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[ Cold Spring Harbor ]
[ Piano Man ]
[ Streetlife Serenade ]
[ Turnstiles ]
[ The Stranger ]
[ 52nd Street ]
[ Glass Houses ]
[ Songs In The Attic ]
[ The Nylon Curtain ]
[ An Innocent Man ]
[ Greatest Hits: Voume I & Volume II ]
[ The Bridge ]
[ Kohuept ]
[ Storm Front ]
[ River of Dreams ]
[ Greatest Hits: Volume III ]
[ 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert ]
[ The Ultimate Collection ]
[ The Essential Billy Joel ]
[ Fantasies & Delusions ]
[ Movin' Out: Original Cast Recording ]
[ The Harbor Sessions ]
[ 12 Gardens Live ]
[ The Hits ]




[ Live From Long Island ]
[ The Video Album: Volume I ]
[ The Video Album: Volume II ]
[ Live From Leningrad, USSR ]
[ A Matter of Trust ]
[ Live At Yankee Stadium ]
[ Eye of the Storm ]
[ Shades of Grey ]
[ Greatest Hits: Volume III ]
[ The Essential Video Collection ]
[ Rock Masters: Billy Joel ]
[ The Last Play at Shea ]



"Billy Joel Pulls The Curtain at Shea"
By: Nicholas Wapshott
(July 8th, 2008)

There is some suitable symmetry in Billy Joel giving the final musical performance at Shea Stadium. As a budding singer/songwriter in 1964, Mr. Joel looked out at the American music scene and despaired. The charts were full of soul hits, which left him cold.

"I was a kid from Levittown, so how much soul did I have at that point?" he once said of his childhood. Then one evening in February 1964, like much of the rest of America, he watched on television as Ed Sullivan ushered The Beatles into the American consciousness. The brief history of pop music was about to take a step change and nothing would be quite the same, not least for Mr. Joel.

He remembered watching The Beatles and realizing that they were "just like me and my friends, a bunch of wiseguys, street kids." The arrival of The Beatles, he thought, "made it all possible. It made it all conceivable. 'That is what I want to do.'" Inspired by the four working-class boys from Liverpool, Mr. Joel and his starstruck pals retooled themselves as a Beatles cover band, specializing in the hits of the British invasion.

More than 40 years later, Mr. Joel has been dealt a singular honor: He will be the final musical performer on the baseball field at Shea Stadium, where he will play two concerts, on July 16th, 208 and July 18th, 2008. Never intended by its architects as a concert venue, Shea, which will give way to the new Citi Field for the 2009 baseball season, has nevertheless stamped its name on the history of music in America, having hosted not only The Beatles, but Led Zeppelin, The Clash, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and others. Some even call it the "most hallowed venue in rock history."

More Beatles fans saw the Fab Four perform at Shea Stadium, once in 1965 and again in 1966, than at any other venue in America, though it is worth stressing that Beatles fans only saw their heroes up in Flushing: Thanks to the wailing wall of shrieks and cries pouring from the bleachers, no one, including The Beatles themselves, could hear what they were playing.

Today, major rock concerts have moved from baseball stadiums to more spacious football stadiums, but it wasn't until The Beatles arrived at Shea in 1965 that any music act had even been struck with the idea to fill a sporting venue. The group's manager, Brian Epstein, turned to stadiums to meet the overwhelming demand from Beatles fans to see their young heroes. Looking for an enormous space to show off his lucrative acquisition, Epstein rejected the old Madison Square Garden as too small. When he was told the Garden was the largest venue in New York, Epstein responded, "Then we'll book football stadiums. We'll fill the largest arenas in the world."

The Beatles concert on August 15th, 1965, was such a money-spinner that they returned for an encore performance the following October. Epstein's decision to play on a baseball field was intended to make a fast buck, and The Beatles did well, earning $283,000 in ticket sales from an audience of 55,600. But the chaotic, ear-shattering Shea experience was among the final dispiriting straws for a band increasingly concentrated on studio craft, and it heralded the end to The Beatles' playing days.

Looking back on the set list the band played at its first Shea concert, the full horror of playing to such a large audience is evident. The fans had not come to hear The Beatles, but to see them from afar (which they did: The stage was set up at second base and the crowd was confined to the stadium's seats). They were suffering from Beatlemania - a desire to scream and weep uncontrollably at any mention of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Little wonder that John Lennon soon found himself in hot water for remarking that it appeared The Beatles had become more popular than Jesus Christ - or that when Pope John Paul II visited New York in 1979, he chose Shea Stadium to host his audience.

The first Shea concert, however, was a pivotal event that soon brought great changes to The Beatles and to the rest of the music industry. It was evident to Lennon and Paul McCartney that it was their mere presence, not the music they were proud of, that was demanded from a baseball stadium full of screaming fans. And they did not find it flattering. If anything it was tedious, and performing live, once such a pleasure, soon became an exhausting, disillusioning occupation.

Their decision to withdraw from live performances and concentrate instead on studio recording drastically altered not only their own output, but that of their most talented peers. Meanwhile, others learned to work in stadiums, blazing the lucrative trail The Beatles has been too reluctant to follow. Five years after The Beatles left Shea Stadium, the infinitely less talented Grand Funk Railroad sold the stadium out faster than the Fab Four had. Soon to follow were Jethro Tull in 1976, The Who in 1982, Simon & Garfunkel in 1983, The Police in 1983, The Rolling Stones in 1989, Elton John & Eric Clapton in 1992, and Bruce Springsteen in 2003.

The fans have always shown up, but the rise of stadium rock undeniably hastened some of the most dislikable aspects of the music business. Delivered on a massive scale, at enormous volume, surrounded by elaborate light systems and big screens to distract from the humdrum playing, stadium concerts gave birth to rock and roll as a cynical trial on the senses and a detriment to the music being played. Perhaps that is why, when The Beatles dissolved their partnership in 1970, all four went back to performing in front of small audiences.

For Mr. Joel, the "Last Play at Shea" concerts can be a vindication of his decision to follow The Beatles into the business, and evidence that it is possible to sing studio songs to a vast stadium of people and still be heard.

Ostensibly to mark the 30th anniversary of his landmark album "The Stranger," featuring such standards as "Just The Way You Are," "Only The Good Die Young," "She's Always A Woman," and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," Mr. Joel will inevitably bring down the curtain on a magical Beatles episode in New York history. He may be excused for slipping at least one last Lennon and McCartney song into his set.


"When Billy Joel Met 'The Stranger'"
By: Todd Leopold
(July 8th, 2008)

You might not have wanted to bet on Billy Joel in the summer of 1977.

For a guy whose career had started out promisingly, he'd undergone more setbacks than a wild-armed pitcher. In his teen years he was a session pianist on Shadow Morton-produced records (including, allegedly, The Shangri-Las' "The Leader of The Pack"), but failed with his groups, including a heavy-metal duo.

He followed his first Top 40 hit, "Piano Man," with a bitter second one, "The Entertainer" (in which he sang, "If I go cold/I won't get sold/I'll get put in the back/In the discount rack/Like another can of beans," over an incongruous synthesizer track). He was considered a singer/songwriter with great potential but bickered with his label and his producers.

Making 1976's "Turnstiles, " he fired producer James William Guercio - a consistent hitmaker with Chicago - and took the helm himself, with uneven results.

And yet he still had something, remembered Phil Ramone, who was to produce Joel's 1977 breakthrough, "The Stranger."

At a 1976 Columbia Records convention in Toronto, Joel opened a musical showcase and "ripped the crowd up," Ramone recalls in a phone interview from Connecticut. "My friends said, 'Watch this guy.' "

And then there was a series of concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall in early June 1977, featured on the new anniversary edition of "The Stranger" (Columbia/Legacy) , out Tuesday. (A special edition of the release also includes a DVD of other Joel performances. ) Known then, as now, as an exciting live performer, Joel and his band gave a series of performances that impressed Ramone - though, he noted, the recorded versions paled in comparison.

"I watched what he had done and tracked his past records," he says. "Everything I'd seen hadn't been captured on record."

"The Stranger" turned out differently.

Joel came through with a top-notch set of songs, and four of them - "Just The Way You Are," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "She's Always A Woman," and "Only The Good Die Young" - became hits. "The Stranger" established Joel as a best-selling artist - reportedly, upon release, it was the biggest-selling Columbia album in history - and propelled him to his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career.

At the time, he just wanted to make a consistent record.

"I don't recall feeling this was going to be the breakthrough. We were just happy with the album we were making at the time," Joel says in the press materials for "The Stranger" re-release. (Joel wasn't available for an interview with CNN.)

He acknowledges, though, that "The Stranger" could have been his last stand.

"I didn't know this at the time, but had it not been a successful album, the label probably would have dropped me. 'Cause you have to remember, this was my fifth album without having had a major hit," he says.

Joel interviewed several producers, Ramone recalls, including the Beatles' George Martin. Ramone, known for his graceful touch in the studio, was coming off Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" and the Barbra Streisand "A Star Is Born" soundtrack. He and Joel hit it off at "an Italian lunch that took forever," Ramone says, and in July went into the studio to record. The album was recorded in three weeks - very quickly, says Ramone.

The producer remembers the sessions as full of humor, with his most difficult task reining in the members of Joel's band. It was an accident that Ramone ended up included in the group portrait on the album's back cover, dressed in New York Yankee regalia - "I only posed because I thought, 'They'll never use this,' " he says.

"The role I played was kind of like the captain of the team," he says. "I doled out punishments - it was a crazy, lunatic group. There were times I'd throw out [ideas] and they'd say, 'No way.' They all had great opinions."

Then there was Joel, a forceful singer who, Ramone observes, is also "extremely vulnerable." The singer had a tendency to hide behind his song's characters; Ramone urged him to put more of himself into the vocals in "The Stranger," and continued the advice for succeeding albums.

"I would say, 'When is Billy Joel going to show up?' " Ramone says. "You have to adapt [the character] to you."

Running through the album's tracks more than 30 years later, Ramone says there's always something he'd like to change, but in general he's very satisfied with the record, particularly the songs "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "The Stranger," and "Just The Way You Are."

The latter, he notes, was supposed to have been spiked - Joel, who wrote it for his then wife, thought it was too syrupy. ("A chick song," he's called it.) Moreover, Ramone's suggestions for the song met with resistance: Drummer Liberty DeVitto rebelled against the Brazilian baion beat, and the band was unhappy when Ramone tapped jazzman Phil Woods to play the alto sax solo.

But the song proved to be the album's big hit.

"They put out 'Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)' [as the first single], and it [failed]. And then out of nowhere came 'Just The Way You Are,'" Ramone says. The song got a big boost when Joel appeared as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" in February 1978 and eventually won Grammys for Song and Record of The Year.

"The Stranger" was the beginning of a fruitful run for Joel and Ramone. The pair made seven more albums together, including the #1 records "52nd Street" and "Glass Houses," and still maintain a warm relationship, says Ramone.

Joel, who will play the final two concerts at New York's soon-to-be-closed Shea Stadium July 16th, 2008 and July 18th, 2008, has long since put the questions of "potential" to rest.

"I didn't necessarily set out to be a big worldwide, international super rock star kind of guy. I set out to make a living as a musician, and this is the way it happened," he said.


"Billy Joel Skips Back 30 Years"
(July 9th, 2008)

Billy Joel's "The Stranger" acquainted him with stardom, and the 1977 album's 30th anniversary is being marked this week with a limited-edition reissue. (Next up for Joel: His "Last Play at Shea" concerts, July 16th, 2008 and July 18th, 2008, the fabled stadium's final shows.)

USA TODAY gets Joel's track-by-track recollections:

"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"

"In the song, there's the sound of a car peeling out. That was (bassist) Doug Stegmeyer's car, who at the time had a '60s-era Corvette. He took his little tape machine in the car and hung the microphone out the rear end, and started burning rubber, screeching away from his house.

"At the end, we went on and on and on and they faded it out. We were just having too much fun playing, we couldn't stop! We'd look at Phil (Ramone, the album's producer) and he'd just go, 'Ah, just keep going, who knows how much of this we're going to use, just go with it.' …The education of self-editing is a good process to learn."

"The Stranger"

"After we recorded the song, I remember thinking, 'it needs some sort of introduction. It needs a prelude or a theme, and then it should slam into the song.'

"I played the theme on the piano to show Phil and whistled along with it, and I said, 'What instrument do you think should do that?' And Phil said, 'You just did it.' I heard it played back and went, 'That's kind of cool, I like that.'

"It was really the theme to the album because it was born in the studio during the process, and it just kind of captured the mood."

"Just The Way You Are"

"I dreamt the melody, not the words. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going, 'This is a great idea for a song.' A couple of weeks later, I'm in a business meeting, and the dream reoccurs to me right at that moment because my mind had drifted off from hearing numbers and legal jargon. And I said, 'I have to go!' I got home and I ended up writing it all in one sitting, pretty much. It took me maybe two or three hours to write the lyrics.

"In the studio, we've got a bunch of guys going, 'Well, do you like it? I don't know, it's a chick song.' None of us were all that hot to put it on the album. Phoebe Snow came by with Linda Ronstadt and they heard the song and said, 'We love that song!' We kept it on thanks to them.

"I was absolutely surprised it won a Grammy (for record and song of the year, 1978). It wasn't even rock and roll - it was like a standard with a little bit of R&B in it. It reminded me of an old Stevie Wonder recording."

"Scenes From An Italian Restaurant"

"There was a restaurant right across the street from Carnegie Hall called "Fontana di Trevi." It was for the opera crowd, but the Italian food was really good. They didn't really know who I was, which was fine with me, but sometimes you would have a hard time getting a table. Well, I went there when the tickets had gone on sale for (my dates at) Carnegie Hall, and the owner looks at me and he goes (in an Italian accent), 'Heyyy, youra that guy!' And from then on, I was always able to get a good spot.

"I had always admired the B-Side of "Abbey Road," which was essentially a bunch of songs strung together by (producer) George Martin. What happened was The Beatles didn't have completely finished songs or wholly fleshed-out ideas, and George said, 'What have you got?' John said, 'Well I got this,' and Paul said, 'I got that.' They all sat around and went, 'Hmm, we can put this together and that'll fit in there.' And that's pretty much what I did."

"Vienna"

"It's more metaphorical than geographical. I went to visit my father, who I hadn't seen since I was a little boy. When I tracked him down, he was living in Vienna. I saw an old lady sweeping the street and I said to my father, 'Isn't that kind of mean?' He said, 'No, she has a use. She has a purpose in life. We don't put our old people away in a retirement home. We actually allow old people to contribute to society, and she's happy to do that job.' It occurred to me that it was a good metaphor."

"Only The Good Die Young"

"Jewish guilt is visceral - it's in the stomach. Catholic guilt is in the belfry of the cerebrum, it's gothic and its got incense, bells tolling, and it has all to do with sin."

"I wanted to write a song about it, about a guy trying to seduce a Catholic girl. I don't know what all the fuss was about, because she stayed chaste. I remember taking it over to the drummer, Liberty (DeVitto). 'Well, it's true,' he said, 'but I don't know how people are going to respond to it!'

"It got banned at Seton Hall University radio, and some archdiocese in St. Louis said people shouldn't buy the record. They went out and bought it in droves! I remember writing a letter at the time saying, "Please ban my next record. Thank you very much, Billy Joel.' But, you know, it's pretty tame next to what's going on now."

"She's Always A Woman"

"Some people said, 'Oh, he's a misogynist, look what he says about this woman. He wrote this song called 'She's Only A Woman'.' Which always cracks me up every time I read that. To me, it's a very simple understandable lyric. 'She may be that to you, but she's this to me.'"

"Get It Right The First Time"

"It's almost a funk, disco beat. It was written as a relief to the strength of other things. We thought we needed to just have a little breath, which is really just all it is - it's just breathing."

"Everybody Has A Dream"

"That was actually written a long time prior to "The Stranger," and it was written as a folk song. We redid the approach like a Joe Cocker gospel thing. It just felt like a great way to sum up the album, sort of a gospel celebration."


"36 Fans Arrested at Billy Joel Concert"
By: Valerie Kellogg
(July 11th, 2008)

An enforcement detail led by Derry Township Police Department at the Billy Joel concert at Hershey Park Stadium Thursday night arrested 36 people in various charges.

Police say charges of those arrested are: 1, possession with intent to deliver marijuana; 4 possession of drug paraphernalia; 4 possession of drugs; 21 underage drinking; 10 disorderly conduct; 1 corruption of minors; 2 public drunkeness and 1 open lewdness.

Assisting the township officers were Dauphin County sheriff office, Dauphin County Criminal Investigation Division, Dauphin County Drug Task Force and Dauphin County Adult Probation.


"Billy Joel at Hershey Park Stadium"
By: Glenn Gamboa
(July 10th, 2008)

Billy Joel unveiled the new expanded band and the massive new stage set he plans to use at next week's historic final concerts at Shea Stadium here at Hershey Park Stadium Thursday night. The Shea musical surprises, however, remain under wraps.

Between two-story video screens shaped like skyscrapers and scrims printed with an artistic photo collage of New York landmarks, Joel and his band - now-augmented to 21 strong thanks to a new eight-piece string section, four-piece horn section and two backing singers - tackled an expanded version of the setlist he has developed during his 10-show, six-week run at the Mohegan Sun Arena that ended last week.

Though the huge images and new New York-centric video footage are hard to miss, it's the sound of the huge new band that makes the biggest difference to anyone who has seen Joel since he relaunched his solo touring in 2006. The swelling strings turn "New York State of Mind" into an even more moving experience than usual. The additional backing vocals make "The River of Dreams" sound even more powerful. And the extra horns help turn the unlikely "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway)" into a brassy show-opener.

The task of putting together "The Last Play at Shea" - the final shows at the hallowed stadium that changed the way the world considered rock and roll - has clearly made Joel consider his own career, which has spanned Shea's entire lifetime. After "Keeping The Faith," Joel thanked the crowd for its continued support, pointing out how unusual it is for a guy like him to still be filling stadiums. "I’m 59 years-old," he said. "I haven't had an album out in 15 years."

Maybe part of his secret is that he still doesn’t take himself too seriously. Even as he prepared to complete "the hat trick" - becoming the only artist ever to perform at Yankee, Giants and Shea stadiums - on Wednesday and Friday, Joel was still able to joke around. He turned a towel into a wig before launching into "Piano Man" for his final encore and during his lengthy soundcheck, which drew fans from the nearby Hersheypark to listen throughout Thursday afternoon, he segued from "Captain Jack" to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man."

Even his introduction was fun. "I'm Billy's dad," he joked to the crowd. "Billy couldn't make it tonight. He's too busy combing his hair."


"At 59, Billy Joel Still Rocks"
By: Barry Fox
(July 11th, 2008)

Eighteen years and 30 minutes in the making, Billy Joel returned to Hershey Park Stadium Thursday night.

It was well worth the wait.

Before an adoring, raucous, near-capacity crowd, Joel rolled out hit after hit from his vast archive - "Prelude/Angry Young Man," "My Life," "The Entertainer," and "Allentown."

Looking tanned, Joel, 59, was in a jovial mood and made no secret of where he's from or where his heart lies.

Playing in front of huge banners with photos of New York scenes, with much of his stellar band from Brooklyn, New Jersey or his native Long Island, videos throughout the night of Mets highlights and playing a piano from Oyster Bay, Long Island, Joel made it clear "New York State of Mind" is not just a song.

"Hello, Hoishey, as we say in New York," he quipped. "I'm Billy's dad..." in a reference to his age and lack of hair.

Half standing, half sitting on his piano stool, Joel attacked the songs in the early part of his set - which he explained started a half-hour late so it would be a bit darker when he came on stage - his face red, veins standing out on his forehead, sweat dripped down his neck from the effort as if he was exorcising something.

In one of his comic interludes, Joel held up a little white bottle and explained "this throat spray keeps your vocal chords wet or something. I saw the Backstreet Boys use it once."

While he did stumble a bit through the piano solo on "Zanzibar," Joel brought his A game on "Allentown," the string section-enhanced "The Ballad of Billy The Kid," the sentimental "I've Love These Days," the swing, jazz vibe of "Big Man On Mulberry Street," a rollicking version of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and a joyful take on "Don't Ask Me Why."

Late in the show he even did a decent cover of AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" before returning to the greatest hits agenda - "We Didn't Start The Fire," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," and "You May Be Right."

But it was during "Goodnight Saigon" that the crowd told the story of the longevity of Billy Joel's career. Guys old enough to have served in Vietnam stood side-by-side with kids who weren't born when Joel wrote the song - all belting out the lyrics.

Thanking the crowd for all their years of support he said, "Fifty-nine years-old, haven't had a frickin' new record out in 15 years, thank you for letting me do the greatest job in the world."


"Billy Joel Ready For Final Concerts at Shea Stadium"
By: Glenn Gamboa
(July 13th, 2008)

Billy Joel doesn't pause after hearing how tickets to his upcoming Shea Stadium shows - "The Last Play at Shea" - were being re-sold online for several thousand dollars apiece, with some being priced at nearly $100,000.

"Yeah, I can tell you right now, I'm not worth that," he says, calling from his Sag Harbor home. "Maybe if The Beatles could somehow get back together or if Jimi Hendrix came back from the dead, I would pay $1,000. But if you pay that much for me, you're not going to be happy. I'm not worth more than the face value of the ticket."

There are, of course, many who would disagree with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, the Grammy winner whose name hangs in the rafters of Madison Square Garden commemorating his record-setting 12-show sold-out run there, the Tony Award winner whose greatest hits album is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Coincidentally, many of those disagreeing may also have been shut out of Joel's shows at Shea Wednesday and Friday, because the 55,000 tickets for each historic concert sold out in record-setting time - in 48 minutes for the first show, then 46 for the second.

It's All About The Music

He could easily have charged twice or three times the $95 ticket price and still packed the place. But true to his Hicksville roots - the same sensibilities that have had him recently pairing his working-class anthems "Allentown" and "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" in concert - Joel insisted on keeping prices affordable and he has been working overtime to make the Shea Stadium shows special for everyone involved.

"We don't have a lot of blow-up balloons or floating pigs or laser lights going on," Joel says. "We're hoping to make music the basis of what the show is going to be. It's all about the music. I'm fairly static onstage. I'm locked into a piano. I can't be jumping around like Mick Jagger or Bono running all over the place. And even if I could, at my age, I can't run like I used to. Hopefully, the music will speak to that."

Joel wants the show to sound bigger than normal, so he has added a string section, a larger horn section and backing singers to his usual band. He has also lined up some special guests to help out, though he doesn't want to spoil the surprises just yet. (One rumor that he does shoot down is that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will perform together at the shows. At this point, both have other commitments, Joel says, adding, "That doesn't mean we won't be doing some Beatles songs, though.")

As his nod to The Beatles proves, Joel understands that the concerts will be part of Shea's storied musical history. "It's the end of an era at Shea," he says. "I'm going to do some songs I haven't done in a long time."

Joel says he has had the bulk of the set-list mapped out for a while. "There are certain songs you have to do," he says. "'Piano Man' - you have to do. 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant' - absolutely. 'My Life' - some of the bigger hits. ...Keeping in mind the New York theme and the era that Shea Stadium existed and the songs that would represent that, a nod to summer and baseball and the hometown crowd - you mix all of those in and you pretty much come up with the theme of the show. The backbone of the show will be some songs that are, I suppose, iconic in a way. And last minute, you never know. People tend to show up at gigs like this. We don't know who might show up, who will be there and want to play. We have to leave room for that as well."

Considering Joel has scored 33 Top 40 hits in his career, as well as dozens of album cuts that are often just as recognizable, some of his hits will get left out, though not for the reasons some people think. "I was hoping to get Frankie Valli to sing 'Uptown Girl,' but I couldn't get that to happen," Joel says. "Now, I don't even know if I'm going to do that song. I can't even hit the notes. When I first recorded the song, the reason I did it is because I figured this is the last time I'm going to be able to hit these notes. I think I was about 34 years-old at the time. I said, 'OK, I'm going to kiss goodbye all these notes on this album,' not knowing that I was going to have to keep doing these songs for another 20-some odd years. For 'Uptown Girl,' I was at the extreme edge of my register. I was actually straining to hit the notes at the time. So now, it just destroys me for the rest of the show. People think that I don't do that song because of some kind of animosity toward my ex-wife. It has nothing to do with that. It's just a pain in the ass to sing. It's as simple as that."

His Game Plan

Joel says the process behind the Shea concerts has been completely different from the other two concerts in his New York stadium hat trick - a feat that no other artist will ever be able to lay claim to since both Shea and Yankee stadiums will come tumbling down this year.

"I think the set list for Yankee Stadium we just looked at as just another gig," he says. "There were so many other things going on with that show. We were the only act they ever really let play there and then there was the whole parking situation. It was a lot more daunting logistically than Shea has been."

Bob Buchmann, WAXQ/104.3 FM's program director, says Joel's Yankee Stadium show in 1990 was a thrill because the team and its history is so ingrained in Joel's music. "The thing I remember most is he played all of his tunes that referenced the Yankees and the place just exploded," he says. "I think the excitement is greater this time...because it benchmarks the last time music will ever be played in the Mets' home. The Mets obviously wanted to close in style, with a world-class superstar. Who better than a guy who happens to live 20 miles away? 'From The Beatles to Billy' has a great ring to it."

Joel is looking at the Shea shows in terms of his career differently as well. Last week, he saw the release of the 30th anniversary edition of his breakthrough album, "The Stranger," and this week, he gets another example of how far he has come in his career.

"I did actually play at Shea Stadium in 1965 when it was brand new, so it's really an interesting dynamic here," Joel says, laughing. "We played at the World's Fair at the New York State Pavilion in 1965. We came in second. I was in a band called "The Lost Souls" - somebody's still got this trophy somewhere. It was one of those battle of the bands things and we were the Hicksville band. There was another band called "The Pumpkins" and they won. We were really crushed because we thought we were better than them."

Joel says he sees symbolism in being chosen to play the final concert at Shea.

"The subtext there is that it's the end of an era," he says. "Shea Stadium has gone from new to needing to be torn down within my lifetime and the thought is also 'When are they gonna replace me?'"

Joel says his daughter, Alexa Ray, recently asked him why he still works so hard. "I said, 'Because I can,'" he says. "This is what I started out wanting to do. People always ask about why I'm not writing and recording new pop songs. Well, for me, I didn't start out as a recording artist. It's not a lot of fun for me in the studio. Writing is certainly not a lot of fun. But playing in a band is a gas."

Joel says the Shea shows are part of his "final chapter." ("What else is there to do?" he asks, laughing. "Fly over New York State, play in the airplane and charge everyone a dollar?")

But when he's asked if there are things he still wants to do, again, he doesn't pause before he rattles off a list. "There are plenty of things," he says. "I'd like to see Istanbul. And China. I'd like to catch a giant tuna and a swordfish. In terms of my career, though, I don't know what else I could do, but something will probably present itself. Who knows?"


"Putting Billy Joel In A Long Island State of Mind"
By: Glenn Gamboa
(July 13th, 2008)

Once Billy Joel completes his Shea Stadium shows this week, he's in the market for a new challenge.

After all, what could top being the only artist ever to complete "the hat trick" - playing Giants Stadium, Shea Stadium, and Yankee Stadium? The only obvious possibility would be one of those massive, free Central Park shows with more than a million concertgoers, but Joel says his team has inquired and the city isn't allowing them any more. (The free Bon Jovi show at Central Park's Great Lawn was a ticketed concert and only 50,000 of those were made available.)

So what comes next? Well, Joel plans to take the rest of the summer off and he's heading to Australia and Asia in the fall. After that? "I've learned not to make plans," he says, laughing.

Maybe we should help him out. Wouldn't it be great if he could play some sort of massive concert on Long Island, giving him a chance to play his Island-referencing songs in their natural habitat just like his Manhattan-referencing songs?

Of course, there's a problem with a venue. Nassau Coliseum or Nikon at Jones Beach Theater only get him a crowd of about 20,000. Even a concert in the Nassau Coliseum parking lot only gets it up to 30,000.

I'd suggest a show at the Calverton Enterprise Park, which could support about 75,000 fans, but we all know how things turned out the last time concerts were proposed there. Suffolk County still has a bad reputation in the music industry after the massive concerts planned there in 2003 - featuring Radiohead and Bob Dylan - got canceled when county officials denied permits citing safety concerns.

Long Island musicians have long complained that there aren't enough places for them to play, forcing them to travel to the city or to seek out nonconventional concert venues, from restaurants to play areas.

But surely someone has a solution for Long Island's most famous musical son, right? Anyone?


"Billy Joel's Back"
By: Mark LaMonica
(July 13th, 2008)

It's been way too long since Billy Joel got his name in bold here in "Hangin' In The Hamptons," 38 days to be precise.

How dare we as a Long Island-based blog shun our hometown hero like that!

Well, the "Piano Man" returns to the blog right now as we let you that Fox Business Network's show "Happy Hour" will broadcast live from Sag Harbor on Monday and Tuesday, July 14th, 2008 - July 15th, 2008. During the show, they'll be giving the world a tour of Billy's yacht...along with some trifling boat called Intuition II. OK, sure that's one of America's largest megayachts that's chillin' in Sag Harbor right now, but whatever. This is Billy's Island!

The "Happy Hour" crew will be broadcasting at B. Smith's Restaurant from 5:00pm - 6:00pm on Monday and Tuesday, and everyone is invited to stop by for fun. If you go, bring a "'Hangin' In The Hamptons' rules!" sign and hold up in back. If you get some TV love, we'll celebrate in style.


"Billy Joel's 'New York State of Mind'"
By: Hank Bordowitz
(July 13th, 2008)

It seems fitting that Billy Joel should play the last concert at Shea Stadium before it meets the wrecking ball. Shea Stadium has hosted the most popular bands, from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to The Clash, but it just feels right for a native son to play the last song at Shea Stadium.

Aside from a brief time in Los Angeles - his famous "Piano Man" period - Joel has rarely lived anywhere aside from his native New York. His story starts at City College at 138th Street and Convent Avenue, where Howard Joel met Rosalind Hyman. To celebrate this, in 1986 Billy Joel endowed the Rosalind Joel Scholarship For The Performing Arts there.

Rosalind and Howard married in 1946, after he returned from the war, and lived in the Bronx, on Strong Avenue. It's rumored that the stoop on which Joel sat for the cover photo of "An Innocent Man" was this building.

Joel grew up on Meeting Lane, Hicksville, Long Island, in the only house on the block without a driveway. He hung out at the Parkway Green and was a member of the Parkway Green Gang. His first session was with Shadow Morton at Dynamic Studios, 249 Broadway in Hicksville.

He went to high school at Hicksville High School, though he didn't graduate until 1992, when they finally forgave him the one credit he was short in 1967.

In his late teens, Joel lived in the "Rock House" in Dix Hills, a property made of local stone. While there, he formed a close relationship with his best friend's wife (and eventually his) Elizabeth. When that relationship hit some rough waters and Joel had no money, he made his infamous suicide attempt by drinking furniture polish ("It looked tastier than bleach").

In the '60s, because of its proximity to New York City, a lot of record company guys commuted to their jobs from Long Island. It became a peak time for local talent, with bands like The Rascals, The Pigeons (who were better known later as Vanilla Fudge) and The Vagrants, featuring Leslie West, who went on to form Mountain. The 1964-1965 World's Fair was also nearby, in Flushing Meadow Park, and Joel's first band, The Lost Souls, played there.

There was also a thriving club scene that included the "Eye In The Hamptons" and "My House In The Plainview Shopping Center," the club owned by the father of Irwin Mazur, the manager of Joel's group The Hassles. One evening, The Hassles played a Hampton's birthday party for Senator Robert Kennedy.

Joel also had his attachments to Manhattan. He would ogle grand pianos outside Steinway Hall on West 57th Street. He went uptown to see his favorite soul artists at the Apollo Theatre on 125th Street. As a member of The Hassles, he opened for Jose Feliciano at Central Park's Wollman Rink, which used to become the Wollman Arena during the summer, home to the Schaefer Music Festival.

Later on, he would try out songs at "The Gaslight" at 152 Bleecker (under the "Cafe Au Go Go"). Even later, he would play clubs like "Max's Kansas City" at 213 Park Avenue South (now home to a deli), and the late, lamented "Bottom Line" on West Fourth Street.

Other places where Joel resided included Oyster Bay, during the days he was writing the album that became his mis-launched debut, "Cold Spring Harbor." He and Elizabeth also lived in Hampton Bays, the "working-class" neighborhood of the Hamptons. However, when they came back from their three years in Los Angeles, California, they lived in the Orange County town of Highland Falls, immortalized in his song "Summer, Highland Falls."

There are, of course, local places Joel would probably like to forget. One is the intersection of New York Avenue and West Ninth Street in Huntington, New York, the site of a 1982 motorcycle accident that left the use of his right hand in question for much of that summer. After the accident, he was airlifted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia at 622 West 168th Street, where the hand was repaired and he recuperated.

Similarly, Joel was headed out to the airport to take the Concorde to London for some promotional appearances when a long-time kidney stone ailment acted up in a big way. He redirected the limo to the nearest medical facility, New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens at 56-45 Main Street, Flushing, about a mile from Shea. The appearances were canceled in favor of emergency kidney surgery.

As a longtime New Yorker though, the sites of Joel's triumphs are numerous: Both Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall hosted important concerts during the '70s. He holds the record for selling out Madison Square Garden more often than any other artist. He was also the first rock star to play Yankee Stadium on his own (several had played in conjunction with Yankee games). A&R Studios, formerly at 322 West 48th Street, was where some of his most popular albums - "The Stranger," "52nd Street," "Glass Houses," "The Nylon Curtain," "An Innocent Man," and "The Bridge" - were recorded.

Joel even has a park named after him, a couple of acres right by the water in Huntington (longtime home of his mother, Rosalind), called "The Billy Joel Cold Spring Harbor Park." He currently has an estate on Shelter Island. He also has kept apartments in Manhattan for most of his career. He had a pied-à-terre on Central Park South that he wound up selling to Sting, and recently bought a new place in TriBeCa for the current Mrs. Joel, Katie Lee.

So, from Orange County to the Hamptons, from the Bronx to TriBeCa, from the first full-fledged show at Yankee Stadium to the final notes at Shea Stadium, Billy Joel has spent his life in a "New York State of Mind."


"Billy Joel's Crowning Moment at Shea Stadium"
By: David Hinckley
(July 14th, 2008)

It was Billy Joel's own fault, really, that he couldn't seem to figure out the best way to come back home and play New York again.

"I mean, after you've played Yankee Stadium and 12 nights at the Garden, where do you go next?" he asks. "New York isn't an easy town to get excited."

Then someone had an idea: Shea Stadium, which is being torn down after this season. A band called The Beatles played the first concert there, in 1965. Why not have Billy Joel, who became a musician because of The Beatles, close the joint in 2008?

So he will - this Wednesday and Friday.

"It was a great idea," he says - although he admits one part of it makes him a little uneasy.

"I remember when Shea was built," he says. "It was state-of-the-art. Now it's being torn down because they say it's obsolete and falling apart. That's kind of a human thing. It's a New York thing. This all happened inside my lifetime. Am I that old?"

Age does come up in Joel's conversation these days, primarily as a reference point. He turns 60 next May 9th, some 36 years after "Piano Man" catapulted him from bar bands to stardom.

Since then he has sold 150 million albums, won six Grammys, scored six honorary doctorates, peddled millions of concert tickets, accepted the Johnny Mercer songwriting award, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and had Twyla Tharp adapt his songs for a smash Broadway dance musical.

That last one, by the way, really got him.

"I was amazed that was a hit," he says. "It could have been a complete disaster. In fact, that's one of the things I liked most about doing it."

What Billy Joel has mostly done, though, and will do once again at Shea Stadium, is this: He has implanted tunes like "Uptown Girl," "An Innocent Man," and "Only The Good Die Young" in tens of millions of brains, whether they requested them or not.

A measure of his success: He's lost tens of millions of dollars through lousy business deals. He still has plenty left.

"I guess I picked the right job," he says. Good guess.

Truth is, he adds, he might not have ended up in rock and roll at all if he'd been more diligent about practicing Mozart as a child.

"Half the time I didn't play real Mozart," he says. "I made up fake ­Mozart. So of course that limited how far I could go."

That chicanery is an issue these days partly because he's composing only instrumental music, and some of it he can't play.

"For classical music, I'm a terrible piano player," he says. "I've got no left hand. If I'd applied myself when I was 12, who knows?"

He doesn't say this with regret, exactly. "Classical musicians are maniacs," he says. "It's such a hard life - you have to live it 24/7. I definitely had more fun in rock and roll."

The fact that he will fill Shea Stadium a couple of times over is particularly impressive because he hasn't recorded a pop or rock album since 1993's "River of Dreams." He has written a couple of stray pop songs since then, but except when he's onstage, his life now is out of that world.

"I only listen to classical music on the radio," he says, "except when my daughter changes the station."

Still, he can go onstage and pound out more than two hours of pop hits and enjoy it.

"I guess I do it because I can," he says. "I keep wondering when I'll get tired of the songs. But I don't. 'Just The Way You Are' is a little wearing, but I get to songs like 'Uptown Girl' or 'New York State of Mind' and they still feel fresh."

"Some of the physicality in the show is gone, and when you're almost 60, you know at some point the notes will disappear, too. But the thing about being onstage is you're not just 60. You can also be 35, or 17."

What helps, too, he says, is that the media spotlight doesn't burn as brightly these days, having shifted to the Lindsay Lohans and Amy Winehouses.

He got some attention for a couple of stints in rehab after a car he was driving had an unscheduled meeting with a tree, but when he married 23 year-old Katie Lee in 2004, it wasn't a frenzy.

"I'm a little less of a public person now, and that's good," he says. "I mean, that was always great for getting a table in a restaurant, but it came at a price. There's still some of it, but let's just say I don't miss being in the top 10."

He also doesn't miss recording.

"I'm still writing as much as ever, but it's all instrumental music. It could end up as movie soundtracks or quartets, or nothing. In a way, that's very liberating."
It's also very familiar.

"When I was writing pop songs, I always wrote the music first," he says. "Because that's what I heard first. The first half-dozen times I heard a Rolling Stones song, I had no idea what Mick Jagger was singing. But I loved the beat, the rhythm, the sound.

"A few of the easy songs came quickly. I never thought 'Piano Man' would last, because to me the lyrics are just limericks. But I've had music that sat around for months waiting for lyrics. 'The Downeaster 'Alexa'' sat around for a couple of years."

In any case, it all came together, and while Joel muses that "you need some arrogance to do what I do," he also says there's a lot of "zeitgeist and luck."

Hey, he says, "I'm not a good-looking guy. But when I'd play the piano and sing, I'd look up and notice girls standing there. And I'd think, 'This is great.'

"I'm not asking any questions."


"Billy Joel: The Ultimate Set-List"
By: Jim Farber
(July 15th, 2008)

     Billy Joel hasn't released an album of fresh pop songs in 15 years. And he claims he never will again. But the 120 pieces he wrote and recorded for 12 original hit studio albums continue to spin on radio stations, pour through supermarket Muzak systems and inspire drunken karaoke outbursts all around the world.

     It's a catalogue that seems no less contemporary for its age. Which explains why Joel can still put out big-selling live albums - as recently as one in 2006 - as well as fill concert arenas, or even stadiums, whenever he gets the itch.

     This week, Joel will dig into his trove of songs to perform last rites on the old Shea Stadium, with two sold-out shows. He's the right guy for the room, given his deep identification with the city, as well as his competitive, even pugnacious, ­nature.

     Obviously, whatever songs he performs at these shows is his call. But may we suggest an ideal - if somewhat long - set-list culled from Joel's entire album discography:

"Cold Spring Harbor" (1971)
Album Assessment
Joel's first work may have flopped, but its best moments presaged his feel for melody, his influence from classical music ("Nocturne") and his lyrical bent for the sarcastic ("Everybody Loves You Now").

Choice Cuts:
"She's Got A Way": Joel's first stab at a standard, with a perfect melody, spiced with a populist lacing of sentiment.

"Piano Man" (1973)
Album Assessment: Joel's first hit album caught the male school of the singer-songwriter wave of the early '70s. The album shows Joel's patented bent for mixing suburban dramas with urban aspirations.

Choice Cuts:
"Piano Man": Joel's defining piece is told with a wry shrug that just skirts self-pity, plus condescension toward the crowd.
"Captain Jack": The ultimate '70s stoner-of-the-cul-de-sac anthem.

"Streetlife Serenade" (1974)
Album Assessment: Joel tried to nail his adopted home of the day (Los Angeles) rather than his actual New York one. Small wonder it's a less-than-credible effort. The disk's best-known song, "The Entertainer," offers a tepid recycle of "­Piano Man."

Choice Cuts:
None

"Turnstiles" (1976)
Album Assessment: Joel's return to his New York roots clearly inspired him. From the opening kissoff to the West Coast - "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" - to the finale, he's bringing his A game.

Choice Cuts
"Summer, Highland Falls": Features one of his most invigorating piano riffs.
"New York State of Mind": It's his bid to be Cole Porter. Even if it's quite a bit from that lofty goal, it has a certain catchy élan.
"Prelude/Angry Young Man": This cut made it clear that Joel would never be a part of his generation's youth culture. Already he was playing the grown-up, looking down at the sacred right of adolescents to be angry. Annoying, yes, but it's just so him.
"Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)": A nice apocalyptic number, penned amid an earlier energy crisis.

"The Stranger" (1977)
Album Assessment: Aided by slick producer Phil Ramone, Joel pens his most commercially savvy album to date.

Choice Cuts:
"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)": A classic working-class New York story finds its natural soundtrack.
"Just The Way You Are": Giggle if you like at its sap, but it has been the wedding song for more than one generation.
"Scenes From An Italian Restaurant": Guido gold.
"Only The Good Die Young": Joel's ­macho side features him playing strutting corrupter to the sacrificial virgin.
"She's Always A Woman": It may be as much a Hallmark greeting card as a song, but clearly it's one millions want to send.

"52nd Street" (1978)
Album Assessment: One of Joel's most sonically sophisticated albums, and his most urbane.

Choice Cuts:
"Honesty": Big ballad with a timeless tune.
"Big Shot": A rare self-recrimination from this usually head-strong "big shot."
"Zanzibar": Joel's attempt to out-Steely Dan Steely Dan.

"Glass Houses" (1980)
Album Assessment: This was Joel's reach to stay relevant in the age of New Wave. The music shows the threat, and the strain, of trying to keep up with the new movement.

Choice Cuts:
"It's Still Rock and Roll To Me": Joel's attempt to coopt the spirit of punk sounded desperate back in the day. But divorced from that context, it arises as a typically Joelean statement of constancy."You May Be Right": Billy at his cockiest.

"The Nylon Curtain" (1982)
Album Assessment: Perhaps the songwriter's most worldly and political album. Yet it never loses sight of his bottom line: to deliver commercial pop songs.

Choice Cuts:
"Allentown": A great chugging tune.
"Goodnight Saigon": Putting his love of sonatas to good pop use.

"An Innocent Man" (1983)
Album Assessment: Buoyed by a new love (Christie Brinkley), Joel sounds downright giddy on this album. It's one of his most exuberant efforts.

Choice Cuts:
"The Longest Time": A spirited nod to Bronx doo-wop.
"Tell Her About It": A perfect pop bauble.
"Uptown Girl": Joel's richest Phil Spector nod.
"Keeping The Faith": One of his bounciest tracks.
"AN Innocent Man": Perhaps the longest Joel has ever extended a melody line.

"The Bridge'" (1986)
Album Assessment: Not one of Joel's most engaged efforts.

Choice Cuts:
"A Matter of Trust": The tune takes it.

"Storm Front" (1989)
Album Assessment: A sober album, recorded after Joel fired most of his band as well as producer Ramone. It's the closest the star came to making an anti-pop CD.

Choice Cuts:
"We Didn't Start The Fire": The ultimate boomer naval-gazer, and the closest Joel will come to writing a rap.
"I Go To Extremes": Maybe Joel goes to extremes in his personal life, but his hold on the public imagination has always had much to do with him toeing the line.

"River of Dreams" (1993)
Album Assessment: Many would say he bowed out of the pop game at the right time. "Dreams" shows his great gift for melody ebbing. Luckily, it manages a few last gasps of inspiration.

Choice Cuts:
"All About Soul": A bold beat carries the song in the end.


"Joel's Shea Concerts To Be Made Into Film"
By: Beth Hilton
(July 17th 2008)

A movie documentary of Billy Joel's upcoming Shea Stadium concerts is in the works.

The singer will be the last artist to play the legendary New York venue when he performs there tonight and Friday.

He will be joined by around a dozen music stars for the show, titled "The Last Play at Shea: From The Beatles To Billy."

The documentary, called "The Last Play at Shea," is expected to be released in 2009. A soundtrack is also likely.

Joel said of the project: "This is something I've been avoiding my whole life and I suppose I can't put if off any longer."

Shea Stadium became a popular gig destination after The Beatles played there in 1965.

It is closing down because the New York Mets baseball team is moving home in 2009.


"Billy Joel Finishes What The Beatles Started"
By: Roger Friedman
(July 17th, 2008)

Billy Joel on Wednesday night began to finish what The Beatles started in 1966. He played the first of two shows at Shea Stadium, the last live music act before the cesspool of a sporting arena finally closes this fall.

And I do mean cesspool. As a Yankee fan, I haven't had much use for Shea Stadium in all these years except for the night the Yanks took the World Series from the Mets in October 2000. A big paint chip hovered over my head that night. Things haven't gotten better and, in fact, even the neighborhood surrounding Shea looks like it's gotten worse.

But I do digress: Joel lit up this forlorn palace, filling it to the brim with fans as he performed about 30 hits and introduced several guest stars: John Mellencamp (adding his "Little Pink Houses"), Don Henley (doing "Boys of Summer"), and John Mayer. On Friday night, the guests are rumored to be Steven Tyler, Garth Brooks and, possibly and fittingly, Paul McCartney.

Tony Bennett is featured on both nights. When he walked out to sing "New York State of Mind" with Billy on Wednesday, the crowd roared with delight in a way that sounded like Beatlemania. How ironic: Bennett's career was derailed by the Beatles' arrival in the mid-1960s. Now, at 82, in many ways he's just as big.

Billy does not run around the stage like he used to, but he's still got the energy of 10 men. He piloted his superior band through three hours worth of music, from "Prelude/Angry Young Man" to "The River of Dreams" and finally to his signature hit, "Piano Man."

A huge camera crew filmed the show, but the real documentary, I think, would have been better made watching the audience members sing "Piano Man" in unison, acting out the different lines, with looks of joy on their faces. That's what art is all about.

Joel's songs mostly tell stories, and the fans - at least 51,000 Wednesday - know all of them better than they do "Mother Goose" or "Little Red Riding Hood." The audience was filled with Brenda-and-Eddies from "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," Billy's slightly jaundiced saga of a working-class couple with aspirations that don't materialize. Nevermind that the song is an indictment of their lives: The fans love it anyway.

There was a lot of reminiscing, as Billy played some Beatles songs in honor of the group that made Shea a rock house.

"I want to thank the Beatles for letting us use their room," he said after playing "She Loves You." "The best band that ever was, the best band that ever will be," he said of the Fab Four of yore.

Mostly, though, he played his own hits. During "She's Always A Woman," Joel's wife, Katie Lee, now a cookbook author, danced in the aisle with famed concert promoter Ron Delsener. Bold-faced names such as Kelly Ripa and Ronald Perelman were spotted enjoying any number of Joel's gems, from "You May Be Right" to "Allentown," "The Entertainer, " "Zanzibar," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "My Life" and so on.

The nice surprises: "Goodnight Saigon," a song that's somehow grown in stature over the years, and "This Is The Time," which Billy told the crowd is often used as a prom song. Mayer supplied some nice guest licks on guitar.

There's a lot of ruminating you can do on Billy Joel. He's Long Island's local boy made good - although, as he said, he didn't even attend his prom because he didn't finish high school. He was already out on his own, playing piano bars.

He's a generation younger than the Brill Building/Phil Spector pop writers, but his music is mostly one of a piece of it. At one point in the show, he throws in a dollop of The Drifters' "Stand By Me" in their style - and then you see the whole thing. Billy Joel is Leiber and Stoller by way of Gershwin.

Yes, did I mention there were at least 30 songs in the show - and still we didn't get a bunch like "Just The Way You Are," "Big Shot" or "Say Goodbye To Hollywood." On Friday, there's a rumor that Christie Brinkley may show up - their daughter, Alexa, was at Wednesday night's show.

Maybe we can pray for "Uptown Girl" just one last time. As Billy sings in what might be his best song, "Summer, Highland Falls": "It's either sadness or euphoria." Well, not sadness, exactly, just nostalgia for a time when singer-songwriters were really, really great.


"Billy Joel Puts It In Play"
Joel's Big Send-Off at Old Shea

By: Dan Aquilante
(July 17th, 2008)

No matter how the rest of the season unfolds at Shea, the hit that will be remembered is last night's grand-slam concert home run by Billy Joel.

In a three-hour-plus performance before a capacity crowd of more than 50,000, The "Piano Man" gave the 44 year-old ballpark (slated for the wrecking ball this fall) a send-off that mirrored its history of triumphs, defeats, hope and rebellion with his classic songs, such as "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Prelude/Angry Young Man," and "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me."

Joel, always chatty when he's in a "New York State of Mind," and on home turf, mused, "I haven't put out a friggin' album in 15 years, and here we are at Shea Stadium... This is the best job, period."

But for the 59 year-old icon, it wasn't about talk - it was all about music at an event where he was backed by his usual band, as well as a 15-piece string section that lent songs such as "The Ballad of Billy The Kid" and "An Innocent Man" a depth and grandness that fit this historic event. If the orchestra didn't tell you that this wasn't our Billy the Kid's usual set-up, then his inviting guests - including Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Don Henley, and John Mellencamp - to share the glory did. Another unusual turn was Joel's inclusion of cover songs. Blame it on The Beatles.

The Fab Four invented stadium rock when they played Shea back in '65, and Joel, who says The Beatles were his greatest inspiration, paid John, Paul, George, and Ringo tribute with a blistering rendition of "A Hard Day's Night."

The stadium has an inherent lack of intimacy as a concert hall, but that was overshadowed by the party atmosphere that the Beatles song created. Had Joel and his band stopped right there, fans would have left the ballpark as if it were nickel-beer night.

Joel's homage to home, "New York State of Mind," featuring Tony Bennett, was totally embraced by the crowd. They swayed and moved to the music as if the song were a theme to their lives.

Like his core baby-boomer fans, Joel has middle-age paunch and thinning hair, and isn't as spry as he once was, but when he sang, the years melted away. Henley was quite good during his duet with Joel on "Boys of Summer," but the night's show-stopper was when Mellencamp joined Joel to do a rendition of his "Pink Houses." While you might not see the relation between Long Island boy Billy and heartland rocker Mellencamp, this song connected the dots.

As terrific as this show was, Billy gets a chance to top himself with the second of a two-show series at Shea tomorrow night. The Shea performances cement Joel's Guinness record as the only act to have played all of the New York metropolitan area's main sports arenas..

Hey, Billy, the old Yankee Stadium after this season. How about one final step up to the plate for another swing?


"Billy Joel Plays First of 2 Final Concerts at Shea"
By: Kevin Amorim
(July 17th, 2008)

The man at the piano was no stranger to the 63,000 people at Shea Stadium Wednesday night.

It was fitting that Billy Joel - our Billy from the block on Meeting Lane in Hicksville - got the call to play Shea's final concerts. He put on an amazing show at the home of the "Amazin's."

"This is where New York meets Long Island," he said of the soon-to-be demolished stadium. "Yeah, Queens is the city, but geographically, it's Long Island."

A few numbers later, the kid from Long Island and the king of Queens traded verses. As Joel, dressed in black, finished the first verse of "New York State of Mind," he looked up: "Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Bennett." The roar of the audience almost did the work of the wrecking ball and brought the house down when Bennett crooned "I'm in a New York state of mind."

If you haven't already guessed, Joel's set played to the hometown crowd - how could it not? These are the songs of our youth, no matter how old you are: "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Allentown," "Don't Ask Me Why."

He had some fun with "My Life," twinkling out a short rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at the beginning of what would become the theme for "Bosom Buddies." This show was not a drag, not even when John Mayer came out with his guitar to assist on "This Is The Time."

The special guests kept coming out of the bullpen. Don Henley joined in for a version of "Boys of Summer" and later, John Mellencamp showed up for his hit "Pink Houses."

Toward the end of the regular set, Joel meshed "A Hard Day's Night" into "The River of Dreams," a nod to The Beatles who first played Shea in 1965 and 1966. He revisited the Fab Four in his encore.

Although he was tethered to his piano - except for "An Innocent Man" - Billy was not idle. He was also busy introducing some of the homegrown talent on the stage in centerfield, including Baldwin's Carl Fischer on trumpet and fluegelhorn, and Tommy Byrnes, a guitarist from Oceanside.

Didn't get tickets to these shows? You can still experience some of the magic in the just-announced feature-length docu-concert "Last Play at Shea," with footage from Wednesday night's and Friday's shows. It's scheduled for theatrical release next year, the first year without Shea.


"With Nods To The Beatles, Billy Joel & Pals Play Shea Stadium's Last Concerts"
By: Jim Farber
(July 17th, 2008)

Forty-three years ago, the Beatles played the first concert at Shea Stadium. Wednesday night, Billy Joel played the last.

While he'd be quick to admit that the comparison isn't exactly flattering, the "Piano Man" still served as an apt, genial, and energetic host for the stadium's send-off.

Joel's concert (with another on tap Friday) exuded just the right balance of nostalgia and local color for a place that holds deep memories for millions. Performing no song newer than 15 years-old, with many older than 30, Joel pounded through his hummable catalogue with aplomb, affection and wit.

The show stressed a sense of place, opening with Joel belting "The Star-Spangled Banner" - and even clearing the most courageous notes. Then he launched into the apocalyptic fable "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)," a song that, despite its title, contains more references to this town than a full season of "Sex and The City."

To make up for the venue's Herculean scale, Joel leaned into his songs with extra muscle. Such flourishes helped make up for the fact that the stadium's video screens were woefully out of sync with the singing. Joel acknowledged his physical distance from the crowd but not the technical flub.

"In case you can't see me," he said, "I have long, golden hair."

Ever the crowd-pleaser, Joel stressed the hits. For the standard "New York State of Mind" he brought out guest Tony Bennett. John Mayer played guitar on "This Is The Time." He also invited Don Henley to bellow "Boys of Summer" and John Mellencamp to do "Pink Houses."

Joel wore the mantle of the stadium's historic closer with humility, expressing surprise at his longevity. But the melodic assurance of his music and his populist point of view account for that, despite how often the latter leads him into bombast and cliche.

On one level he actually bested The Beatles, though not in his few Beatles covers here. While in '65, fans could barely hear a thing, here the audio was impeccable. Aided by that, Joel's hits never sounded punchier.


"Billy Joel Gives Shea Its Own Last Waltz"
By: Jon Pareles
(July 17th, 2008)

Maybe it takes a strayed New Yorker to truly cherish New York City. Billy Joel, who was born in The Bronx and became the quintessential Long Island songwriter, was flanked by New York cityscapes and video backdrops on the Shea Stadium stage Wednesday night. It was the first of Mr. Joel's two "Last Play at Shea" shows, which are to be the final concerts there before it is demolished.

Mr. Joel played to two kinds of local pride. "This is where New York meets Long Island," he said with a smile. "Queens - politically, that's New York City. But geographically, we are on Long Island." In a three-hour concert dotted with guest stars, Mr. Joel hinted that a long pop career - like his - can parallel the life of a city, full of pleasures and disappointments, triumphs and mistakes, changes and tenacity.

Mr. Joel hasn't released an album of new pop songs since 1993, but he charged into his catalogue like a trouper, with two-fisted piano playing and a voice that turned the grain of an older singer into stadium-sized vehemence - usually a decent tradeoff.

Mr. Joel, 59, doesn't pretend to be anything but grown up. Fans in distant stadium seats got the first video close-up of his grizzled face and balding head as he sang "Prelude/Angry Young Man," the skeptical song about youthful self-righteousness that he wrote back in the 1970s. Late in the show, he played rock star for a little while, knocking around a microphone stand in "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," and putting some Jerry Lee Lewis growls and whoops into "You May Be Right."

Mr. Joel's music spans the styles of New York City before hip-hop, from classical Tin Pan Alley to doo-wop to Irish-American waltzes to big-band jazz to soul to rock. At Shea, his band was expanded with strings and horns. Amid the hefty chords, classical arpeggios and splashes of honky-tonk, his hits send melodies climbing toward well-turned choruses that, countless radio plays later, just sound inevitable. The tunes work so neatly as pop that they can make Mr. Joel's songs seem less hard-nosed than they often are.

Mr. Joel sang cynically about a musician's life in songs like "The Entertainer" and "Zanzibar," and he sang about crushed hopes in songs like "Allentown," "The Downeaster 'Alexa,'" "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" and "Goodnight, Saigon," a power ballad about Vietnam for which he was joined by a chorus of soldiers in uniform.

But New York itself was often the concert's muse. Mr. Joel brought Tony Bennett out to join him in "New York State of Mind," and they pushed each other toward flamboyantly jazzy vocal turns. Other songs were filled with New York City memories and locales. There were baseball references, too; he added a line about the Mets and Shea to the borough-hopping song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)."

Mr. Joel's concert presented his New York City as a place full of romantic possibilities that, like ballparks, won't last forever. He recalled that Shea was built while he was a teenager. "Now they're going to tear it down," he mused, "and I'm still playing."

Shea Stadium is no CBGB. Its musical cachet has nothing to do with atmosphere, aesthetics or acoustics (although Mr. Joel's sound system was first-rate; the concert was being filmed for a documentary) . Shea gained its musical reputation directly from The Beatles, whose concert there in August 1965 showed the world that rock's audience had grown by an order of magnitude. No wonder Mr. Joel sang "A Hard Day's Night" with John Lennon inflections in his voice - though he inserted it between verses of his own "The River of Dreams." He returned to the Beatles to finish his two-and-a-half hour main set with "Please Please Me."

Shea never became part of a regular stadium rock circuit, partly because its summer season is filled with baseball games. (Giants Stadium holds most of the stadium shows in the New York City area.) So the relatively few concerts at the stadium still bask in a Beatles afterglow. When The Police played their farewell concert at Shea Stadium in 1983, they thanked The Beatles. On Wednesday night, Mr. Joel became the only musician ever to headline all three area stadiums: Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium, and Shea Stadium.

Mr. Joel apologized to audience members who had bought tickets for Wednesday's show expecting it to be Shea's very last; after some boos he said the second show, on Friday, was added after the first sold-out, and was the date offered by the Mets organization.

Guest stars seized their last chance to perform at Shea. John Mayer squeezed off bluesy guitar solos for "This Is The Time." Don Henley picked up the night's baseball theme with his own "Boys of Summer." John Mellencamp added some lines about the current price of gasoline to his song "Pink Houses." But it was a night for New York, a place where a pop hook can outlast a stadium of concrete and steel.

"I want to thank The Beatles for letting us use their room. Best band that ever was, best band that ever will be!" Mr. Joel shouted near the end, before belting one more Beatles song: "She Loves You." But Mr. Joel seized his own last word: "Piano Man," with a new introduction: "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." The stadium crowd sang along on both. But his finale was quiet: "Every year's a souvenir," he sang, "that slowly fades away."


"Billy Joel Bids Goodbye To Shea Stadium With Guests Mellencamp, Mayer, Henley"
By: Daniel Kreps
(July 17th, 2008)

What seemed like the entire population of Long Island showed up at New York's Shea Stadium for the first of Billy Joel's two-night send-off to the home of the New York Mets last night. From the opening song, Joel played to the occasion, altering the lyrics of "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway") to "They said the Mets can stay, but they can't play at Shea." For three hours, Joel occupied the centerfield stage, playing a hits-filled set that had the vast majority of the sold-out stadium of 50,000-plus singing along note for note. Though he frequently sipped from a white mug perched on his grand piano and spritzed his throat with spray, Joel's clear voice never wavered, even after spirited versions of "Allentown" and "The Ballad of Billy The Kid." Regardless, he had some relief pitching in the form of three special guests that brought the crowd to their feet.

As he banged out the opening piano chords of "New York State of Mind," Joel introduced his first guest of the night, crooner Tony Bennett. Bennett's powerful voice filled the open-air stadium as he traded verses with the "Piano Man." After Bennett left the stage to applause usually reserved for a David Wright homerun, Joel led his band through another five songs - including "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and a touching "Goodnight Saigon" with a full military chorus - before introducing his next special guest. "I hear they play this song a lot at proms. I didn't go to the prom, because I didn’t graduate," Joel said before introducing "This Is The Time" and guest guitarist John Mayer, who added Clapton-esque flourishes to the usually subdued piano ballad. After "Keeping The Faith" and a medley of "Stand By Me" and "An Innocent Man," Joel relinquished the microphone to his next guest, Don Henley, who led the band in a rousing performance of "Boys of Summer."

Throughout the evening, Joel celebrated The Beatles, who played the first concert of their 1965 tour at Shea Stadium. "I want to thank The Beatles for letting us use their room," Joel remarked. The tribute began when Joel segued from "The River of Dreams" into "A Hard Day's Night," and later included "Please Please Me" and "She Loves You." His final guest of the evening, John Mellencamp, dug into his catalogue, performing a rousing version of "Pink Houses" with an ad-libbed line about rising gas prices.

It was at this point that fans in the upper deck noticed that the stadium was actually rocking, leading some to fear the stadium might come crashing down a little sooner than its demolition date. The swaying only got more severe when Joel strapped on his electric guitar for his two heaviest songs, "We Didn't Start The Fire" and "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me." For his encore, Joel played an additional five songs, including "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" and a "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" sing-along that turned into the crowd favorite "Piano Man," with the band dropping out to let the crowd serenade the man who’d provided them with so many beloved hits over the years. Joel will play center field for Mets again Friday when he wraps up "The Last Play at Shea."


"Billy Joel's Shea Concert Documentary Going Well"
By: Glenn Gamboa
(July 18th, 2008)

The production team chronicling the final concerts at Shea Stadium said the first half of Billy Joel's "Last Double Play at Shea" went off without a hitch and they are expecting things to go just as well at tonight's show.

"It was spectacular - beyond expectations," said Steve Cohen, who is co-producing a documentary on the event with Joel and Spitfire Pictures' Nigel Sinclair. "Out of all the years I've been working with Billy, I think it was the best culmination of everybody's talent I've seen. Everybody brought it."

The documentary team has been following Joel for the past three months as he prepared for the shows and will continue filming at Shea Stadium through its destruction this fall, Cohen said.

"Billy made it very clear he wanted to do a legitimate documentary and not a concert film or a biopic. He really wanted to document the event and document the history."

Producers are hoping the documentary, "Last Play at Shea" - directed by Greg Whiteley and Jon Small - will be in theatres by the end of 2009.

Cohen said Joel and the producers were so pleased with Wednesday's show that there would be few changes. "We'll tweak things a little bit and we will have a whole new set of guests," he said. "But the show definitely worked and when we know we've got something good, we're going to lock it in and not overthink it."


"Paul McCartney Joins Billy Joel at Shea Stadium"
By: Ben Sisario
(July 19th, 2008)

It takes a lot to upstage Billy Joel at Shea Stadium.

But late on Friday night, nearly three hours into a career-spanning performance advertised as the last concert at Shea before it was to be demolished, Mr. Joel seemed happy to turn over the spotlight to Paul McCartney, who, he said, had just flown in from London.

The sold-out crowd of 55,000 people let out an ear-splitting roar as Mr. McCartney sang The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There," with Mr. Joel singing back-up and, fitting his reputation as a self-deprecating rock star, looking on from his piano as if he were just another fan himself.

Before beginning "Let It Be," Mr. McCartney alluded to The Beatles' first concert at Shea in 1965, the year after the stadium opened.

"It's so cool to be back here on the last night," he said. "Been here a long time ago - we had a blast that night, and we're having another one tonight."

The concert was the second of two farewell shows by Mr. Joel, who told the crowd earlier in the night: "They're tearing this house down. I want to thank you for letting me do the job and keep doing it - the best job in the world."

Mr. McCartney wasn't the only big guest. Country star Garth Brooks, dressed in a Mets T-Shirt, sang Mr. Joel's "Shameless," which was a big hit for Mr. Brooks; Steven Tyler of Aerosmith performed "Walk This Way;" and Roger Daltrey of the Who - which played at Shea in 1982 - sang "My Generation" as Mr. Joel smashed a guitar on the centerfield stage.

Before the show, fans praised Mr. Joel, Long Island's favorite son, as an approachable superstar whose songs chronicle everyday New York lives and struggles. "Only New Yorkers have a true sense of what he talks about," said Lauren Marchiano, 26. As an avowed follower of both Mr. Joel and the Mets, she said, the night was doubly poignant for her.

But the most popular topic of conversation seemed to be how much everyone had paid to get in. Ronnie Glowacki, an administrative assistant from Brooklyn, had been frozen out when tickets went on sale in February; she would say only that she paid "somewhere between zero and $500" to get in on Friday. A Yankees fan, she was there to catch what could be a last glimpse - not of Shea Stadium, but of Mr. Joel.

"I don’t know how much longer he's going to be doing concerts, so I want to get every one I can get in," she said. "For me it's all Billy."


"Take 5: No Stranger To TV"
By: Andy Edelstein
(July 20th, 2008)

Now that Billy Joel has played his two shows at Shea Stadium, there's still another chance to catch him performing. On Wednesday at 9:00pm, WLIW/21 airs "Billy Joel: The Stranger Live," a 1978 performance that was originally broadcast on the BBC. Here are five of Joel's memorable TV moments:

March 1974: His first national exposure is on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." He performed "Piano Man," "Somewhere Along The Line," and "Captain Jack."

February 18th, 1978: His first appearance on "Saturday Night Live" - on an episode hosted by former "SNL" star Chevy Chase. Joel sang "Just The Way You Are" and "Only The Good Die Young.

July 1983: HBO airs "Billy Joel: A Television First," taped at Nassau Coliseum at the close of a 36-city US Tour. HBO would later air Joel concerts from Leningrad (1987) and Yankee Stadium (1990)

1983: "Uptown Girl" music video: In what is arguably his most memorable music video, Joel played a mechanic with a crush on a gorgeous woman, played by his then-girlfriend, model Christie Brinkley.

February 4th, 2007: Joel sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Super Bowl XLI in Miami. He becomes the first person to sing the National Anthem at two Super Bowls. (The other was Super Bowl XXIII in 1989.)


"The Return of 'The Stranger' - 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of Billy Joel's Top-Selling Breakout Album Enters Billboard Top Pop Catalogue Chart at #1 While Generating Nationwide Attention"
"Billy Joel: Return of 'The Stranger'" Radio Program Picked Up by 150 Stations Coast-To-Coast
Billy Joel Sells-Out Historic "Last Play at Shea" Concerts

(July 31st, 2008)

Summer 2008 is turning into a banner season for pop music icon Billy Joel, who's enjoying a run of high-profile sales and concert success.

With the artist making history for his pair of sold-out concerts at New York's Shea Stadium on July 16th, 2008 and July 18th, 2008, the newly compiled 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of Billy Joel's "The Stranger" (originally released in September 1977) entered the Billboard Top Pop Catalogue chart at #1 shortly following its release on July 8th, 2008.

Legacy Recordings is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of "The Stranger" with a newly relaunched edition of Billy's official web-site. The site provides free access to Legacy's new "The Stranger" podcast series featuring brand new interviews from Phil Ramone, Gavin DeGraw, Duncan Sheik, legendary songwriters Diane Warren and Jimmy Webb and additional surprises as well as archival and new interview footage of Billy himself.

Legacy's 30th Anniversary Edition of Billy Joel's "The Stranger" is also available as a Platinum MusicPass, a digital album gift card which enables consumers to download a full-length album, and in many cases special bonus content, in the form of high-quality files compatible with all MP3 players.

"Billy Joel - Return of 'The Stranger'," a new one-hour radio special, has been picked up by 150 radio stations - in a multitude of formats including AAA, AC, ALT, CR, Oldies and more - in major US markets across the country. "Billy Joel - Return of 'The Stranger'" tells the story of Billy Joel's classic album from Billy Joel's personal perspective and through the songs that made him a superstar 30 years ago. The program includes new interviews, and archival interviews with Billy Joel, new interviews with the album's producer Phil Ramone, and a wealth of music related to, and from "The Stranger" including tracks from the newly-remastered 30th Anniversary Edition, as well as rare vintage live recordings from Carnegie Hall (June 1977) and Nassau Coliseum (December 1977). The radio program is produced by Tres Hombres (Paul Rappaport, Jym Fahey, Mitch Maketansky) and hosted by Bob Buchmann (WAXQ-FM, New York).

New York PBS station WLIW will provide a 30th anniversary showcase for "The Stranger" with pledge week broadcasts of "The Making of 'The Stranger'" and Billy Joel's appearance on "The Old Grey Whistle Test." The Stranger 30th Anniversary Editions as well as an exclusive "The Stranger Live" CD will be available as PBS fund drive premiums.

When it was announced earlier this year that Billy Joel - who holds the Madison Square Garden record for the longest sequence of sold-out shows by a single artist (12) - would perform the last concerts at New York's fabled Shea Stadium on July 16th, 2008 and July 18th, 2008, more than 110,000 tickets were sold-out in 45 minutes.

Attendees at the concerts were given exclusive "The Stranger" laminates which enabled them to download a free song from "The Stranger" played live at Billy Joel's "Last Play at Shea" concert. "The Stranger" promotional laminates also introduced fans to the free Billy Joel Mobile Community Club on the official Billy Joel web-site.

MLB launched a special Billy Joel section on its site featuring sound files, photos and an exclusive interview with the artist.

Billy Joel's Shea Stadium concerts featured guest artists including John Mayer, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, John Mellencamp, Don Henley, Tony Bennett, and Paul McCartney (who'd performed at Shea's first rock concert in 1965). The New York Daily News heralded "the unforgettable final concert at Shea Stadium" while New York Newsday quoted a fan who called the performance "the best concert she'll ever see."

Originally released in September 1977, Billy Joel's fifth studio album, "The Stranger," marked the first of Joel's highly successful collaborations with producer Phil Ramone, whose mastery of the recording studio provided a sublime sonic context for Joel's timeless songs and classic performances.

The resulting collection became one of the top-selling albums of the year (peaking at #2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart); won two Grammys (Record of The Year and Song of The Year for "Just The Way You Are," "The Stranger" was nominated for Album of The Year); overtook Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as Columbia Records' Top Selling Album of all-time, and generated four indelible singles - "Just The Way You Are (#1 Adult Contemporary, #3 Pop Singles); "Only The Good Die Young" (#24 Pop Singles); "She's Always A Woman" (#2 Adult Contemporary, #17 Pop Singles); and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" (#17 Pop Singles) - that remain radio staples to this day.

Billy Joel's first Top 10 album, "The Stranger" is still the iconic performer's best-selling non-compilation album ever. Ranked at #67 on Rolling Stone's prestigious "500 Greatest Albums of All-Time" list, "The Stranger" has earned the coveted RIAA Diamond Album certification (presented in recognition of US sales of more than 10 million copies).

Having sold more than 110 million records over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years, Billy Joel ranks as one of the most popular recording artists and respected entertainers in the world.

Billy Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1972. He received the Recording Industry Association of America Diamond Award, presented for albums that have sold more than 10 million copies, for his "Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II."

Taking its name from a key track on "The Stranger," "Movin' Out," a Broadway musical based on Joel's music, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp, was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and took home two including Best Orchestrations - Billy Joel's first Tony Award win - and Best Choreography.

Billy Joel received Grammy awards for Record of The Year and Song of The Year in 1978 for his song "Just The Way You Are"; Album of The Year in 1979 for "52nd Street"; and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1979 for "52nd Street" and in 1980 for "Glass Houses." In 1990, he was presented with a Grammy Legend Award. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, he was also presented with the Johnny Mercer Award in 2001. In 1999 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in 2004 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His other awards include the ASCAP Founders Award, the BMI Career Achievement Award, the American Music Awards Award of Merit, and the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal.

Billy Joel has donated his time and resources to a variety of charitable causes, and he has recently launched an ongoing educational initiative to provide seed money, musical scholarships, and endowments to a variety of East Coast colleges, universities, and music schools. For his accomplishments as a musician and as a humanitarian, he was honored as the 2002 MusiCares Person of The Year by the MusiCares Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences; he has also received a humanitarian award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The net proceeds of Billy Joel's recent composition, "Christmas In Fallujah," inspired by soldiers' letters from Iraq, are being donated to Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds specially adapted homes for disabled service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.