary Billy Joel stops by the studio to discuss the upcoming premiere of the concert movie documenting his historic final performance at Shea Stadium.

After the interview, pick up your phone and call in to test your "Piano Man" knowledge with an interactive trivia game and win tickets to see the premiere of Billy Joel's "The Last Play at Shea."

Twenty-five winners will score tickets for themselves and nine guests at the historic premiere of the movie at Citi Field. After the in-depth interview, a total of 250 tickets will be given away to the premiere, which will be screened at Citi Field on Saturday, August 21st, 2010.

Viewers can enter to win 10 tickets by playing a MegaPhone Billy Joel trivia game this Wednesday night, August 18th, 2010, at 7:00pm (find New York Nonstop on your cable system.) A phone number will be displayed on the screen and viewers can call in to enter the game. When questions appear on the screen, viewers should push the number of the corresponding answer on their phones. The quicker the response, the more points are earned.

The 25 people who demonstrate the best Billy Joel knowledge in the trivia game will each win 10 tickets.

The movie debuted last spring at the Tribeca Film Festival and The New York Observer described it as "part music documentary, part concert film, and part sports documentary...the film is a beautiful love letter to the musician that brought us 'Piano Man' and the building that Mets fans affectionately call 'a dump.'"

Alec Baldwin is to interview his fellow Long Island, NY, native Billy Joel during a program at the Hamptons International Film Festival, organizers said.

The actor and the rocker are to conclude the festival's "SummerDocs" series with a screening of Billy Joel's "The Last Play at Shea" September 4th, 2010, followed by a question/answer session at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

Since documentaries don't usually debut in baseball stadiums, no one is exactly sure what will happen when Billy Joel's "The Last Play at Shea" premieres at Citi Field on Saturday night. Not even Billy Joel.

Hot dogs were eaten, beers were downed and fans filled the seats behind home plate, but Citi Field last night looked more like a movie theater than a baseball stadium when it hosted the official premiere of the documentary "Last Play at Shea."

"It is a little odd," said Noreen LoStrappo, 47, sitting with friends at a table that offered a good view of the Jumbotrons that would show the film above an empty ballfield. "But it's a nice night, and we thought it would be fun."

About 30,000 people attended last night's unusual screening of the film, which tells the history of Shea Stadium, the Mets, and their impact on New York City. Produced in part by Billy Joel , the movie features music and footage from his concerts in July 2008, the last the venue ever saw.

Demolition of Shea Stadium wrapped up in February 2009, and its replacement, Citi Field, opened soon after.

Though Billy Joel was in attendance last night, clips of him speaking at a news conference earlier that day served as his introduction to the film.

"This is one of those amazing events," he said. "My life just keeps getting more amazing."

The documentary, which began around 8:30pm, seemed well-suited to the venue. Fans stood during footage of Billy Joel's rendition of the national anthem and cheered for on-screen Mets figures like Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. Mentions of the Mets' early record of failures, and of their notoriously run-down venue, drew affectionate laughter.

Shea Stadium's part in musical history, as the site of The Beatles' galvanizing 1965 concert, also figured in the film. For the British, "Shea Stadium was never this baseball legend at all," Sting said. "It was where The Beatles played."

Many of the loudest cheers came during the film's moments of local boosterism, as when Billy Joel recalled his childhood in the Levittown-Hicksville area and sang his hit "New York State of Mind" accompanied by Queens native Tony Bennett.

The film scored an emotional home run when it briefly touched on New York's dark and economically depressed 1970s, a decade when Billy Joel was busy taking the Los Angeles-based music industry by storm. After reading enough headlines, Billy Joel recalled, "If the city's going down the tubes, I'm going with it. I'm moving back."

Last night, I attended what may have been the largest movie premiere in history, a showing at Citi Field, of "The Last Play at Shea" (produced by Steve Cohen and Nigel Sinclair, in conjunction with Billy Joel's Maritime Pictures and Spitfire Films, directed by Paul Crowder). As I wrote after I saw the film at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2010, this is a wonderful film. It brings together the stories of Billy Joel, The Beatles, New York, Shea Stadium, and the Mets, combining them into a perfectly-paced narrative with tremendous emotional power. It is inspired myth-making. And unlike a lot of myth-making, it is convincing. In the stories of Joel, McCartney, Shea Stadium, the Mets, Pete Flynn, and the people of New York, the filmmakers find a pattern. It's not as if all these things are connected. But they are alike. They illustrate the narrative of New York that cannot be told by the Yankees or Wall Street. This is the narrative of the downtrodden, the dumpy, and the unlikely. This is about the magic of the unanticipated: the magic of a lounge singer in a dive becoming a superstar, a ball finding its way through a first baseman's legs, a dumpy stadium becoming a circle of glory loved around the world. What makes the film richer than most stories about the triumph of the downtrodden is that it does not try to suggest that miracles often happen, and it doesn't try to suggest that occasional miracles are enough. The Mets still lose the last game at Shea, Billy Joel has not had the easiest life, life-long marriages end, disaster still strikes. But sometimes people can gather together in a big crowd and see a concert by artists they love, or see a game played by a team they love, and for a few moments life feels like a magic carpet ride shared with tens of thousands of sudden friends. Life is what it is. But music and games can make it into something more. Films about sports are usually so boring. Films about music are usually only worth listening to. This film feels as if it is about life. One of the people I saw it with has no interest in baseball, limited interest in Billy Joel, and no connection to New York. Yet he "got" the film and was very moved by it. Anybody would be. This film deserves to be opening soon at your local multiplex, where it would give the filmed video games and the formulaic comedies a run for their money.

It is a very strange thing to sit in a crowd of 20,000 and do something that no crowd of 20,000 has ever done before. We were watching a movie. Or were we? The unprecedented nature of our experience was evident from the very beginning. At the opening of the film, Billy Joel comes out to his piano at Shea Stadium and to begin his concert, he leads the crowd in the singing of the National Anthem, just as a crowd would do at the start of a baseball game. OK, what are we supposed to do? Are we a crowd at a movie? If you're watching a movie in which somebody leads a crowd in the singing of the National Anthem, you're not supposed to stand up and sing, are you? That's what's happening on the screen. We're spectators. We're not supposed to participate. And yet even if we're watching a movie, we're sitting here in a baseball stadium, where the entertainment always starts with the singing of the National Anthem. Some people stood up, sat down, stood up again, as most of us looked confused. Finally, we all got up and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" just like the crowd we were watching on the screen. It felt as if we became the crowd on the screen, and that feeling, it seemed to me, lasted all through the film.

We were several crowds, all of them different, and all of them connected. And although we were perfectly orderly, we didn't behave like a crowd watching a movie. We were the concert crowd, cheering Tony Bennett as he hit a high, sustained note at the end of "New York State of Mind," cheering the opening piano chords of every Billy Joel song, singing along with "I Saw Her Standing There," "Piano Man," and "Let It Be." We became the crowds that cheered the hopeful leap of the 1962 Mets, the impossible championship of the 1969 Mets, the ball going through Bill Buckner's legs, and the Mike Piazza homerun of September 21st, 2001. The black cat and The Beatles seemed to run out onto grass right in front of us, even though we knew that they actually ran out onto the grass that was now buried forever under asphalt just a few feet from us. We wept as the Mets lost the last game at Shea Stadium, and you heard a collective mournful grunt when the old scoreboard fell down on its face. When we weren't blending into these historic crowds, we were ourselves in real time, watching a film. We cheered Billy Joel when he described his decision to move back to New York at a time when no one else loved it or believed in it. We laughed when he described himself as "impossibly not good looking." We nodded our heads with understanding as he tried to define the "element of spirituality" that tied everything in this film together.

It was a hit. I heard people talking and everyone was blown away. No one complained that there wasn't enough concert footage. No one complained about anything. There may have been a little disappointment that Billy Joel did not come out at the end to lead us in a song. But hey, why should we expect that? We had seen something real, in the way that art can sometimes be more real than anything else. We saw a great film that moved us to our bones and how often do you see something like that? Almost never. And we saw it with 20,000 other people in a baseball stadium. How often do you do that? You never do that. We did that.

Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris dueted to Billy Joel's "Piano Man" on "Glee" last season, and Billy Joel told Access Hollywood's Shaun Robinson that more of his illustrious catalogue might make it to McKinley High.

"Have you ever seen 'Glee'?" Shaun asked.

"Yeah," Billy Joel confirmed.

"Would you sign-off on a 'Glee' episode of Billy Joel?" she continued.

"I already have," Billy Joel confirmed, breaking news about the hit FOX show.

A nonchalant Billy Joel told Shaun that it's not a question of if the McKinley High halls will echo in his "New York State of Mind," but when.

"So, have they started the process?" Shaun asked.

"I have no idea. All I know is I said, 'Yeah! Go ahead. Use my stuff,'" Billy revealed. "I was in a chorus when I was in high school, why not?"

The "Piano Man" performance on "Glee" garnered Neil an Emmy, but don't expect Billy Joel to "Gleek" out in person, like Britney Spears does in the upcoming episode featuring her music.

"If they asked you to make a guest appearance on the show, would you?" Shaun asked.

"No," Billy Joel said definitively. "I'm just not a big TV actor type of guy, I'm a piano player."

Billy Joel's unquestionable talent resonates through the big screen in his upcoming documentary, “Last Play At Shea,” which includes his 2008 closing concert before the stadium was torn down.

Shea Stadium's first concert was The Beatles in 1965, and for Billy Joel's final number, Paul McCartney made a surprise appearance - however, it was one that almost never happened.

"I didn't find out he was actually going to come until the very last song, that we were doing that night," Billy Joel said of Paul McCartney's appearance. "All of a sudden, one of my road crew comes on the stage and whispers in my ear, 'The eagle has landed!'"

It took Paul McCartney 11 minutes to make it from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Shea Stadium.

"A lot of people were involved," Billy Joel explained. "The Secret Service, the New York Police Department, the emergency service people, I mean a ton of people wanted to make this happen.