Posts

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Billy Joel- 52nd Street 45th anniversary

It's the 45th anniversary of Billy Joel's "52nd Street". We talked rock'n'roll, from Billy Joel seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show  to British Invasion bands that followed, garage rock, and the New York City punk scene that influencedhis approach after the1978 "52nd Street" album. But we also talked at length about baseball...

Billy Joel- New York State of Mind- San Francisco 6-75

...a live performance of the then new song "New York State of Mind" in June, 1975 in San Francisco.This may be the earliest known live recording of the gem, but most certainly it would be one of the last performances where no one in Billy Joel's audience applauds during the piano intro in recognition!

Aerosmith- Fever- Brussels 10-31-93

The only kind of "Fever" that's actually good for anyone is the musical one that is symptomatic of the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu. Aerosmith was running a high "Fever", originally from the album Get a Grip earlier that year,…
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Billy Joel- The Stranger

Billy Joel is certainly not "The Stranger" to spectacular popularity, or the record books documenting same. And it's not as if Billy Joel had not been a prolific recording singer/songwriter or an infrequent touring musician prior to his fifth album, "The Stranger", in Fall 1977. But strangely his album sales were in a decidedly negative trend after "Piano Man". "The Stranger" changed all that, permanently. Billy Joel joins me In the Studio on the album's 45th anniversary.

Billy Joel- Only the Good Die Young reggae demo

Just for fun, check out this previously unreleased demo of Billy Joel leading his band through a reggae version of "Only the Good Die Young", no doubt in tribute to the popularity  of Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1977 when Billy Joel's The…
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Billy Joel- Glass Houses

Billy Joel "Glass Houses"   has sold over ten million copies, stayed at #1 for six consecutive weeks, was the 4th-best seller for the entire year 1980, and won Billy Joel a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Hear him In the Studio.

Billy Joel- You May Be Right-w/Elton John 7-94

Billy Joel performs "You May Be Right" with Elton John July 1994 at The Meadowlands

Billy Joel- Captain Jack- Long Island 7-81

People that have not been in Billy Joel's corner since the days of The Hassles and Cold Spring Harbor  and Piano Man,  the latter released forty-five years ago this Autumn, truly cannot appreciate the depth of affection millions feel for this…

Billy Joel- Billy the Kid- UConn 12-76

“From a town known as Oyster Bay Long Island, Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand...” As Billy Joel prepares to blow out the candles on seventy this week, it felt right to dust off something more akin to seventeen. There are moments…

Tommy Shaw- Girls With Guns- Dallas Ft. Worth 11-84

When Tommy Shaw, just recently estranged then from arena-fillers Styx, brought his Girls With Guns  solo band to a Ft. Worth nightclub in an otherwise empty strip mall on a chilly Sunday November night in 1984, what I expected to see and hear,…