Not being the reporter who covers the music scene with any regularity, I don't get choice seats to top concerts. But as luck would have it, my wife Carol and I, our daughter, Becky and son-in-law, Mike, got the best seats in the house for last month's Billy Joel show at the Wachovia Center.

Second row from the stage, close enough to exchange smiles with saxophonist Mark Rivera. Close enough to shake hands with Billy at the end of the two-plus hour show.

And we have Billy to thank for our good fortune.

Our adventure began with four first-row tickets purchased by Becky and Mike as Chanukah presents for us. First row was a relative term, as the row was in the upper deck toward the rear of the arena, the best available at the time.

We arrived early, a rarity for me. After enjoying a Billy Joel tribute band at the Cingular Pavilion, we headed to our seats almost half an hour before the 8:00pm showtime. A few minutes later, Becky departed for a trip to the restroom, but she didn't go very far. She ran back all smiles, saying we were getting new seats. Behind her stood a congenial man wearing what looked like legitimate credentials as part of Billy's entourage.

We turned in our tickets - to be put back on sale to the public - and received four new ones for floor seats in front of the stage. We trotted down a stairwell to the first floor and made our way toward the appointed seats, still not convinced this was for real.

Billy Joel is not the only Joel playing Philly this month. His daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, who sings and plays piano, will be at Old City's Tin Angel on March 21st, 2006 - one night after his show at the Wachovia Center.

And you know how when an entertainer takes the stage, there may be someone pining backstage? Maybe panting a little? In Joel's case Tuesday night, it was his black pug, Fionoula. (Sabrina, his tan pug, was home.)

It must be the seven-year-itch.

That's how long it's been since Billy Joel hit the road solo, and he breaks his stretch with the first of four sold-out shows at the Hartford Civic Center on Friday. He returns to the Civic Center on March 23rd, 2006, March 28th, 2006, and April 2nd, 2006.

Since his last solo outing in 1999, Joel has appeared only on double bills with Elton John. Now, Joel is celebrating the release of "My Lives," a five-disc boxed set chronicling his musical evolution from his early days in Long Island bar bands to his classical compositions, as well as every pop hit in between.

Joel's Hartford shows will likely mirror the make-up of his latest compact disc. During a recent Philadelphia show, Joel visited every period in his career in a 29-song set. The song selections ranged from the obscure - such as "Everybody Loves You Now" and "All For Leyna" - to rarely performed compositions, including "You're My Home," and "The Entertainer." The Philly concert appealed to longtime fans, as the 56 year-old Joel swapped hits for lesser-known tunes.

Joel's career spans decades, with 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since he signed his first solo recording contract in 1972. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, received a Grammy Legend Award, has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, "Movin' Out," based on his music. He has sold more than 100 million records in the past quarter century and is one of the most popular recording artists and performers in the world.

In recent years, Joel has battled a few personal demons, with a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse. Apparently, he is coping with his addiction with a little humor. At that recent Philly show, Joel changed the lyric in "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" to reflect his newfound lifestyle: "Bottle of red, bottle of white - I won't be having either one tonight."

Someday, scientists decoding human DNA are going to find the Billy Joel strand.

You know it's there. It has to be. His songs are so culturally prominent, so catchy and singable, that it doesn't seem at all far-fetched that they would have altered our genetic makeup so that every person in this country knows all the words to at least two of his songs. OK, maybe that's a little far-fetched.

But still, even the relatively obscure songs seemed familiar when Joel performed the first of four shows Friday at the Hartford Civic Center. The lesser-known numbers, such as "Zanzibar" and "Everybody Loves You Now," were naturally crowded out by the hits during his 28-song, 2½ hour show, but at least a handful of people in the capacity crowd were standing and swaying or singing along during every single number.

It's no surprise that Joel knows how to pace a show: You start slow and build. Even so, the sheer number of well-known songs he was able to backload into his set list was staggering. "Sometimes A Fantasy" led into "Pressure," which gave way to "Goodnight Saigon" (complete with helicopter sound effects and rotor-mimicking strobe lights). Next it was "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," then "She's Always A Woman," followed by "Keeping The Faith." There aren't many artists who can reel off hits that way, and even fewer who can perform them with the energy and enthusiasm of a rock and roll convert so many years after they converted.

Joel played piano to start, jabbing rapid-fire at the keys as he and his band opened the show with "Prelude/Angry Young Man." Later, he switched to electric guitar for a few songs, including "A Matter of Trust," a frenetic version of "We Didn't Start The Fire" and what he described as a "religious song" - a cover of AC/DC's "Highway To Hell," sung by a roadie named Chainsaw. Really.

His '70s songs worked best live - they've held up better than some of his later material. But he made sure to include a variety of songs from across his career, including a stirring version of the blue-collar sea ballad "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" and the slightly acerbic "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me." Joel also displayed a sense of humor, especially about his well-documented difficulty driving cars of late. After thanking fans early on for paying to see him, he quipped, "I need the money. You wouldn't believe how much I pay for car insurance."

Joel played 25 songs during the regular set, and then returned for a three-song encore: the rocker "Only The Good Die Young," his slice-of-life operetta "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" and, of course, "Piano Man."

Billy Joel has been more of a punch line than a pop star in recent years, getting his name in late-night monologues by driving a car into a wall in 2002 and a tree in 2003 and an old lady's house in 2004. Joel, 56, also occasionally checks himself into rehab, and his latest wife is a lot younger than many of the songs he performed at Verizon Center on Thursday.

But even as he's become a terror in the Hamptons, Joel remains a joy on the stage. He made light of his driving and drinking foibles often in the nearly 2 ½-hour retrospective show. From behind his grand piano, he thanked the folks "up in the nosebleeds" for buying tickets. "I really do need the money," he said. "You wouldn't believe my car insurance."

And he transformed his romantic song "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" into a confession of temperance: "Bottle of red, bottle of white" he crooned, "I won't be having either one tonight."

The audience guzzled every nostalgic note Joel served. The show, with a set-list heavy with his oldest singles and deep album cuts (including "New York State of Mind" and "Everybody Loves You Now"), was designed more for his hard-core fans than were previous tours. Nothing was more quaint than Joel's "Captain Jack," an anti-slacker tune from 1973 that finds him mocking casual drug use and generally railing against so much of what '60s rock stood for. "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," from 1980, meanwhile, was Joel's plea for fans not to abandon him while he rode out the new wave era. The fervor with which crowds still respond to that song indicates that his request was granted.

On the whole, the guy who dubbed himself "Billy The Kid" at the start of his career in the early '70s was revealed as a bridge between two other Killer Bs who debuted in the same decade - Barry Manilow and Bruce Springsteen. For all the tuff-rocker poses Joel struck back in the day, it's obvious that he, like Manilow, always had a lot of show tune in him. "She's Always A Woman" and "My Life," which Joel performed with a smile, packed as much schmaltz as any Manilow jingle, while 1978's "Zanzibar," with its be-boppy bridge, echoed "Copacabana." Small wonder Joel's songbook has already been turned into a successful Broadway musical ("Movin' Out," choreographed by Twyla Tharp).

Springsteen, by writing tunes such as "Factory" and "Promised Land," already had the blue-collar rockers in the pocket of his denim jacket by the time Joel went for the same demographic by penning "Allentown." Yet, Joel's song about a laid-off plant worker has aged best, thanks to a hook that combines melody and depression with Brian Wilson-like brilliance: "I won't be getting up today-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay," Joel sang with a smile, as the crowd sang and smiled along.

Two years before Springsteen's "Born In The USA" came out, Joel played on the nation's Vietnam War veteran sympathies with his fabulous "Goodnight Saigon." A group of US military veterans, some with obvious wounds and far too young to have suffered them in Vietnam, stood arm in arm at the back of the stage and swayed while Joel reprised the war chronicle.

If there is such a thing as the perfect pop concert, Billy Joel has mastered it.

The pacing, the personality, the production and, most importantly, the immense, meaty song catalog are products of his veteran status.

But his giddy grins and loose playing Thursday night pointed to something rarer - his ability, 30-plus years into a stormy career, to still enjoy himself.

Take it as a lesson, kids, because there aren't too many bona fide tunesmiths of Joel's stature left - and surely no obvious ones following his trail.

On this brief solo outing, his first since 1998, Joel has rewarded the most dedicated fans - the ones who gag at the first pecked note of "Just The Way You Are" - with some little-played gems.

Tucked among a crisp "My Life" and wistful "New York State of Mind" were "Everybody Loves You Now," a snarky nonhit from his first album, and its cynical sister, "The Entertainer."

Forget, for a minute, that the latter two sounded record-perfect, with Joel's voice soaring cleanly through the Verizon Center - and this isn't a guy who normally soars.

Consider, instead, that those songs were written in 1971 and 1974, respectively, when Joel was in his 20s.

Who among today's forgettable mall rats with guitars has offered the searing insight of Joel's "The Entertainer," a guy who realized before he tasted his first royalty check that "Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts. But I know the game, you'll forget my name, and I won't be here in another year if I don't stay on the charts?"

No need to answer, because there isn't one.

But the beauty of Joel's melody-driven compositions, richly flaunted by his five-piece band and three-piece horn section, is that they speak to blue collars and sophisticates alike.

From "Allentown," with its gritty "boom-cha" background vocals, to a jaunty, flamenco-dusted "Don't Ask Me Why," the 20,000 fans who packed the Verizon Center sang along mightily, the blue jeans next to pantsuits, the hair-sprayed hairdos next to backward baseball caps.

As impressive as Joel himself was, rattling off the frenzied keyboard notes of "Pressure" as frantically spinning white lights upped the tension, and even hitting those doo-wop high notes in "An Innocent Man," his fantastic band cannot be ignored.

Though this is Joel's first tour since 1974 without drummer Liberty DeVitto (the two had a bitter falling-out a couple of years ago), his longtime players Mark Rivera (sax, guitar, some percussion) and Crystal Taliefero (percussion, sax) and the back-from-the-old-days Richie Cannata (sax) smoked for 2½-hours, even making the career misstep "Keeping The Faith" tolerable.

But Joel, recently sober and remarried, was an unflagging presence onstage, kicking over his stool and sliding his rear along the keys at the end of his most intuitive pop stunner, "I Go To Extremes," and shuffle-running along a back ramp to show the behind-the-stagers some love.

At 56, he isn't popping handstands off his piano anymore, but he still shadowboxed with his microphone stand and whirled it in the air during a nonstop blitz of "Big Shot," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" and "You May Be Right."

His prickly sense of humor (with self-deprecating tendencies) also hasn't wavered. After thanking the audience for coming, he joked: "I really need the money. You wouldn't believe my car insurance," a jab at his unfortunate driving experiences.

And even the classic "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" was tailored to his recent ordeals. "A bottle of red, a bottle of white. I won't be having either one tonight" went the humorously recast lyric.

Usually, the pinnacle of a Joel concert is the closing singalong of "Piano Man." But on this night, it was "Goodnight Saigon" that provided the chills.

An already sad, serious song was injected with indescribable poignancy when a row of soldiers and Army veterans lined the back of the stage to sing the "we will all go down together" refrain. If your eyes were dry, your soul was obviously otherwise occupied.

Moments such as that are a reminder of Joel's relevance. He hasn't written any new pop music since 1993, yet his music is as crucial as ever.

He promised to vary his performance, playing not only his hits, but other tunes from his vast catalog. Yet in the end, Billy Joel offered a false bill of goods to those on hand for his Thursday performance at the Verizon Center.

Right from the start, the "Piano Man" appeared to forget his vow, serving up a panorama of his well-worn top 40 tunes rather than those that are lesser-known.

Still, the sold-out crowd was forgiving. And who could blame them? Mr. Joel's songbook teems with songs spun from the native New Yorker's mercurial state of mind. Alternately angry, cynical, romantic and chipper, his artistic persona spanned his three decades as a pop star even as he refused to embrace passing fads.

The 56 year-old - touring in support of "My Lives," his four-CD/one-DVD retrospective boxed set - kicked off the show with "Prelude/Angry Young Man," an early effort representative of the overly theatrical rock that characterized the 1970s. Its signature piano riff and delirious rush of keys were perfect. The acoustic touch, in fact, would have served him better than the swarm of horn players, percussionists and guitarists backing him on nearly every number. They played with admirable precision, but their mass and volume often dwarfed the material.

Mr. Joel performed his "New York State of Mind," which took on added poignancy after September 11th, 2001. Here, though, the song morphed into an arena-size ballad, a trait Mr. Joel's work took on throughout much of the evening.

He belted out nearly all the expected numbers, including "The Entertainer," a perfect choice since he proved to be a ham at Thursday's concert. He mugged and struck gangsta-like poses (bad ones, at that). He was at his best when showcasing the early part of his career, a period that produced such gems as "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Big Shot," and "Only The Good Die Young." However, he abandoned the tried-and-true for more ambitious experimentations with tribal beats and doo-wop throwbacks. On the plus side, his "Everybody Loves You Now" (from 1971) fit nicely alongside the established crowd pleasers and gave the night a rare jolt of unpredictability.

Another pleasant moment came when a tattooed roadie named Chainsaw came out to perform AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" with surprising fidelity. Mr. Joel strummed an acoustic guitar in the background. Afterward, the star performed "We Didn't Start The Fire" - a sad reminder of why some songs should be left in their respective time capsules and never removed.

Mr. Joel was hardly stationary during the night, bouncing back and forth among three pianos while drawing from his extensive catalogue. He's still a force to be reckoned with, and though he has chosen to tour without new material, he's a far cry from the standard oldies act.

Singer Billy Joel has rubbished reports that a dancer from his American musical "Movin' Out" was fired because her breasts grew too large. Alice Alyse has launched a $100 million lawsuit claiming she was sacked from the show last month because her breasts became too big for her costume. The "Piano Man" star, whose music is featured in show, has weighed in on the allegations, even though he is not named in the lawsuit. Joel tells the New York Daily News, "Under no circumstances would I ever have fired anyone for having breasts that were too large..."

Billy Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray, has decided to enter the family business.

The 20 year-old has put her studies at New York University on hold to embark on a career as a singer-songwriter. Monday, Joel brings her nascent musical offerings and a three-piece band to Great Scott.

Joel - whose name was immortalized in her dad's ballad "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" - has yet to release a recording or sign with a label, but reports from recent shows indicate that the apple may not have fallen too far from the tree.

In a review of a December performance at the Cutting Room in Manhattan - attended by both her dad and mom, Christie Brinkley - a reporter likened her style to "Carole King circa 1970." In a more extensive write-up last week, the Hartford Courant said, "Joel is an unquestionably skilled singer, songwriter, and piano player" and complimented the range of her 12-song set, saying she went from "Mariah Carey highs" to "the bluesy, laid-back Norah Jones thing."

Joel acknowledges the Jones comparison as well as those to Fiona Apple on her MySpace.com page. She describes her sound as "pop/rock soul."

According to her profile, Joel has been writing songs and studying piano since childhood. She credits a summer program at Berklee College of Music with helping her shed inhibitions about performance.

The title of his 1977 hit album "The Stranger" aside, Billy Joel has made himself a frequent visitor to the Carrier Dome.

When the singer/songwriter "Piano Man" from Long Island plays under the big top at 8:00pm Saturday, it will be his record-breaking seventh performance on the Dome stage.

Joel last played in Syracuse on May 5th, 2001, splitting a bill with fellow superstar Elton John. His last solo show at the Dome was on December 11th, 1998.

To prove that the guy who put 33 singles on Billboard magazine's Top 40 pop charts still has it in Central New York, the 38,500 tickets sold-out the first day they were on sale.

Joel will also be the commencement speaker at Syracuse University on May 14th, 2006. Last September, he donated $320,000 to SU's Setnor School of Music to establish music scholarships and endowments for future composers.

Talk about a "New York State of Mind." Billy Joel In Concert - What You Need To Know:

When: 8:00pm - Saturday at the Carrier Dome. The doors open at 6:30pm. There is no opening act, and the show is expected to last about 2+ hours, with no intermission.

Tickets: All the tickets, priced at $39.50, are sold-out. The configuration at the Dome will seat around 38,500. The Gate B box office at the Dome will open at noon Saturday for the pick-up of pre-purchased tickets. A look on eBay.com earlier this week showed 20 listings for the Saturday show, with prices ranging $20 for a single upper-level seat to $1,395 for four floor seats in Row F.

Parking: There will be limited public parking at the Stadium and Fine lots on the west side of the Dome. There also will be parking at the University Avenue garage on Adams Street, Main Campus lots on Waverly and Comstock avenues, and at the Manley and Skytop lots. Fees at SU's parking lots will be $10, and free shuttle service is available from Manley and Skytop. Dome officials suggest leaving an hour to get from your car to the Dome.

OnTrack: OnTrack will operate trains from Armory Square to and from the Carrier Dome, starting at 6 p.m. The round-trip fare is $4, with free parking in the Murbro lot through the tunnel next to the train station behind MOST.

Don't Bring: The following items are prohibited: radios, still or video cameras, audio recording devices, food or beverages, backpacks, coolers, packages, noise-making devices or glow sticks. There won't be a place to check items, so concert-goers with these items will have to go back to their cars.

What To Expect Onstage: Glenn Gamboa, of Newsday, wrote: "Most veteran artists rehearse between 30 and 40 songs for a headlining tour. Joel and his band have about 60 songs to choose from each night including everything from monster hits such as 'Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)' to signature songs such as 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant' to obscurities such as 'Where's The Orchestra?,' a 24 year-old album track that makes its live debut on this tour."

One thing every good birthday celebration needs is music, so it's no wonder a concert is planned for the Carrier Dome's 25th anniversary. But the Dome isn't just any building; it's the most recognizable structure in Central New York and arguably one of the more famous athletic structures in the country. Therefore, its birthday celebration is guaranteed to be spectacular with a performance from rock legend Billy Joel.

Joel, or "Piano Man," is bringing his nation-wide "My Lives" Tour to Syracuse tomorrow night for a sold-out performance in the Dome. He will be playing to a crowd of nearly 39,000 people, comprised of Syracuse University, the local community and surrounding cities.

Joel has become a large presence in many aspects of Syracuse University this year. In September, he gave the College of Visual and Performing Arts $320,000 for music fellowships and will be the keynote speaker at the university's commencement ceremony in May 2006.

Joel and his agency, AEG New York, have had a very good relationship with Syracuse University for many years now, said Patrick Campbell, senior associate athletic director.

Tickets went on sale months ago and Saturday night fans who have been waiting for weeks finally got to see Billy Joel return to the Carrier Dome. The "Piano Man" played in front of a sold-out crowd more than 38,000 screaming fans. It was Joel's seventh time performing at Syracuse, New York. He was here five years ago to play a show with fellow singer Elton John. Saturday night the singer played a mix of classic favorites, and some unknown tunes, much to the delight of his fans. This won't be the last time Joel is in Syracuse, New York this year the singer will also speak at Syracuse University's Commencement ceremony on May 14th, 2006. Joel has done more then just perform and speak at Syracuse University It was last September when Joel donated 320,000 dollars to the Setnor School of Music to establish a music scholarship program.

Billy Joel set the record with his seventh concert on the Dome stage, breaking the mark he'd shared with The Rolling Stones.

The 56 year-old hit maker from Long Island serenaded the capacity crowd with almost 30 songs. They practically wouldn't let him leave, so he sang three encores, "Only The Good Die Young," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" and, of course, his trademark singalong song for the ages, "Piano Man."

He told jokes, at one point waving at the huge light standards hanging overhead and commenting, "If those came down, they'd wipe out hundreds of people. Enjoy the concert."

Like at any great party, there were surprise guests. The three guys who host the cable TV show "Orange County Chopper" showed up to deliver a gift: a red custom motorcycle named "The Billy Bomb." They started the mean bike up, and Joel shared the mean growl with fans, holding his mic to the exhaust.

It was one fun bash.

Nobody seemed to care one bit that Joel hasn't written a hit song since his "River of Dreams" album came out in 1993.

On Saturday night, the fans were satisfied with sharing the glorious past that Joel spiced up for the world with his 33 hits that made the Billboard Top 40 charts, starting with 1974.

This tour is being billed as "My Lives" after a boxed set of rarities, live cuts, and alternate versions released late last year.

So Joel gave his die-hard fans great pleasure. Anybody who listened to his records start to finish could love the early flash of the fast-paced "Everybody Loves You Now" from his 1971 album "Cold Spring Harbor."

Billy Joel has confirmed a concert date at Dublin's Croke Park on Saturday July 29th, 2006.

This exclusive Irish date is part of Joel's first major solo concert tour in eight years.

His sold-out North American Tour has included a record-breaking 12-show run at New York's Madison Square Garden, playing hits like "Piano Man," "Only The Good Die Young," "We Didn't Start The Fire," and "The River of Dreams."

Tickets, priced from €66.50, go on-sale at 8:00am on Wednesday April 5th, 2006 from TicketMaster outlets nationwide.

It's the same jolt you get when you see the cast of Bonanzathat Pernell Roberts?" after 30 years and ask, "Is that Pernell Roberts?"

No, that was Billy Joel, playing Saturday for a sold-out crowd of almost 40,000 at the Carrier Dome.

In celebration of the Dome's 25th year, Joel went back in time to when he last played the venue, 1998, by charging the same ticket price, $39.50. It was also quite a trip back in time for the singer's voice, a medical marvel rivaling Donald Trump's comb-over. Maybe it's the rehab or the careful selection of chauffeurs. But Joel seems to have recovered some of the vocal abilities that so alarmingly deserted him in the '80s, when he had to resort to bringing another fellow on tour with him to sing the high parts.

His well-known car accidents a thing of the past, on Saturday night Joel needed only an eight-piece band (including two percussionists and three horns) to perform 2½ hours and 25 songs for the middle-agers who were gathered adoringly before him. It was all their faves, from the opening "Prelude/Angry Young Man" to the show-closing, sing-along ballad with simply Joel, his piano and his harmonica on "Piano Man."

He proceeded somewhat chronologically through his catalogue, especially early on with 1971's "Everybody Loves You Now" and lines such as "you only speak to those who might agree." He's had a cynical slant ever since, describing the loser of "Captain Jack," who's "21 and still your mother makes your bed," and the soldier protagonists of "Goodnight Saigon" who "left in plastic numbered as corpses."

There was a 26th song, but it wasn't Joel's. A member of his road crew, introduced simply as "Chainsaw," did a credible job with the vocals on AC/DC's "Highway To Hell."

That followed an unexpected celebrity moment during "We Didn't Start The Fire," when burly Paul Teutul of the Discovery Channel's American Chopper appeared on the stage astride a custom-built, old-school bike that he and the rest of the feuding Teutul clan - Paul Jr. and Mikey - presented to Joel at the end of the song.

The recharged Joel probably can handle the chopper without a chauffeur these days, even if he is 56. But a trip back in time doesn't erase all excesses. During "I Go To Extremes," the stocky Joel kicked his piano stool away, turned his back on the piano and slammed the keyboard with his butt, producing a mortar round of chords.

And if he was going to alter "New York State of Mind" by inserting "Syracuse" into the lyrics, he should have also changed "The Entertainer" and that line about being "another long-haired musician."

Billy Joel is to tour the UK and Ireland for the first time in 12 years, Sound Generator can reveal.

The Grammy Award-winner, currently in the middle of a massive world tour (which broke records after the star sold-out New York's Madison Square Garden for 12 consecutive nights, will touch down in early July for the arena shows, which begin Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at the Birmingham NEC.

Music legend Billy Joel has confirmed an exclusive Irish date in Dublin, Ireland this summer, it was revealed today.

The singer will perform at Croke Park on Saturday, July 29th, 2006, as part of his first major solo concert tour in eight years.

Tickets, priced from 66.50 euro, go on sale on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006, at 8:00am from Ticketmaster outlets.

The singer/songwriter has been wowing audiences on his sold-out North American tour with performances of his pop anthems including "Uptown Girl," "Only The Good Die Young," "Piano Man," "We Didn't Start The Fire," and "The River of Dreams."

To date on this tour he has performed 22 concerts in front of nearly 400,000, including an historic 12 show run at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Since he began performing Billy Joel has recorded 16 albums, notching up sales of over 100 million and has won five Grammy Awards as well as an induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Coinciding with his upcoming solo concert tour, Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings has released "My Lives," a lavish five-disc boxed set chronicling his extraordinary musical evolution from early '60s Long Island bar bands to his more recent classical compositions.

One of Joel's biggest hits was "Uptown Girl," which he wrote for his then wife, top model Chrisie Blinkley.

The song has since been covered by Westlife.

The lights went down after a two-hour set of rock and roll classics, and 39,000 people stood in their seats waiting for an encore from a living rock legend. Thousands of lights from cell phones and lighters began to flicker on, giving an eerie blue and gold aquarium feeling to the Carrier Dome. The rocker finally returned and, after playing two of his hit songs, finished with the one tune everyone was waiting for, "Piano Man." And in the midst of what could possibly be the largest sing-along in the history of Syracuse University, the rocker smiled and sang these lyrics to the applause of the crowd:

Billy Joel is to play in the UK for the first time since 1994.

The "Piano Man" singer will play four dates this summer as part of his world tour.

A six-times Grammy winner, Joel has sold more than 100 million records, with other hits including "An Innocent Man," "Uptown Girl," and "Tell Her About It."

He is currently in the middle of a record-breaking run at New York's Madison Square Garden - selling out 12 nights.

The previous record of 10 nights was held by Bruce Springsteen.

He will play Birmingham, London, Manchester, and Glasgow, ending with a gig in Dublin.

Singer/songwriter Billy Joel credits his work on the Broadway musical "Movin' Out" with helping him recover from alcohol addiction last year. The "Uptown Girl" hitmaker, who spent time in the Betty Ford Centre in California to conquer his habit, was also dealing with the stress of taking legal action against his former manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber over accounting irregularities. Joel is bemused by the media hype surrounding his treatment, insisting addiction is inevitable for most musicians. He says, "I don't know why there was so much fuss about me going into rehab, I was like, 'Well, doesn't everybody?' "The lawsuit was a pain in the ass, that's true, but I've done really well for myself so nobody needs to worry about me. "But it's amazing how nobody in the music industry gets away clean. "It's like prizefighting - you get a shot at the title, but ultimately you always get your ass kicked and then you turn around and all the money's gone."

Billy Joel's first major solo concert tour in nearly seven years had a record-breaking start in January 2006. The rock and roll star played 10 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in a single run, which tied Bruce Springsteen's pervious 10-show record.

Joel is back on the road to support the November 2005 release of "My Lives." The four-CD/one-DVD boxed set of demos, rarities, soundtrack contributions, and hit songs paints a musical portrait of Joel as a songwriter and a musician as well as a star. The box set shows the evolution of the artist whose hits "Piano Man," "We Didn't Start The Fire," "Uptown Girl," "The Longest Time," "Just The Way You Are," and countless others turned him into a five-time Grammy-winning rock legend with 100 million records sold.
Joel takes the stage again at 8:00pm Monday night at the US Airways Center (formerly America West Arena).

The "Piano Man" recently fetched $4.25 million for his 2,681-square-foot TriBeCa pad, reports The New York Observer.

Musician Billy Joel’s apartment was located at the Hubert, a swanky condominium located between Hudson and Greenwich streets. The condo includes three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms.

Joel had shelled out $3.9 million for the condo in 2004. While his tenure there was short-lived - Joel moved into a three-story townhouse on Perry Street in July 2005 - the Hubert spread wasn't quick to sell. He first listed the condo at $5 million last summer.

Joel, 56, commenced his first major solo concert tour in nearly seven years in January of this year. The pop music icon has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1971.

Salmon Creek Road resident Brent Larsen, 28, has been a huge Billy Joel fan since he was in junior high, so Jean Dennis decided to orchestrate a meeting.

It took a couple of phone calls, first to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse where Joel played March 25th, 2006, then to several of Joel's "people." But Dennis pulled it off, creating a Saturday night to remember.

Veteran singer Billy Joel is amazed by the amount of energy his friend and touring partner Sir Elton John puts into performing and recording, because the "Uptown Girl" star is happy to live off past glories. Joel toured with the "Candle In The Wind" hitmaker for a decade on-and-off - and has compared his stage partner to Eveready's Energizer Bunny mascot, because he is always on the move. Joel says, "He's constantly working, he's like the Energizer Bunny. He gives me a hard time, asking me why I don't put out more albums. We've sold-out all these Madison Square Garden shows, and everybody's going, 'But he hasn't put out a new album in so long!' My take on it is, 'Gee, I should put out less albums more often!'"