1964–1970: Early career Although Joel's compositions are infused with references to
classical music, his music mostly encompasses
pop and
rock, and
soft rock. Furthermore, Joel's tightly structured melodies and down-to-earth songwriting betray the influence of early
rock & roll and
rhythm & blues artists, including
Elvis Presley and the
Everly Brothers. However, it was only after seeing the
Beatles on
The Ed Sullivan Show that he decided to pursue a career in music. As he later commented: At age 16, Joel joined the Echoes, a group which specialized in
British Invasion covers. The Echoes began recording in 1965. Joel played piano on several records released through
Kama Sutra Productions and on recordings produced by
Shadow Morton. He played on a
demo version of "
Leader of the Pack", which in 1964 became a major hit for
the Shangri-Las, and has said that he was also on the demo or
master recording of their song "
Remember (Walking in the Sand)". The released single included a co-producer credit for
Artie Ripp, who later was the first to sign and produce Joel as a solo artist after
Michael Lang, who had given Joel a monetary advance, passed Joel along to Ripp to focus his attentions elsewhere. In late 1965, the Echoes changed their name briefly to the Emeralds, and then to the Lost Souls. Joel left the band in 1967 to join
the Hassles, a Long Island group that had signed with
United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, they released four singles and two albums (
The Hassles and
Hour of the Wolf). However, all were commercial failures. Joel and drummer Jon Small, who would eventually direct his music videos starting in the late 1970s, left the Hassles in 1969 to form the duo
Attila, releasing an
eponymous debut album in July 1970. The duo disbanded the following October when Joel began an affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth. The pair later married.
1970–1974: Cold Spring Harbor and Piano Man Joel signed a contract with the record company Family Productions, with which he recorded his first solo album,
Cold Spring Harbor, named for
Cold Spring Harbor, a hamlet on his native
Long Island. Artie Ripp, owner of Family Productions, states that he spent US$450,000 developing Joel; The popular songs "
She's Got a Way" and "
Everybody Loves You Now" were first released on this album, but went largely unnoticed until live versions were included on
Songs in the Attic (1981). Columbia released a remastered version of
Cold Spring Harbor in 1983, with certain songs shortened or re-orchestrated. Joel signed a recording contract with the label in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for the next three years. Though there was a bar called The Executive Room on Wilshire and Gramercy, numerous witnessess who saw Billy Joel perform in 1973 described the bar as being in the lobby of a large office building on the corner of Wilshire and Western, indicating that the bar likely had a secondary location during that period. Although now signed to Columbia, Joel was still obliged to pay Artie Ripp and Michael Lang a share of his royalties from album sales. In 1981, when his contract was renegotiated, the company agreed to cover these payments itself. President of
CBS/Columbia Records
Walter Yetnikoff also bought the publishing rights to Joel's songs owned by Ripp, which he then gave to the artist as a birthday gift. Yetnikoff noted in the 2010 documentary
The Last Play at Shea that he had to threaten Ripp to close the deal. Joel's first album with Columbia was
Piano Man (1973). Despite modest sales, the album's title track became his signature song, ending nearly every concert. That same year, Joel's touring band changed. Guitarist Al Hertzberg was replaced by Don Evans, and bassist Larry Russell by Patrick McDonald, himself replaced in late 1974 by
Doug Stegmeyer, who stayed with Joel until 1989. Rhys Clark returned as drummer and Tom Whitehorse as banjoist and pedal steel player;
Johnny Almond joined as saxophonist and keyboardist. The band toured the U.S. and Canada extensively, appearing on popular music shows. Joel's songwriting began attracting more attention; in 1974,
Helen Reddy recorded the
Piano Man track "
You're My Home".
1974–1977: Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles In 1974, Joel recorded his second Columbia album in Los Angeles,
Streetlife Serenade. His manager at the time was Jon Troy, an old friend from New York's
Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood; Troy was soon replaced by Joel's wife Elizabeth.
Streetlife Serenade contains references to
suburbia and the
inner city. It is perhaps best known for "
The Entertainer", a No. 34 hit in the U.S. Upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly cut for radio play, Joel wrote "The Entertainer" as a sarcastic response: "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." Although
Streetlife Serenade was viewed unfavorably by critics, it contains the notable songs "Los Angelenos" and "
Root Beer Rag", an
instrumental that was a staple of his live set in the 1970s. In late 1975, Joel played piano and organ on several tracks on
Bo Diddley's ''The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll'' all-star album. Not long after the release of
Streetlife Serenade, Joel began working on his next album,
Turnstiles, at
Caribou Ranch studio in
Colorado. The difficult project began with
Michael Stewart as producer, then
James William Guercio took over before Stewart was brought in again. Using members of
Elton John's backing band
Dee Murray and
Nigel Olsson, as well as
session musicians, half the songs had been recorded when Joel decided the results were less than satisfactory. Also disenchanted with Los Angeles, where he encountered anti-New York sentiment, he returned to the East Coast
metropolis in 1975, seeking inspiration in the
city's troubles. Now with himself as producer, he rerecorded and completed the album, which when released in 1976, was the first to feature his
regular touring band. "
Say Goodbye to Hollywood" was a minor hit, covered by
Ronnie Spector and Nigel Olsson. During a 2008 radio interview, Joel said that he no longer performs the song because singing it in its high original key "shreds" his
vocal cords; however, Joel did finally play it live for the first time since 1982 when he sang it at the
Hollywood Bowl in May 2014. Although never released as a single, "
New York State of Mind" became one of Joel's best-known songs;
Barbra Streisand recorded a cover and
Tony Bennett performed it as a duet with Joel on
Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues. Other notable songs from the album include "
Summer, Highland Falls"; "
Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" and "
Prelude/Angry Young Man", a concert mainstay.
1977–1979: The Stranger and 52nd Street During the
Turnstiles tour, Joel's wife Elizabeth phoned
George Martin in an attempt to recruit him as the producer for Joel's next album, but having seen the artist play live at
Glassboro State College in
New Jersey, Martin declined the invitation. Prior to the tour, Joel had expressed to his wife a desire to work with
Phil Ramone at some point. She now contacted the legendary producer, who attended Joel's concert at New York's
Carnegie Hall on June 2, 1977 (as did
Don DeVito from Columbia Records, who brought with him a recording truck to tape the show). Impressed by what he saw, Ramone went on to produce all seven studio albums Joel recorded from 1977 to 1986. Their first collaboration,
The Stranger (1977), was an enormous commercial success and "established Joel as a household name". The album yielded four Top-25 hits on the
Billboard charts: "
Just the Way You Are" (No. 3), "
Movin' Out" (No. 17), "
Only the Good Die Young" (No. 24) and "
She's Always a Woman" (No. 17). Joel's first Top Ten album,
The Stranger reached number two on the charts and was certified multi-platinum, besting
Simon & Garfunkel's
Bridge over Troubled Water as Columbia's previous bestselling album. "Just the Way You Are" — written for Joel's first wife, Elizabeth Weber — was inspired by a dream and won
Grammy awards for
Record of the Year and
Song of the Year. On tour in Paris, Joel learned the news late one night in a hotel room. and "
Vienna", also one of Joel's personal favorites, and one of his most streamed songs on the internet as of 2022.
Rolling Stone later ranked
The Stranger the 70th greatest album of all time. Joel released
52nd Street in 1978, naming it after Manhattan's
52nd Street, which, at the time of its release, served as the world headquarters of
CBS/ Columbia. The album sold over seven million copies, propelled to number one on the charts by the hits "
My Life" (No. 3), "
Big Shot" (No. 14) and "
Honesty" (No. 24). A cover of "My Life" by Gary Bennett became the theme for the television sitcom
Bosom Buddies.
52nd Street also won Grammy awards for
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year. In 1978, Joel gave his first of what would go on to be at least 150 shows at New York City's
Madison Square Garden. In 2025, Joel described playing at the arena as being a "dream come true". He currently dominates the record for most concerts performed at Madison Square Garden. In 1979, Joel traveled to
Havana, Cuba, to participate in the historic
Havana Jam festival from March 2–4, alongside
Rita Coolidge,
Kris Kristofferson,
Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, the
Trio of Doom,
Fania All-Stars,
Billy Swan,
Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnegan,
Weather Report, and an array of Cuban artists including
Irakere,
Pacho Alonso,
Tata Güines and
Orquesta Aragón. Although Joel's performance was for many the highlight of the weekend, CBS were unable to record or film it as planned because his wife objected to the fact that a specific deal had not been agreed with them in advance. He was interviewed about his experience of playing at the event for Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary ''Havana Jam '79''.
52nd Street was the first commercially released album on the then-new compact disc format, in 1982.
1979–1983: Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain The success of his piano-driven ballads like "Just the Way You Are", "She's Always a Woman" and "Honesty" led some critics to label Joel a "
balladeer" and "
soft rocker". He thought these labels were unfair and insulting, and with
Glass Houses, Joel tried to record an album that proved that he could rock harder than his critics gave him credit for, occasionally imitating and referring to the style of
new wave rock music that was starting to become popular. Joel stated that the album cover, which pictured him wearing a leather jacket and about to throw a rock at a window of his
Long Island home, was intended as a riposte to his image as a "mellow balladeer".
Glass Houses spent six weeks at the top of the
Billboard album chart, yielding the hits "
You May Be Right" (No. 7, May 1980), "
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me", (No. 1, July 1980), "
Don't Ask Me Why" (No. 19, September 1980) and "
Sometimes a Fantasy" (No. 36, November 1980). The latter song gave its name to a 15-minute promotional film featuring both music and dialog, which as Joel's first venture of this kind, he wrote and directed himself. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" was his first number one on the
Billboard Hot 100, where it spent 11 weeks in the top 10 and became the ninth biggest-selling single of the year. His five sold-out shows at
Madison Square Garden in 1980 earned him the venue's
Gold Ticket Award for selling more than 100,000 tickets.
Glass Houses won the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. It also won the
American Music Award for Favorite Album, Pop/Rock category. The album's closing song, "Through the Long Night" (
B-side of the "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" single), was a lullaby that featured Joel harmonizing with himself in a song he says was inspired by
the Beatles' "
Yes It Is". In a recorded
master class at the
University of Pennsylvania, Joel recalled that he had written to the Beatles asking them how to get started in the music industry. In response, he received a pamphlet about Beatles merchandise. This later led to the idea of Joel conducting Q&A sessions around the world answering questions that people had about the music industry. Joel's next release,
Songs in the Attic, was composed of live performances of lesser-known songs from the beginning of his career. It was recorded at larger US arenas and in intimate nightclub shows in June and July 1980. This release introduced many fans, who discovered Joel when
The Stranger became a smash in 1977, to many of his earlier compositions. The album reached No. 8 on the
Billboard chart and produced two hit singles: "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (No. 17), and "She's Got a Way" (No. 23). It sold over three million copies. Although not as successful as some of his previous albums, it was still considered a success by Joel. The next wave of Joel's career commenced with the recording of
The Nylon Curtain. With it, Joel became more ambitious with his songwriting, which included highly topical songs like "
Allentown" and "
Goodnight Saigon". Joel has stated that he wanted the album to communicate his feelings about
the American Dream and how changes in American politics during the
Reagan administration meant that "all of a sudden you weren't going to be able to inherit [the kind of life] your old man had." He also tried to be more ambitious in his use of the recording studio. Joel said that he wanted to "create a sonic masterpiece" on
The Nylon Curtain. So he spent more time in the studio, crafting the sound of the album, than he had on any previous album. In October 1982, Joel embarked on a
brief tour to support the album, and recorded his first video special,
Live from Long Island, at the
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in
Uniondale, New York on December 29. This was first broadcast on
HBO on July 24, 1983, before being released on
VHS. At the following year's Grammy Awards, it was nominated for the
Best Video Album.
The Nylon Curtain went to No. 7 on the charts, partially due to heavy airplay on MTV for the videos to the singles "Allentown" and "
Pressure", both directed by
Russell Mulcahy.
1983–1988: An Innocent Man and The Bridge Joel's next album moved away from the serious themes of
The Nylon Curtain and struck a much lighter tone.
An Innocent Man was Joel's tribute to
R&B and
doo wop music of the 1950s and 1960s and resulted in Joel's second
Billboard number-one hit, "
Tell Her About It", which was the first single off the album in the summer of 1983. The album itself reached No. 4 on the charts and No. 2 in UK. It also boasted six top-30 singles, the most of any album in Joel's catalog. The album was well received by critics, with
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, describing Joel as being "in top form as a craftsman throughout the record, effortlessly spinning out infectious, memorable melodies in a variety of styles." At the time that the album was released,
WCBS-FM began playing "
Uptown Girl" both in regular rotation and on the
Doo Wop Live. The song became a worldwide hit when released as a single. Originally entitled "Uptown Girls", it was inspired by a chance encounter with
Christie Brinkley,
Whitney Houston, and
Elle Macpherson, who were on a modelling assignment in the
Caribbean when they approached Joel whilst he was playing the piano in the bar of their hotel (where he was a holiday guest). The accompanying music video featured Brinkley as a high-society girl who pulls her
Rolls-Royce into the gas station where Joel's character is working. At the end of the video, Joel's "grease monkey" character drives off with his "uptown girl" on the back of a motorcycle. When Brinkley went to visit Joel after being asked to star in the video, the first thing Joel said to her upon opening his door was "I don't dance". Brinkley had to walk him through the basic steps he does in the video. Their work together on this video shoot sparked a relationship between the two which led to their marriage in 1985. In December,
the title song was released as a single and it peaked at No. 10 in the U.S. and No. 8 in the UK, early in 1984. That March, "
The Longest Time" was released as a single, peaking at No. 14 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. That summer, "
Leave a Tender Moment Alone" was released and it hit No. 27 while "
Keeping the Faith" peaked at No. 18 in January 1985. In the video for "Keeping the Faith", Brinkley appears as a passenger in a
convertible Chevrolet.
An Innocent Man was also nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, but lost to
Michael Jackson's
Thriller. ", January 1985 Joel participated in the USA for Africa "
We Are the World" project in 1985. Following
An Innocent Man, Joel was asked about releasing an album of his most successful singles. This was not the first time this topic had come up, but Joel had initially considered
greatest hits albums as marking the end of one's career. This time he agreed, and
Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 was released as a four-sided album and two-CD set, with the songs in the order in which they were released. The new songs "
You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "
The Night Is Still Young" were recorded and released as singles to support the album; both reached the top 40, peaking at No. 9 and No. 34, respectively.
Greatest Hits was highly successful and it has since been certified
double diamond by the
RIAA, with over 11.5 million copies (23 million units) sold. It is one of the
best-selling albums in American music history, according to the RIAA. Coinciding with the
Greatest Hits album release, Joel released a two-volume
Video Album that was a compilation of the promotional videos he had recorded from 1977 to that time. Along with videos for the new singles off the
Greatest Hits album, Joel also recorded a video for his first hit, "Piano Man", for this project. Joel's next album,
The Bridge (1986), did not achieve the level of success of his previous studio albums, but it yielded the hits "
A Matter of Trust" and "
Modern Woman" (both No. 10) from the film
Ruthless People, a dark comedy from the directors of
Airplane!. The ballad "
This is the Time" also charted, peaking at No. 18. On November 18, 1986, an extended version of "
Big Man on Mulberry Street" was used on a Season 3 episode of
Moonlighting.
The Bridge was Joel's last album to carry the Family Productions logo, after which he severed his ties with Artie Ripp. Joel was unsatisfied with most of the songs on
The Bridge, but his record company denied a request for time to produce better material. In a 2008 interview, he described it as "not a good album'. In October 1986, Joel and his team started planning a trip to the
Soviet Union. This was realized the following July, when he arrived in the country with his wife, daughter Alexa, and full touring band. Following an improvised performance in
Tbilisi, Joel gave six concerts at indoor arenas in Moscow and
Leningrad, to a combined audience possibly in excess of 100,000 people. The entourage was filmed for television and video to offset the cost of the trip, and the concerts were simulcast on radio around the world. Joel's Russian tour was the first live rock radio broadcast in Soviet history. The tour was later cited frequently as one of the first fully staged pop rock shows to come to the Soviet Union, although in reality other artists had previously toured in the country, including Elton John,
James Taylor, and
Bonnie Raitt. Most of that audience took a long while to warm up to Joel's energetic show, something that had never happened in other countries he had performed in. According to Joel, each time the fans were hit with the bright lights, anybody who seemed to be enjoying themselves froze. In addition, people who were "overreacting" were removed by security. During this concert, Joel, enraged by the bright lights, flipped his electric piano and snapped a microphone stand while continuing to sing. Joel later apologized for the incident. The first single for the album, "
We Didn't Start the Fire", was released in September 1989 and it became Joel's third—and most recent—US number-one hit, spending two weeks at the top.
Storm Front was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first number-one album since
Glass Houses, nine years earlier.
Storm Front was Joel's first album since
Turnstiles to be recorded without Phil Ramone as producer. For this album, he wanted a new sound, and worked with
Mick Jones of
Foreigner. Joel is also credited as one of the keyboard players on Jones's 1988 self-titled solo album, and is featured in the official video for Jones's single "Just Wanna Hold"; Joel can be seen playing the piano while his then-wife Christie Brinkley joins him and kisses him. Joel also revamped his backing band, dismissing everyone but drummer
Liberty DeVitto, guitarist David Brown, and saxophone player
Mark Rivera, and bringing in new faces, including multi-instrumentalist
Crystal Taliefero.
Storm Front second single, "
I Go to Extremes" reached No. 6 in early 1990. The album was also notable for its song "
Leningrad", written after Joel met a clown in the Soviet city of that name during his tour in 1987, and "
The Downeaster Alexa", written to underscore the plight of fishermen on Long Island who are barely able to make ends meet. Another well-known single from the album is the ballad "
And So It Goes" (No. 37 in late 1990). The song was originally written in 1983, around the time Joel was writing songs for
An Innocent Man; but "And So It Goes" did not fit that album's retro theme, so it was held back until
Storm Front. Joel said in a 1996 master class session in Pittsburgh that
Storm Front was a turbulent album and that "And So It Goes", as the last song on the album, portrayed the calm and tranquility that often follows a violent thunderstorm. In September 1992, Joel filed a US$90 million lawsuit against his former lawyer Allen Grubman, alleging a wide range of offenses including fraud, breach of fiduciary responsibility, malpractice and breach of contract. The case was settled out of court in the fall of 1993 for US$3 million paid to Joel by third party
Sony America, to protect its subsidiary
Sony Music's interests, as it had several other artists also using Grubman's law firm. In 1992, Joel inducted the R&B duo
Sam & Dave into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That year, Joel also started work on
River of Dreams, finishing the album in early 1993. Its cover art was a colorful painting by
Christie Brinkley that was a series of scenes from each of the songs on the album. The
eponymous first single was the last top 10 hit Joel has penned to date, reaching No. 3 on
Billboard Hot 100 and ranking at No. 21 on the 1993 year-end chart. In addition to the title track, the album includes the hits "
All About Soul" (with
Color Me Badd on backing vocals) and "
Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)", written for his daughter,
Alexa. A radio remix version of "All About Soul" can be found on
The Essential Billy Joel (2001), and a demo version appears on
My Lives (2005). The song "The Great Wall of China" was written about his ex-manager Frank Weber and was a regular in the setlist for Joel's 2006 tour. "2000 Years" was prominent in the millennium concert at
Madison Square Garden, December 31, 1999, and "Famous Last Words" closed the book on Joel's pop songwriting for more than a decade.
1994–2013: Touring and new singles Beginning in 1994, Joel toured extensively with
Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours, making them the longest running and most successful concert tandem in pop music history. During these shows, the two played their own songs, sang each other's songs, and performed duets. They grossed over US$46 million in just 24 dates in their sold out 2003 tour. Joel and John resumed their Face to Face tour in March 2009 Joel told
Rolling Stone: "We'll probably pick it up again. It's always fun playing with him." Joel and Christie Brinkley announced on April 13, 1994, that they had separated, and their divorce was finalized in August 1994. The two remained friends. , Joel's
Greatest Hits Volume III yielded "
To Make You Feel My Love" (a
Bob Dylan cover) and "
Hey Girl". During his
Central Park concert in 1997, Joel performed with
Garth Brooks, who had reached No. 1 on
Billboard country charts in 1991 with a recording of the song "
Shameless" from Joel's 1989 album. On March 15, 1999, Joel was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by
Ray Charles. In his speech, Charles mentioned "
Baby Grand", the duet Joel had written for them which appeared on his 1986 album
The Bridge. On October 4, 1997, two classical piano pieces composed by Joel, "The Soliloquy" and "Reverie", were first heard in public. Both played by Yuliya Gorenman at the
Seiji Ozawa Hall in
Lenox, Massachusetts, a recording of her performance of "Reverie" was broadcast nine days later on
WNYC-FM and
WSHU-FM. On December 31, 1999, Joel performed at New York's
Madison Square Garden. At the time, Joel said that it would be his last tour and possibly his last concert. Two of his performances from that night, "
We Didn't Start the Fire" and "
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" were filmed and featured that night as part of ABC's special New Year's Y2K coverage. The concert (dubbed The Night of the 2000 Years) ran for close to four hours and was later released as
2000 Years: The Millennium Concert. In 2001, Joel released
Fantasies & Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces composed by Joel and performed by
Hyung-ki Joo. Joel often uses bits of these pieces as interludes in live performances, and some of them are part of the score for the hit show ''
Movin' Out''. The album topped the classical charts at No. 1. Joel performed "New York State of Mind" live on September 21, 2001, as part of the
America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert, and on October 20, 2001, along with "
Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)", at
the Concert for New York City in Madison Square Garden. That night, he also performed "
Your Song" with Elton John. In 2003, Joel inducted
The Righteous Brothers into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, noting that his song "
Until the Night" from the album
52nd Street was a tribute to the duo. In 2005, Columbia released a box set,
My Lives, which is largely a compilation of demos, b-sides, live/alternative versions, and even a few Top 40 hits. The compilation also includes the software that permits people to remix "Zanzibar" and a live version of "I Go to Extremes" with their PC. A DVD of a show from the
River of Dreams tour is included. On January 7, 2006, Joel began a tour across the U.S. Having not released any new songs in 13 years, he featured a sampling of songs from throughout his career, including major hits as well as deep cuts like "Zanzibar" and "
All for Leyna". Between January 23 and April 24, his 12 performances at Madison Square Garden broke the venue's record for the most consecutive sold-out concerts by an artist during the same tour (the previous best was 10 shows, set by
Bruce Springsteen in 2000). This achievement earned Joel the first
retired number (12) in the arena's history to be given to a non-athlete. The same honor has been bestowed on Joel at
Xfinity Mobile Arena (formerly the Wells Fargo Center) in
Philadelphia, where a banner in the colors of the
Philadelphia Flyers is hung honoring Joel's 48 sold-out Philadelphia shows. On June 13, 2006, Columbia released
12 Gardens Live, a double album containing 32 live recordings from a collection of the 12 different shows at Madison Square Garden during Joel's 2006 tour. Joel visited the United Kingdom and Ireland for the first time in many years as part of the European leg of his 2006 tour. On July 31, 2006, Joel performed a free concert in
Rome, with the
Colosseum as the backdrop. in February 2007 Joel toured South Africa, Australia, Japan and Hawaii in late 2006, and subsequently toured the Southeastern U.S. in February and March 2007 before hitting the Midwest in the spring of 2007. A new song, titled "
All My Life", was Joel's newest single (with second track "
You're My Home", live from Madison Square Garden 2006 tour) and was released in stores on February 27, 2007. On February 4, Joel sang the national anthem for
Super Bowl XLI, becoming the second to sing the national anthem twice at a
Super Bowl, after
Aaron Neville. On December 1, 2007, Joel premiered his new song "
Christmas in Fallujah". The song was performed by
Cass Dillon, a new Long Island based musician, as Joel felt it should be sung by someone in a soldier's age range (though he himself has played the song occasionally in concert.) The track was dedicated to servicemen based in Iraq. Joel wrote it in September 2007 after reading numerous letters sent to him from American soldiers in Iraq. "Christmas in Fallujah" is only the second pop/rock song released by Joel since 1993's
River of Dreams. Proceeds from the song benefited the Homes For Our Troops foundation. in
Philadelphia, commemorating Joel's 48 consecutive sold-out concerts at the Philadelphia venue as of 2008 On January 26, 2008, Joel performed with the
Philadelphia Orchestra at the city's
Academy of Music 151st anniversary concert. The event premiered an orchestral version of his classical piano piece "Waltz No. 2 (Steinway Hall)" from
Fantasies & Delusions, arranged by
Brad Ellis and the composer. Accompied throughout by the orchestra, Joel's 44-minute set included some of his lesser-known songs, such as "Scandinavian Skies" and "Where's the Orchestra?" from
The Nylon Curtain, as well as "Uptown Girl", which he had largely dropped from his live repertoire. The concert and associated ball were part of the academy's fund-raising efforts to establish a "Billy Joel Fund for Music Education", to which the singer donated his fee for the evening. On March 10, 2008, Joel inducted his friend
John Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Joel sold out 10 concerts at the
Mohegan Sun Casino in
Uncasville, Connecticut from May to July 2008. The casino honored him with a banner displaying his name and the number 10 to hang in the arena. On June 19, 2008, Joel played a concert at the grand re-opening of
Caesars Windsor (formerly Casino Windsor) in
Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to an invite-only crowd for Casino VIPs. His mood was light and joke-filled, even introducing himself as "Billy Joel's dad" and stating "you guys overpaid to see a fat bald guy". He also admitted that Canadian folk-pop musician
Gordon Lightfoot was the musical inspiration for "She's Always A Woman". On July 16 and 18, 2008, Joel played the final concerts at
Shea Stadium before its demolition. His guests included
Tony Bennett,
Don Henley,
John Mayer,
John Mellencamp,
Steven Tyler,
Roger Daltrey,
Garth Brooks and
Paul McCartney. The concerts were featured in the 2010 documentary film
Last Play at Shea. The film was released on DVD on February 8, 2011. The CD and DVD of the show,
Live at Shea Stadium, were released a month later on March 8. On December 11, 2008, Joel recorded his own rendition of "Christmas in Fallujah" during a concert at
Acer Arena in Sydney and released it as a live single in Australia only. It is the only official release of Joel performing "Christmas in Fallujah", as Cass Dillon sang on the 2007 studio recording and the handful of times the song was played live in 2007. Joel sang the song throughout his December 2008 tour of Australia. On May 19, 2009, Joel's former drummer,
Liberty DeVitto, filed a lawsuit in
New York City claiming he was owed over 10 years of royalty payments by Joel and Sony Music. DeVitto had never been given songwriting or arranging credit on any of Joel's songs, but he claimed that he helped arrange some of them, including "Only the Good Die Young". In April 2010, it was announced that Joel and DeVitto amicably resolved the lawsuit. To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Joel's debut album,
Cold Spring Harbor, it was announced on his official website that Columbia/Legacy Recordings planned "to celebrate the occasion with a definitive reissue project of newly restored and expanded Legacy editions of Joel's complete catalog, newly curated collections of rarities from the vaults, previously unavailable studio tracks and live performances, home video releases and more", although this project was never fully realized.
Piano Man was re-released in a two-disc Legacy edition in November 2011, with Joel's 1972 live radio concert at WMMR-FM in Philadelphia comprising the second disc. In 2012, Joel signed an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and its subsidiary Rondor Music International, who together replaced
EMI Music Publishing in managing his catalog outside the US. Additionally, the agreement marked the first time since Joel regained control of his publishing rights in the 1980s that he began to use an administrator to handle his catalog within the U.S. The agreement's focus is on increasing the use of Joel's music in movies, television programs and commercials. On December 12, 2012, Joel performed as part of
12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief at
Madison Square Garden, a concert held for all the victims of
Hurricane Sandy. He changed the lyrics to "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" to make it relate to all the damage caused by Sandy. In May 2013, it was announced that Joel would hold his first ever indoor Irish concert at the
O2 in Dublin on November 1. He subsequently announced his return to the UK for the first time in seven years to perform in October and November. Joel played in
Manchester and
Birmingham as well as London's
Hammersmith Apollo. In October, Joel held a surprise concert on Long Island at The Paramount (
Huntington, New York) to benefit Long Island Cares. The venue holds a capacity of 1,555 and sold out in five minutes. Joel headlined a solo arena concert in New York City for the first time since 2006 when he performed at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on December 31, 2013. In December 2013, Joel would be named as Madison Square Garden's first ever music "franchise."
2014–2025: Madison Square Garden residency, "Turn the Lights Back On", and recent health updates Joel announced a concert residency at Madison Square Garden, playing one concert a month indefinitely, starting January 27, 2014. The first MSG show also launched the
Billy Joel in Concert tour, which continued at the
Amway Center (in
Orlando, Florida) where Joel performed several cover songs such as Elton John's "
Your Song",
Billy Preston's "
You Are So Beautiful" (in tribute to
Joe Cocker), the Beatles' "
With a Little Help from My Friends", "
Can't Buy Me Love" and "
When I'm 64",
Robert Burns' "
Auld Lang Syne" and
AC/DC's "
You Shook Me All Night Long" (with
Brian Johnson). Joel also performed an unusual set, including the song "Souvenir" (from 1974's
Streetlife Serenade) and excluding "
We Didn't Start the Fire". In January 2015, Joel broke the previous record he set in 2006 for most consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden after performing his 13th consecutive show, which also resulted in a new banner being raised to the Madison Square Garden rafters. Joel returned to Nassau Coliseum on April 5, 2017, to play the first concert at the newly renovated venue. Later that month, he played the first concert at
Atlanta's new
SunTrust Park, the suburban home of the
Atlanta Braves. On June 24, Joel returned to Hicksville High School 50 years after his would-be graduating class received their diplomas, to deliver the honorary commencement address. It was also the 25th anniversary of receiving his own diploma from the same high school. On October 7–8, 2016,
Colorado College in
Colorado Springs hosted the first academic conference on Joel. Entitled "'It's Still Rock and Roll to Me': The Music and Lyrics of Billy Joel", the event was open to the public, and the singer participated by giving an hour-long phone interview for the benefit of the 300 attendees. In 2019, Joel announced a concert at
Camden Yards, home of the
Baltimore Orioles, marking the first-ever concert at the baseball stadium. Joel was forced to postpone his concerts between March 2020 and August 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Joel and
Stevie Nicks jointly announced plans to perform a series of concerts across the United States in 2023, tentatively beginning with
SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles on March 10. concert in
Hyde Park in July 2023 On June 1, 2023, Joel announced that his residency at Madison Square Garden would end in July 2024 with his 104th performance in the series, marking his 150th lifetime performance at the venue. On January 22, 2024, Joel announced his first new pop single in years (and only his second pop song in more than two decades), "
Turn the Lights Back On", which was released on February 1. On May 23, 2025, Joel canceled every concert on his itinerary following a diagnosis of
normal pressure hydrocephalus. By July 2025, Joel told
People, as well as
Bill Maher, that he felt better. On June 4, 2025, the first installment of
Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part HBO documentary about Joel, premiered at the opening night of the 24th
Tribeca Film Festival, New York. It aired on HBO and
HBO Max on July 18, with the second part being shown a week later. Shortly afterwards, a 155-track
playlist, comprising 115 songs plus audio clips from the documentary, was released on
streaming services. This included previously unreleased live and demo recordings, such as Joel's first live performance of "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" (which was previously seen on Billy Joel's official YouTube channel from Greenvale 1977). == Filmography ==