New York City in 1978 was a very different place. The city had nearly gone bankrupt only three years earlier and it still felt uncertain, edgy and threatening. But it was exploding with musical creativity, from the Bowery to the Bronx.
For an ambitious young musician, Bronx-born and raised on Long Island, coming off the most successful album of his career, it was time to come in from the suburbs and claim the city as his own.
On Dec. 14, 1978, Billy Joel made his debut at Madison Square Garden.
Flash forward almost exactly 35 years to December 2013. That was when Joel, along with his longtime agent Dennis Arfa and Garden officials, came up with the audacious plan for the singer to perform a monthly residency at the arena — which would continue, he said then, “for as long as there’s demand.”
Onstage at the Garden on Thursday (July 25), Joel, 75, declared “It’s time.” In a joyous, raucous, moving night of music and memories, Billy Joel played his 150th show at Madison Square Garden and the finale of his unprecedented decade-long residency. He recalled the many milestones of his live career — one of the first acts to play Yankee Stadium and the “last play” at Shea Stadium; performing in Berlin before the Wall fell down, in the Soviet Union, in Havana, Cuba and at the Colosseum in Rome.
“But out of all of them,” said Joel, “this is the best!”
To be sure, the demand to see Joel at the Garden has never slackened; on Thursday the place was packed to the rafters — where, of course banners hang proclaiming Joel’s MSG records: most consecutive performances by any artist and most lifetime performances by any artist. Jimmy Fallon joined Joel to raise the new “150 Performances” banner Thursday night. (Axl Rose was Joel’s second guest, later in the evening).
Over the past decade, the Garden reports, Joel has sold more than 1.9 million tickets to these shows to fans from all 50 states and more than 120 countries. But make no mistake; this was a hometown crowd, cheering the local references in Joel’s powerhouse, customary show opener “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway).”
Here are 10 of the greatest moments from the finale of Joel’s MSG residency
The bittersweet, jaded, perspective that gave Joel his signature hit with “Piano Man” in 1973 also shaped “The Entertainer,” his sardonic view of the pop music business, released a year later. But five decades on, as Joel performed the song early in his set Thursday night, his lyrics were rich with irony. “But I know the game and you’ll forget my name/ I won’t be here in another year/ If I don’t stay on the charts.” Not quite.
Joel noted that his half brother, classical conductor Alexander Joel, was in the audience, having traveled from his home in Vienna. Joel’s song of that name, inspired by his visit to the Austrian city in the 1970s, was only released as the B-side to the single “Just The Way You Are” in 1977, and never charted. Yet today, “Vienna” is Joel’s third most-streamed song on Spotify (after “Uptown Girl” and “Piano Man”). “Slow down you crazy child/ Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while/ It’s alright, you can afford to lose a day or two,” he sang Thursday night. With the song’s recent resurgence traced to its memorable appearance in the 2004 Jennifer Garner film 13 Going on 30 (and more recently, revitalization on TikTok), Joel’s lyric has been embraced by a younger generation — and ought to be taken to heart once more by his peers as well.
It is entirely apt that Joel plays a snippet of “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as he begins his live performances of “My Life.” The reasons for his joy emerged on stage Thursday, in his two youngest fans — Della Rose Joel, 8, and her sister Remy Anne Joel, 6, his daughters with his wife, Alexis Roderick. The girls wore matching, multicolored outfits (although Remy Anne also sported noise-canceling headphones) and they initially perched on dad’s grand piano. But soon Della Rose showed what’s in her blood, striding across the stage, gesturing with the song’s lyrics and edging up to her father’s microphone to sing with the chorus. “I guess it’s her life now,” joked Joel.
For those like Joel who grew up on Long Island, its miles of waterfront — from the beaches of the North Shore to the expanse of the Great South Bay to the ocean surf of the East End — once felt like paradise. Today it is paradise lost. That’s been evident for years to the island’s struggling professional fisherman, for whom Joel wrote “The Downeaster Alexa” on his 1989 album Storm Front. The multi-sectioned video screen Thursday filled with images of the ocean as Joel sang “There ain’t much future for a man who works the sea/ But there ain’t no island left for islanders like me.”
In black-and-white images on the video screens above the stage, lights on the bridges of Manhattan shone like diamonds. An aerial camera panned across the nighttime expanse of the five boroughs and the iconic skyline as Joel performed “New York State of Mind,” his love song to the city, whether “Chinatown or Riverside” or anywhere in between. Saxophonist Mark Rivera quoted a bit of the 1925 Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart gem “Manhattan” in his solo. Many other artists have recorded great songs about this city. But apologies to both Frank Sinatra and Jay-Z, this is the New York classic.
Fans have come to expect guest artists at Joel’s Garden shows. But no one predicted Axl Rose would show up, in dark shades and a sparkling black jacket, checking he had room to swing his microphone stand. He and Joel began with “Live And Let Die” and Joel broke into a huge grin as Rose wailed on the chorus. Then Rose, who stepped in as the lead singer of AC/DC in 2016, took on that band’s “Highway to Hell” (the unofficial song of the Long Island Expressway). Among the thousands in the Garden crowd, no one shouted along with that Australian rock mainstay louder than Chuck Powell, 53, and Claudia Sallusito, 54. The two had traveled some 10,000 miles, from Perth and Sydney, Australia, respectively, for Thursday night’s show.
The Stranger remains Joel’s highest-selling release with certified sales of 11 million units, according to the RIAA. Thursday’s show featured the album’s hits “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and “Only the Good Die Young,” that anthem of suburban sex in the `70s. But “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” holds a special place in the memory of Joel’s fans (a fact acknowledged by Madison Square Garden, which set up a special concession area Thursday night, complete with red-and-white checkered tablecloths). But as Joel once more sang the tale of the song’s star-crossed lovers, Brenda and Eddie, its emotional precision hit home once more. We all knew this couple. Joel’s lyrics have the detail, humor and truth of great short stories.
Joel is a student of great music of all genres. He reminded his fans of that with back-to-back songs Thursday. First came the beautiful gospel and doo-wop mixture of “River of Dreams,” the title track of the last pop album he released, in 1993. As in previous concerts, he played the song as a medley with Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep – Mountain High.” Crystal Taliefero’s voice all but blew through the Garden rafters (where all those Billy Joel banners hung) with her tribute to Tina Turner.
Then, perhaps as only Joel could do, he moved from the pop mastery of Phil Spector, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich to the Italian opera of Puccini, for guitarist Mike DelGuidice’s astounding rendition of “Nessum dorma.” (Let’s take a moment here to acknowledge the full band lineup, not yet cited: Carl Fisher on horns, musical director David Rosenthal on keys, Tommy Byrnes on guitar, Andrew Cichon on bass and Chuck Burgi on drums).
“It’s a pretty good crowd—for a Thursday,” quipped Joel on “Piano Man,” before briefly stepping off the stage and returning for his encore. “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” with its historical images projected on the video screen, was followed by “Uptown Girl” — and one fan caught the video camera’s attention as she held aloft her New Jersey license plate, emblazoned with: “UPTNGIRL.” As cameras scanned the crowd, it was notable how many young women were among Joel’s new generation of fans.
The full power of Joel’s mighty band was unleashed for the night’s final two songs: “Big Shot” and “You May Be Right,” with Axl Rose re-emerging for the now-expected snippet of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll” mixed in to the finale. Joel has consistently played these songs to close his shows. Fans might have started heading out to the final chords. But nobody left their seat until the Piano Man, rejoined by his daughters, waved farewell from the Garden stage — until next time.
In an historic night of more than two dozen great songs, sometimes the emotional heart of the performance can slip by, almost unnoticed. On Thursday, it came with Joel’s mid-set rendition of “This Is the Time,” a Top 20 hit from his 1986 album The Bridge. The video screens above the stage projected images of Joel’s young daughters and wife. In one photo, a child is learning to walk. In other, the two are playing beneath his grand piano. Fleetingly, a birthday card from the late Tony Bennett was shown. Joel’s voice never sounded more soulful as he sang: “This is the time to remember/ ‘Cause it will not last forever.”
For Billy Joel’s fans at Madison Square Garden, if only it could.
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