Rocker Billy Joel is no longer in the market to sell his Hamptons home.

The oceanfront Sagaponack, New York home had been listed last for $16.75 million.

His agent from The Corcoran Group confirmed that Joel yanked the listing. "Not for rent, not for sale, off the market," said Corcoran's Biana Stepanian.

Asked why Joel decided to take it off the market, Stepanian said, "Personal use."

"We don't have any further comment on that," said Claire Mercuri, Joel's spokeswoman.

Joel purchased the home for his ex-wife, Katie Lee, in 2007. Celebrity TV designer Nate Berkus decorated the 5,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, six-bathroom home, which was renovated in 2009.

After the Joels split, the house was put up for sale. The original asking price was $22.5 million.

The late actor Roy Scheider sold the house to Joel.

As the 30th anniversary of the release of Billy Joel's song "Allentown" approaches, the singer says in a new book that the video is "really gay."

Joel is quoted at length in "I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of The Music Video Revolution," saying he missed the video's homoerotic overtones when it was made in 1982.

He says he noticed the sexual imagery when he recently looked at the video again after the hit 2011 movie "The Hangover (Part II)" lampooned the song.

"In 'The Hangover (Part II)' they did a very profane and hilarious spoof on 'Allentown,'" Joel tells authors Craig Marks, former editor of Spin and Blender magazines, and Rob Tannenbaum. "There was renewed interest in the video on YouTube, so I watched it the other day for the first time in a while."

Joel wrote the song during difficult economic times, using Allentown and the struggles of Bethlehem Steel in neighboring Bethlehem as a microcosm for the demise of the American manufacturing industry.

He says the video's director, Australian Russell Mulcahy, "is a brilliant director, but I didn't realize until I watched it again how gay that video was. It's really gay!

"There's a shower scene with all these good-looking, muscular steelworkers who are completely bare-assed. And they're all oiled up and twisting valves and knobs. I missed this completely when I was doing the video.

"I just thought it was like [the movie] 'The Deer Hunter.' You know, guys go off to war, they come back, they're all messed up, and there are steelworkers who don't have jobs - OK, I get that. But did they have to be taking a shower with their bare asses hanging out? Maybe there's something artsy-fartsy about that, I don't know."

Mulcahy, who also made the first video shown on MTV - The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" - and other groundbreaking videos such as Duran Duran's "Rio," "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "The Reflex" and Elton John's "I'm Still Standing," admits in the book that " 'Allentown'...has homoerotic imagery."

"There were shirtless construction workers," he says. "And there was bare-assery. We had to pay the boys $500 each to show their asses. I think it was the first time bare asses had been shown in a video. Don't forget that was 1982. There's been quite a cultural change since then."

In addition to videos, Mulcahy has directed movies and several episodes of the Showtime channel TV show "Queer As Folk."

"Allentown" was the lead track on Joel's album "The Nylon Curtain," released in September 1982. The song went to #17 on Billboard's singles chart, spent six weeks on the chart and was one of the most played radio songs of the early 1980s. The video remained in heavy rotation on MTV into 1983.

Joel performed the song twice during a December 27th, 1982, show at Bethlehem's Stabler Arena. The singer received a key to the city from Allentown's then-mayor, Joseph Daddona.

While our nation's history is documented in various ways, one resource that I keep as my own personal history book is music. You can pick any artist and their music catalog and in it you will no doubt find songs that are inspired by history. Singer/songwriter and pianist Billy Joel has written some of the most powerful and inspiring songs in a career that began in the '60s. He has accumulated multiple honors, including Grammy, People's Choice and American Music awards, numerous honorary doctorates, inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Long Island Music Hall of Fame - just to name a few. This native New Yorker has created some of the greatest music in rock and roll history, including some of my favorites about history:

"Allentown": "Well we're living here in Allentown/And they're closing all the factories down./Out in Bethlehem they're killing time./Filling out forms, standing in line./Well, our fathers fought the Second World War,/Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore,/Met our mothers at the USO,/Asked them to dance, danced with them slow./And we're living here in Allentown." This song appeared on "The Nylon Curtain" album and captures the frustration and sad demise of the manufacturing industry in America. It's a grim reminder of the manufacturing strength that America once held.

"Christmas In Fallujah": Songs about war are never easy and this one always brings sadness to me when I hear it. However, I feel it is an important one because I can't imagine spending Christmas away from loved ones so far away, and our military men and women have done it for many wars. It's a reminder to me of how fortunate we are to have our nation's military members, who volunteer to serve and sacrifice anytime, anywhere. "It's evening in the desert,/I'm tired and I'm cold./But I am just a soldier;/I do what I am told./We came with the crusaders to save the holy land./It's Christmas in Fallujah and no one gives a damn."

"Goodnight Saigon": This song holds a special place in my heart and makes me cry every time I hear it. The sound effects of the helicopter blades add a unique touch that conveys the message of the song, which is dedicated to Vietnam veterans. The Vietnam War was a divisive, complicated war that remains an open wound to those who lived it, those who fought in it, those who lost loved ones to it and those who lived in this country during that time. "We met as soul mates on Parris Island./We left as inmates from an asylum./And we were sharp, as sharp as knives,/And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives./We came in spastic like tameless horses./We left in plastic as numbered corpses./And we learned fast to travel light./Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight."

"New York State of Mind": This song captures the feeling of New York and is symbolic of Billy Joel's love for his native city. It also is a remembrance to me of the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. I'll always remember Billy singing the song at the special concert held in New York after that fateful day. "Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood,/Hop a flight to Miami Beach, or to Hollywood./But I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line./I'm in a New York state of mind."

"We Didn't Start The Fire": This song's lyrics tell of historical events, people and places. It appeared on his album "Storm Front," and simply said, this song is a history lesson. I can't speak for Billy Joel's meaning, but I assume the song refers to all these events and the tragic problems that were inherited by generations that came after. My favorite part is the chorus, which says, "We didn't start the fire./It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire./No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it."

I would like to dedicate this to Billy Joel and all the history teachers and writers out there. They are the keepers of where we have been and where we are going and have tirelessly preserved it. Keep history alive in our schools. Our history, for better or worse, is a reflection of us and we must never forget it.

Nearly 20 years after the American star's last album, Terry Staunton investigates the unofficial retirement of one of the world's biggest selling musicians and asks whether he could ever be tempted back into the charts.

When your last album sold seven million copies worldwide you are clearly at the top of your game with an enormous fanbase eagerly waiting to hear what you will do next. For Billy Joel fans, it's been a long, long wait.

Since the release of "River of Dreams" in 1993 Joel has premiered just one original song. "Christmas In Fallujah" was a stand-alone 2007 single to raise money for the families of American troops in Iraq, an isolated blip on an otherwise inactive radar screen.

So where has he been for 19 years? Certainly nowhere near a recording studio for any length of time, although he has been intermittently sighted reminding us of his past glories on the concert stage, often on co-headlining tours with his friend Sir Elton John. There should have been more live shows, according to Sir Elton, whose remarks in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine last year offered a clue to the reasons behind Joel's creative drought. "He's coasting," Sir Elton suggested. "I always say, 'Billy, can't you write another song?' It's either fear or laziness and it upsets me. Billy's a conundrum. We've had so many cancelled tours because of illnesses and various other things."

Stories of Joel's addictions, battles with depression and sundry inner demons pepper his career and he has had a tendency to turn them into punchlines. When asked why, in his pre-fame days, he attempted suicide by drinking furniture polish his off-hand reply was: "It looked tastier than bleach."

However, rumors of his ongoing struggles continue to gain momentum. The most recent of his "Face 2 Face" Tours with Sir Elton, booked for the summer of 2010, was canceled without explanation and last year Joel had to return a $3 million advance after pulling out of a deal to write his autobiography (working title: "The Book of Joel: A Memoir"), telling the press he no longer had any interest in dwelling on the past.

Yet it's Joel's past and his Long Island upbringing that has informed so much celebrated music and established the singer's everyman credentials. He has rarely enjoyed the level of critical acclaim afforded his contemporary and East Coast neighbor Bruce Springsteen (both were born in 1949) but they share an articulate blue-collar sensibility.

While the fanciful and only partially inaccurate shorthand has "The Boss" surveying his people and surroundings from beneath the hood of a car, engine oil under his fingernails, Joel was fashioning his own vignettes to Ordinary Joes and Janes sat in front of a piano in a suit jacket and tie.

Springsteen has a new album out in March, his sixth since Joel had anything substantial to take to market, and early indications suggest he's still addressing the concerns of the man on the street. In the meantime, Billy only raises his head above the parapet to remind us of what he did back in the day.

The breakthrough 1973 hit "Piano Man" set the template, eavesdropping on characters in a neighborhood bar. However, Joel's most distinctive "voice of the people" statement was the 1977 album "The Stranger," featuring the likes of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Only The Good Die Young," and the epic "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" which resonated with New York baby boomers in particular, but struck resounding chords across the world.

The record was music giant Sony's biggest seller in history until it was dislodged by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" which was released in 1982.

Time and again Joel produced eloquent songs with which his audience could identify; pocket-sized portraits mirroring their own lives and experiences.

Arguably, his greatest triumph was 1983's unashamedly nostalgic "An Innocent Man," an irrefutably autobiographical album borrowing musical motifs from the sounds of his youth, spearheaded by "Uptown Girl," a note-perfect homage to The Four Seasons.

The Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the New York suburbs from Connecticut. But in another sense, the Long Island Sound might be the music of Billy Joel. While many famous musicians have come from Long Island (Harry Chapin, Mariah Carey, Blue Öyster Cult and The Ramones, to cover the full range of genres), none so strongly personifies the stereotypical Long Islander. Billy Joel has a Brooklyn accent, expertly employs the New York Alphabet and sings songs about blue-collar, working-class folk. When Shea Stadium (1969 Mets forever!) was slated for demolition in 2008, it was Billy who hosted the farewell concert. He is to Long Island what Bruce Springsteen is to New Jersey.

I grew up on Long Island myself, thus have been aware of Billy's music since "Piano Man" hit the charts in '73. So when Piaggio USA invited me to attend the Moto Guzzi Café Racer Rumble at Billy's motorcycle shop in Oyster Bay, I jumped at the chance.

Not your ordinary dealership, 20th Century Cycles is more like a museum where Billy houses his impressive collection of vintage and "vintage-ized" motorcycles. He's got some nice ones, too, including a whole row of Moto Guzzis and my personal favorite, an '05 Harley-Davidson Sportster done up as an original '57 model. "Old guys are always telling me, 'I had one of those,' Billy says, "And I tell them, 'No, you didn't.'"

While Billy comes across as a "regular guy," spend some time with him and it becomes apparent that he breathes rarefied air. When I ask him if he still lives in the same house on the beach in Lloyd Neck, he says no; he sold it and moved to East Hampton because the paparazzi kept floating up in boats trying to take photos of his former supermodel wife Christie Brinkley. When the couple split up, Billy sold the house in the Hamptons to Jerry Seinfeld and moved to an apartment in New York City. This, in turn, he sold to Sting of The Police, who recently re-sold it - for $25 million. "That must have been a damn nice apartment," I remark, to which Billy replies, "Yeah, it was nice, but a few million dollars nice, not fuckin' $25 million nice!" He allows that his current home on Oyster Bay's Centre Island "looks like a fuckin' university," a byproduct of him being "a filthy-rich fuck." With 150 million records sold, he can afford to be self-deprecating.

Billy tells a funny story about Bono from U2. During a recent US concert tour, the Irishman took up residence on Long Island's North Shore. The two spent a day together, and when it came time for Bono to go home, Billy offered him a ride in his Vespa sidecar rig - except Bono didn't know his address! So the pair rode around asking locals if they knew where Bono lived until they found someone who did.

The highlight of my visit is when Billy leads me on a tour of his stomping grounds, the most memorable part of which is the revelation that the "Piano Man" doesn't wear gloves! "My hands have been broken so many times, it doesn't matter," he says. "I can play rock and roll with my elbows!" In fact his career almost ended in '82 when he crashed his Harley-Davidson XLCR café racer, breaking both hands and crushing one thumb. The remnants of that bike now reside in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

For three years early in his career, Billy lived in the Hollywood Hills, but didn't like the smarmy music-business executives. "What's that saying: 'In New York they stab you in the gut; in Los Angeles they stab you in the back'?" Although he didn't have a bike at the time, he's since returned to Southern California and ridden all the roads. Naturally, he tours with a half-dozen bikes in a tractor-trailer.

Rider: Billy Joel
Then: "Piano Man"
Now: Piano-Playing Owner of 20th Century Cycles

Is it ironic that the East Coast had an earthquake the same day as the Moto Guzzi Café Racer Rumble? And did I, as my fellow attendees suggested, somehow bring it with me? Unlikely, considering I was talking to Billy Joel at the time and neither of us noticed it.

What was I doing with the "Piano Man?" Good question. The short answer is, Piaggio USA invited me to attend an event at his shop, 20th Century Cycles, to promote the new Moto Guzzi V7 Racer. While I was there, they promised I could borrow a bike and go for a ride with Billy. No native Long Islander could turn down an invitation like that!

The V7 Racer may be a new model, but it's far from a new motorcycle. Let's start with the engine: an air-cooled, fuel-injected, 90-degree transverse (longitudinal-crank) V-twin which traces its roots to the Lino Tonti-designed V35 and V50 of the mid-'70s. This features cost-saving Heron heads, wherein the intake and exhaust valves are parallel and the combustion chambers are machined into the tops of the pistons. The valves are opened via pushrods and rocker arms-old-school and low-tech, but it gets the job done.

This long-running engine got a makeover in 2003 when Moto Guzzi released the fuel-injected Nevada 750 cruiser. And the following year a new chassis appeared on the Breva 750. Since then, they've added Classic, Café and, now, Racer variants.

Offered as a limited edition with a numbered plaque on the top triple clamp, the V7 Racer pays homage to another '70s Guzzi, the celebrated V7 Sport. Fittingly, it's a gorgeous thing to behold, with black bodywork, red frame, swingarm and wheel hubs, and drilled, brushed-aluminum accents.

Seating accommodations are Spartan, in best café racer tradition, with a narrow, suede-covered solo seat and rearset billet-aluminum footpegs (a tandem saddle and passenger pegs are available as optional accessories). The handlebars aren't quite clip-ons, but they are fairly low, and set behind a tiny flyscreen. That and the tailpiece are both adorned with racing-style numberplates bearing the #7, for obvious reasons.

Thumb the starter button and you discover how cold-blooded the air-cooled V-twin is, requiring use of the cold-start enrichener and a fair amount of warm-up before it can be ridden away without stalling. Once warm, the engine is fantastically smooth and flexible, with crisp throttle response and plenty of torque. The fuel mixture is a tad lean (blame the EPA), but that helped contribute to a solid 50-mpg average during my two-day test. The five-speed transmission packs the first four cogs close together, while fifth feels like an overdrive. Peak power arrives just north of 6000 rpm, so there's no need to rev it until the limiter cuts in just south of 8000 rpm.

With a claimed 51 horsepower on tap, the V7 Racer is relatively slow, but it's got plenty of power for riding in urban or suburban environs. If Long Island were a state, it would rank 13th in population (after Virginia) and first in population density, so it's no place to be zipping along at triple-digit speeds. Better to admire the North Shore's scenic beauty, as tree-lined Route 25A rolls back and forth, up and down over hills near the water. And listen to the V-twin's glorious exhaust note-which sounds even better with the accessory Arrow pipes Billy had on his V7 Café!

At a claimed 437 pounds full of gas, the V7 Racer isn't ungainly heavy-a fact that, having had double hip-replacement surgery at age 62, Billy said he appreciates. It also handles quite well-stable and reasonably neutral, though the decision to fit narrow 18-inch front and 17-inch rear wheels shod with bias-ply Pirelli Demon Sport tires is odd. Given that the wheels are wire-spoked, chalk it up to appearances.

Suspension is good given the price-point Marzocchi fork, Bitubo gas shocks and shaft drive, but it's obviously sprung for a skinny jeans-wearing hipster. Likewise, the Brembo brakes work well, the single four-piston front caliper and 320mm rotor doing a respectable job of slowing forward motion. It would stop even better with stiffer fork springs, though.

By now you've likely surmised, as did we, that the V7 Racer is no racer. That's okay-it's not supposed to be. It's an homage to the classic Moto Guzzis of yore, and a nod to the current popularity of café racers. Those drawn in by its looks would do well to consider purchasing one-especially if they lack the mechanical skills to roll their own.

My visit to Long Island ended as Hurricane Irene arrived, bringing 100 MPH winds. As I returned the V7 Racer to 20th Century Cycles, foreman Alex Puls was getting ready to tape up the windows, while Billy Joel was scrambling to pull his boats out of the water. Maybe earthquakes aren't so bad after all?

Editor's Note: Billy Joel will be mostly answering questions, and he will perform a few songs.

Tickets to see Billy Joel are available tomorrow.

Billy Joel will answer questions and perform March 1st, 2012 at 8:00pm at The Phillips Center for The Performing Arts.

Tickets for the event, which are free to University of Florida students with a Gator 1 Card, will be distributed at the University Box Office today from 12:00pm to 5:00pm University Box Office rules prohibit students from lining up before 7:00am.

About 1,800 tickets will be available. One ticket is permitted per student ID, and no more than four IDs can be presented at a time.

On the evening of Thursday, February 23rd, 2012, Billy Joel – commonly referred to as "Piano Man" in popular culture – took the stage in Lynn University's Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center for "An Evening of Questions, Answers...And Perhaps A Little Music."

The sold-out event was more than just a concert with Billy Joel. It was an intimate engagement only open to Lynn students, staff and faculty that brought together an audience from several generations. One student asked, "what does it feel like to know your music spans generations?" "It feels damn good," said Joel who was first seen by some audience member's in the 1970s while others were first introduced to his music on Sesame Street.

His two-and-a-half hour performance featured an unplugged, unscripted and unpretentious Billy Joel who answered whatever questions came his way – in an irreverent, hilarious and extremely gracious manor.

An entertainer at heart, Joel allowed the Lynn audience access to his life as a musician, storyteller and comedian – and even introduced the crowd to his pug, Sabrina, who joined him on stage. Although Joel didn't bring his band, he did bring a grand piano, a mini-grand electric piano, a gong, a harmonica and even a tambourine.

The audience asked questions related to Joel's love of music and the inspiration behind many of his top hits including "Piano Man," "The Great Suburban Showdown," "Just The Way You Are," "Stiletto," and others. When asked about a specific tune, more often than not, Joel would saunter over to one of the two pianos on stage and after thumbing through the alphabet of a voluminous songbook of his hits, break into song. When asked what inspired him to write "Piano Man," "the job," said Joel. "All the characters [in "Piano Man"] are real," he said talking about the people he met during his short, six-month stint performing at a piano bar.

Joel even agreed to share the stage with a few Lynn students throughout the evening. First up was a student who asked if she could sing "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" with him. "In the original key," Joel asked? "I don't know," said the student. "I didn't think you'd say, 'Yes'!" Then, a conservatory student from Haiti, Jael Auguste, waiving his guitar in the air instead of his hands, asked Joel if he would mind listening to one of the songs he wrote. To everyone's surprise, Joel invited him up to sing it, even pulling out a tambourine to accompany him.

The loudspeakers played Wings and The Clash moments before Billy Joel walked on to the stage. Then the lights flickered, and the at-capacity crowd at The Phillips Center for The Performing Arts roared.

From discussing songwriting in the shower and even in his sleep to revealing the inspiration for his weekend anthem "You May Be Right" ("Ex Number One"), Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel perfectly melded his talents as musician and storyteller during a memorable marathon show attended by nearly 1,800 University of Miami students on March 5th, 2012.

"Billy Joel: An Evening of Questions, Answers...And Perhaps A Little Music" was presented by Hurricane Productions at BankUnited Center, offering undergraduates a complimentary ticket to interact with the Grammy Legend Award winner.

Joel walked onto a stage that was flanked by what he described as a "big piano and a piano with pianist envy." His opening joke set the course for what would be a frank and freewheeling dialogue of more than two hours with his student audience, interspersed with renditions from an expansive songbook that includes 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations (six wins).

Asking for the house lights, the 62 year-old announced to his packed audience: "You guys are young and skinny!" He used a lighted pointer to select from a sea of raised hands that he referred to as a "laser thing that might sterilize you or set you on fire."

The prolific songwriter ("New York State of Mind," "Just The Way You Are," "Uptown Girl") took questions at random, even calling a couple of audience members up to sing with him, apparently the reason for the giant Zildjian gong also on stage.

The first duet, "Summer, Highland Falls," inspired Joel to quip that the next one up had better be able to sing. The student who took that challenge didn't disappoint. "This is dedicated to President Shalala," said student Andrew DeMuro, of New Jersey, before launching into a spirited "Only The Good Die Young," accompanied by Joel.

Joel has been doing these forums at colleges for two decades as a way to give back to aspiring musicians. "When I was starting out, there was no reference for me to research how to do my job," he said in an interview earlier in the day. "I was stumbling along. I wanted to be able to help people keep from making mistakes I made. I have all this information about how to do the job that I don't get asked about by media that much. I always wanted to be a teacher so this is my way of doing it."

Joel shared educational and entertaining anecdotes about many of his memorable tunes, including "Allentown," "The Downeaster 'Alexa'," "The River of Dreams," "Vienna," "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)," "New York State of Mind," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," and "Piano Man," while hopping back and forth between the two pianos and microphone center stage to run down versions of them.

Joel's passion for music education inspired him to launch in 2005 an ongoing educational initiative to provide seed money, musical scholarships, and endowments to a variety of East Coast colleges, universities, and music schools.

Asked if he'd consider teaching at University of Miami, the man who has sold more than 100 million records, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame two decades ago, and is a Miami Beach part-time resident answered in the affirmative: "If I thought it would do some good, sure."

University of Miami School of Communication student Allison Novack, Hurricane Productions vice chair for campus relations, said the evening "was an unbelievable experience for us University of Miami students to see such a classic and legendary musician perform exclusively for us, on our very own campus. The audience was able to interact with Billy on such an interpersonal level - singing and performing along with him, instead of just watching him sing and perform."

Billy Joel aimed his lime green laser light at Kasey O'Keefe's chest. He noted O'Keefe's unkempt hair. The 27 year-old St. Petersburg College student then stood and asked a question that Joel said he has rarely been asked:

Looks like Billy Joel is "Movin' Out" again.

According to celebrity real estate blogger "The Real Estalker," the singer has just listed his mansion on Miami Beach's posh La Gorce Island for $14.75 million, just over a million dollars more than he paid for it in 2006.

Joel bought and sold several East Coast properties in the years during and after his marriage to Katie Lee.

One of them, a mansion in Sagaponack, New York, failed to sell after several price chops, and Joel delisted it in January of this year, Newsday reported at the time.

The 8,881 square foot oceanfront palace - located on the ultra-exclusive La Gorce Island - boasts 7 bedrooms, 8.5 baths...and happens to be surrounded by famous neighbors like Cher and Lil Wayne.

Joel bought the place in 2006 for $13.5 million - it's unclear why he's decided to leave.

But if you've got the cash...this place is a dream pad...with a gourmet chef kitchen, wine cellar, bad-ass swimming pool and of course 150 feet of water frontage.

...'cause everyone needs a place to park their boat.

Sir Elton John is seeking to end a feud with former friend Billy Joel, it has been reported.

The "Rocket Man" singer spoke candidly about his past addiction to cocaine in an interview on "Today," revealing that he managed to achieve sobriety in the 1980s after time in rehab. John reportedly had a falling out with Joel last year, after calling on the "Piano Man" singer to address his own alleged alcoholism in a Rolling Stone interview.

Billy Joel's song "Allentown," written 30 years ago, doesn't hold a tune to the city these days, officials said.

The 1982 hit painted a pretty gloomy picture of the area while putting the Queen City on the lips of people across the country.

Billy Joel tops our list of the "100 Songs Every Long Islander Should Know" - both with the #1 song, "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," and with six appearances on the countdown, the most of any artist.

How could he not? Joel, a native of Hicksville, New York, has lived on Long Island nearly his entire life, aside from those notorious Los Angeles, California years and, of course, all the time he has spent touring the world. He is also one of the most successful artists in the history of pop music, having sold more than 100 million albums, won six Grammys and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. His album "Greatest Hits: Vol. I & II" has been certified 23 times platinum (or certified diamond twice) and ranks third on the all-time bestsellers list, behind only Michael Jackson 's "Thriller" and The Eagles' "Greatest Hits (1971-1975)."

Joel said he has no musical projects or tours on the horizon and he likes it that way, though he does continue writing music for himself. "I'm happy to be off the treadmill," he said. "It's good to be out of the rat race." He even recently declined talks with "American Idol" producers to join the show. ("I'm not going to do that," he said. "I don't like to judge people. What is that saying? 'Judge not, lest ye be judged.' I've been plenty judged in my own life. I'm not about to turn around and start judging other people.")

He did agree, though, to talk about his own work - songs that have influenced how generations of Long Islanders have felt about themselves and the place they call home. Here's what Joel had to say about the songs that landed on our list:

"Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" (#1): "I always considered myself an album artist. I don't think we built our success just on singles - although we were lucky to have a lot of Top 40 singles - we did have album cuts that people liked, like 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant.' That ended up becoming a very important recording in my career. Toward the end of the night, that's one of the big finale songs. I don't think I could do a show without performing that song - which is why I'm sick of it... [Laughs.] It's basically the story of Brenda and Eddie told through a meeting at an Italian restaurant during a dinner. It's something that a lot of Long Islanders do, kind of reminisce over Italian food. And everybody's got their Italian restaurant."

"New York State of Mind" (#4): "There's a lot of songs about New York... [Singing, 'Start spreading the news...' "] 'New York, New York,' 'On Broadway,' this was about coming back to this place, which I think it really needed, especially back in the mid-'70s, when it was really kind of crappy. A lot of bad things were happening in New York then. There was a lot of crime. Drugs were out of control. The city looked bad, it was really dirty. It almost defaulted financially. It really needed a boost, and I wanted to write an anthem for it... It actually took on a whole other meaning after [the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks], which I felt... When we did it at that telethon immediately after September 11th, 2001, everybody was just about in tears trying to get through the song. We did it as a blues, rather than doing it as a standard. We played it kind of downbeat and soft and slow, almost like an elegy. It was difficult to get through. I just kept staring at the fireman's helmet on the piano and I just kept thinking, 'Just look at the helmet, just look at the helmet. Don't think about what you're feeling right now. Think about the guy who wore that helmet and do the song.'"

"Piano Man" (#11): "It was written about Los Angeles, California, about a piano bar. But Los Angeles, California is not really a bar town and it's really not a piano bar town. This was kind of an odd place. It was a place where people came to drink their troubles away after they lost at the track, so it was kind of an anomaly for Los Angeles. It could have been anywhere, really. It could've been about anywhere where they have a guy sitting at the piano singing to the leather banquettes."

"It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" (#31): "I was living in Cove Neck, New York at the time and I was on my way into the studio in the city, and I didn't have a song finished to do that day, so I started a song the night before and I was finishing it in the car. I was just throwing lyrics out to the guys in the band in the car. 'What about this? What about that?' to see if it would pass that test... The Miracle Mile was mentioned because I think we were going past the Miracle Mile when I wrote that. I think that's how it came out. I don't think it was in my head before that. I was just kind of pulling things out of the trip."

"The Ballad of Billy The Kid" (#47): "[The final verse] is about a bartender from Oyster Bay, New York, a guy named Billy who used to tend bar at a place called 'Uwe's'...right on South Street. We all ended up at the pub at the end of the day and were entertained by the bartender. He was a very personable guy. It was just an exercise in Western-sounding things - completely historically inaccurate."

"The Downeaster 'Alexa'" (#83): "That's a song I'm very proud of because I actually wrote a folk song, which is very hard to do in this day and age. Bruce [Springsteen] has done it...but not a lot of people do it anymore. It's difficult to do and have it be real and feel authentic. But when you're talking about real people in a real situation and it's a universal thought, then it can be a folk song. I was writing from the heart about a community that I really feel very strongly about being part of my home that's slowly but surely disappearing. It saddens me a lot."

Music icon Billy Joel, one of the most important singer/songwriters and composers in the history of popular music, has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing administration agreement with Rondor Music (Rondor) and Universal Music Publishing Group Worldwide (UMPG), it was announced today by Lance Freed, President of Rondor, and Zach Horowitz, Chairman and CEO of UMPG Worldwide. The agreement encompasses Joel's entire catalog of music, every song written by him since the beginning of his career more than 40 years ago, including some of the biggest hits of all-time.

Mr. Big's new Cutting Room doesn't open for at least a week, but it's already attracting music's heavy hitters.

The newly relocated club, owned by "Sex and The City" star Chris Noth and nightlife impresario Steve Walters, is still off-limits for most, but an insider says the East 32nd Street venue "accommodated Billy Joel" at a private show for "industry insiders" to celebrate Joel's recent signing with Universal and Rondor Music Publishing.

Noth and Walters had to shutter the Cutting Room's West 24th Street location in 2009 due to a rent increase, but at the Vanity Fair premiere of "Everything or Nothing" earlier this month, Noth told Confidenti@l that fans of the space have a lot to look forward to when it reopens.

The club has "similar decor [to the old site] but nicer and a little more elegant, but still homey," Noth told us. He added that there are "tons of big acts coming" and "lots of dark corners to make out in and listen to music."

That's exactly what a collection of New York's music royalty did Monday night – at least the listening-to-music part.

Joel's pal Sting, mega-mogul Ronald Perelman and his daughter, Samantha, celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich and Joel's 26 year-old daughter Alexa Ray Joel were all treated to a lengthy performance by the "Piano Man," our snitch said. He showered them with hits including "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "She's Always A Woman," and "Just The Way You Are."

After the show, songwriter Jimmy Webb moderated an informal Q&A with the audience, where the insider says actress Lorraine Bracco asked Joel his thoughts on "how music is utilized in film."

The spy says Joel raved about "the way Marty [Martin] Scorsese uses music in film" and said that "Quentin Tarantino really gets it." As for his own tunes, the Bronx-born singer, 63, said he enjoyed the way "The Hangover II" used his music. (The film has Ed Helms mock Zach Galifianakis' character, citing Joel's "Allentown," and uses the song "The Downeaster Alexa.")

So when will mere mortals get to check out the club? An employee of the Cutting Room told Confidenti@l, "hopefully next week."

While it lacks the big hits of some of the albums that followed it, 1976's "Turnstiles" was a turning point in the career of Billy Joel. Joel had recently left Los Angeles, California to return to New York and decided that he would take charge of his own sound for the first time in his career.

As he told actor Alec Baldwin in an interview in June of this year for New York's WNYC, Joel's decision to produce the album himself was one that was necessary at that point. "'Turnstiles' was recorded in New York," he said. "I produced it myself, which, in hindsight, was probably not a good idea, but I didn't want people telling me what band to work with, how to do the songs. I wanted to do it my way."

That independence ties in well with the album's overriding theme about the necessity of making decisive life changes as a means of growing up. Joel's own cross-country move is reflected in songs like "New York State of Mind" and "Say Goodbye To Hollywood." Yet the album's closing track, "I've Loved These Days," might be the album's most resonant song in that it hints at how such changes are often bittersweet.

The song is essentially one man's farewell to a lifestyle that is as alluring as it is unsustainable. The narrator is aware of the wayward and transitory nature of this type of living, acknowledging that "We're going wrong" and that "We know it's all a passing phase." As wallets get lighter and bellies get fatter, the messier side of life is kept at arm's length for as long as possible: "We hide our hearts from harder times."

Yet Joel is honest enough to accept that the extravagance and excess have their charms, which is why his final verse is a fond remembrance of the time spent among the wine and roses. As such, he requests just a few more moments of indulgence before it's time to let it all go for good: "A few more hours to be complete/A few more nights on satin sheets/A few more times that I can say/I've loved these days."

In typical Billy Joel fashion, these heartfelt lyrics are buoyed by a memorable melody that perfectly captures the wistful emotions. Joel might have been writing "Turnstiles" from the perspective of someone who was happy to be returning home, but "I've Loved These Days" proves that such a momentous move is never a clean break.

Billy Joel is set to release a new compilation, "She's Got a Way: Love Songs" (Legacy), gathering much of his romantic music in one ready-to-give-to-your-Valentine place.

The collection, out Tuesday, contains many of his greatest love songs - including "Just The Way You Are," "She's Always A Woman" and "She's Got A Way" - among its 18 tracks, alongside some surprises like "Travelin' Prayer" from "Piano Man" and "This Night," a B-side from "An Innocent Man." However, Joel certainly has enough love in his catalogue to fill several compilations, even if you leave out his versions of other artists' songs, like Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love."

Here are five other songs that Joel should consider for the sequel:

"A Matter of Trust" (1986) Arguably Joel's most rocking love song, it's built around an electric guitar and the desire to convince his girlfriend/wife to take the leap into a deeper relationship with him.

"All My Life" (2007) Joel wrote the gorgeous American Songbook-style ballad for his then-wife Katie Lee, but he intended it to be recorded by his pal Tony Bennett. Joel ended up recording it himself and releasing it as his first single since "The River of Dreams."

"Leave A Tender Moment Alone" (1984) A pretty nod to doo-wop combined with some friendly advice to himself about trying to keep calm in the midst of his courtships. The harmonica solos from the great Toots Thielemans make the "Moment" that much more special.

"Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" (1993) Inspired by his daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" showcases Joel at his most unguarded, using spare piano accompaniment and simple lyrics to express his feelings.

"Tell Her About It" (1984) The advice doesn't get much better than: "Tell her about it, tell her everything you feel, give her every reason to accept that you're for real." The doo-wop backing vocals don't get much better, either.

Billy Joel has ruled out a return to touring because he is still struggling to recover from double hip-replacement surgery.

The "Uptown Girl" hitmaker stepped away from the spotlight in 2008 after experiencing pain in his hips that left him unable to perform at a high standard.

Joel told Rolling Stone magazine: "It was agony. At one point I couldn't even walk anymore and I thought, 'OK, that's it for me. I'm just too old to do this.'"

Many of you know know Billy Joel as the "Piano Man" and have no clue about is passion for motorcycles, motorcycle riding and boats. We're introducing one of his motorcycles, a custom Yamaha Virago 1100, baptized Vinago.

The bike was commissioned by Joel to Greg Hageman of Doc's Chops, and represents the quintessence of Billy Joel's love for motorcycles: as mellow as his music, without lacking the force and by all means, hard to forget.

The Virago 1100 lost its laid-back, low seat and got a new subframe to raise the riding position and come closer to the cafe-racer styling. However, the drag bars are level and keep the Vinago in the bobber world, just like the intricate, old-school fender mounts, evoking the early days of the motorcycle building.

Knowing how powerful the Virago 1100 is we can only guess much fun the new machine is. Billy Joel owns a private collection of motorcycles in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Despite owning more than 60 bikes in with 20th Century Cycles shop, he actually rides most of them on a regular basis.

There will be no more bottle of red or bottle of white for Brenda and Eddie at Christiano's Italian Restaurant in Syosset, New York. The house of parms and pastas, for decades debated to be the inspiration for Billy Joel's mega-hit "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," is now owned by the Singh Hospitality Group, which plans to close and reinvent it.

Chief executive Harendra Singh said he has signed on chef-restaurateur Tom Schaudel - of Jewel in Melville and Coolfish in Syosset, New York - as a consultant whose job is to develop a whole new concept.

Veteran singer Billy Joel is auctioning a personalized baby grand piano to raise money for budding music students.

The "Uptown Girl" hitmaker has decided to sell off a Steinway & Sons black piano to benefit Ten O'Clock Classics, a non-profit organization which provides music lessons and instruments for school children.

Joel will sign and personalize the keyboard's protective covering for the winning bidder once the Charity Buzz auction closes on April 2nd, 2013.

Bidding is expected to raise $60,000 (£39,000), and all proceeds from the sale will be donated to Ten O'Clock Classics as well as the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Billy Joel is considering retiring from performing if concerts in Australia and the United States later this year fail to inspire him.

The "Piano Man" retired from making pop music many years ago, opting to concentrate on classical endeavours instead - but he has continued to play live, touring as a solo act and with Elton John.

But now he admits his time on stage could be coming to a close and he's hoping to use festival shows in Sydney, Australia and New Orleans, Louisiana to see if he's still got what it takes as a performer.

He tells ABC News Radio his upcoming Stone Music Festival in Sydney will serve as "a big test."

He says, "I want to see if it's time for me to get off the stage. There's a time when an athlete says I can't swing the bat anymore. So I get to feel it out... I don't want to be that guy; I don't want to be Spinal Tap."

Joel told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year that he's not the entertainer he once was thanks to hip replacement surgery, revealing, "Slowly but surely I'm kinda getting back to normal. I'd say I'm 85 percent. I can walk OK. I can't run like I used to."

The rocker has a couple of festival shows coming up at the end of the month and he told ABC News Radio in March 2013 that the gigs would be "a big test."

He says, "I want to see if it's time for me to get off the stage. There's a time when an athlete says I can't swing the bat anymore. So I get to feel it out... I don't want to be that guy; I don't want to be Spinal Tap."

But now it appears Joel doesn't need the shows to see if he's still got what it takes to be a top showman, telling the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, "If I was going to play again in places like New York, I would probably feature entire albums. It would give me a chance to do songs we haven't played... We'd do one album and then play some obscurities. I enjoy playing those more than I enjoy playing the hits... I'm thinking we'd do these shows in Philly, New York, Washington, DC, Detroit, and Chicago."

He adds, "I have to make up my mind about what I'm capable of doing. When I sing, I'm singing really high. I've lowered the keys, but a lot of those things are really high. I need a few days to recover from every gig. But it would be silly to do just one gig every three months. You tie up the band and the crew... It would have to be more work than that.

Billy Joel has Paul McCartney to thank for helping him track down a woman who has been charged with cyber stalking his daughter.

McCartney recommended the specialist private eye who helped identify Sheryl Finley as the person allegedly threatening Alexa Ray Joel on Facebook.

McCartney's involvement comes to light months after the suspect was arrested and charged with felony stalking.

According to the New York Post, the "Piano Man" enlisted the help of the former Beatle after 27 year-old Alexa Ray was bombarded with more than 60 Facebook messages.

She was eventually found naked in the Austin, Minnesota woods, the Post reports.

Court records allege the 40 year-old Finley sent Alexa Ray messages that included scenarios involving "pedophilia, sadistic-sexual behavior, violent physical assaults and murder."

The content petrified the budding songwriter who was reportedly afraid to leave her home in Manhattan.

And with good reason. Austin police captain Dave McKichan told KAALTV.com: "We certainly see a lot of harassment-type cases with the advent of Facebook and Twitter."

In December, Billy Joel performed six songs at the 12.12.12 benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy victims at Madison Square Garden, and it was kind of a big deal. At the height of his pop-star fame in the '70s and '80s - when a string of hit albums secured him access to the figureheads of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue's gilded age (including Elle Macpherson and future ex-wife Christie Brinkley) and widespread admiration for his bold and possibly crazy pro–"riding motorcycles in the rain" stance - Joel could regularly be seen playing for arenas full of people. And you could also see him attempting to dance and/or play guitar credibly on MTV every single day. But at the 12.12.12 concert, Joel was like a retiree stopping by the office for a quick visit before his morning coffee run. Outside of a stray appearance here and there, including cameos at Paul McCartney's Yankee Stadium concerts in 2011, Joel had not commanded the public's attention on a big, important stage in many years. Before his recent hip-replacement surgery, Joel wasn't sure if he'd ever play live again. "Honestly, I'm not as good as I used to be," he recently told Rolling Stone.

If only Billy could've seen my Twitter feed during the 12.12.12 telecast. I follow dozens of music critics, and it seemed like nearly all of them were flooding their social-media platforms that night with catty comments about the overwhelmingly geriatric bill. Whether it was Bruce Springsteen's overcooked preacher shtick, Roger Waters's stoic sleepiness, or Roger Daltrey's sagging naked chest, it was an all-out classic-rock turkey shoot - except for Joel. The sea of snark miraculously parted for him. Here is a guy whom music scribes have historically gone out of their way to slag; even now, a couple of decades removed from his prime, Billy Joel still inspires an unprovoked hatchet job every now and again. And yet this wretched hive of cynics and grumps was stumping on behalf of the "Piano Man" with unbridled enthusiasm.

It might've helped that this Billy Joel didn't look like the old Billy Joel. A viewer casually flipping through the channels might've mistaken him for a musically inclined Atlantic City pit boss winging it through an inexplicably high-profile rendition of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)." Unlike most of his contemporaries onstage that night, Joel made no attempt to hide his age; he was, as 63 year-old Long Islanders often are, pleasantly plump and severely bald, with a salty goatee sprinkled lightly on the lower half of his hulking mug. Joel also acted his age. He did not surround himself with the youngsters from Nirvana like Paul McCartney did; he did not attempt to reestablish his virility like Daltrey. He merely sat behind his keyboard and played some very old songs very, very well.

Inspired partly by his improved health - as well as, it's safe to assume, the positive reaction to the 12.12.12 performance - Joel is taking tentative steps toward touring again. This month, he will travel to Australia to play a concert for 50,000 people as a warm-up for a Stateside appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Joel has also talked about doing shows in major US cities where he'd play entire albums front-to-back, the trendy concert format du jour for aging rockers. What he won't be doing is putting out a new album anytime soon. "I don't have any new material," he told Rolling Stone. "But I realized that if I play older material that has never been heard before, like an album track or an obscure song, that's almost the same as doing a new song. I just don't want to be an oldies hack where I'm just playing songs everybody is familiar with."

The line between "oldies hack" and "curator of his own back catalogue" is getting blurrier all the time for Joel, who is alone among his rock star peers in his refusal to produce anything new in the twilight years of his career. Joel hasn't released a pop record since 1993's "River of Dreams." His only collection of original compositions since then, 2001's "Fantasies & Delusions," was a classical music LP. In 2007, he released a single, "All My Life," as well as a song called "Christmas In Fallujah" performed by a New Jersey singer/songwriter named Cass Dillon. And then there are the approximately 139 live LPs and greatest hits compilations attempting to fill the gap.

Whenever the subject of writing new pop tunes has come up in the past 20 years, Joel's responses have been remarkably consistent. He says he's no longer interested in working in a pop-rock milieu. While he still hears melodies in his head, he is satisfied with confining them to his so-called "inner radio." This is partly because he now regards writing lyrics as a chore. "It's like painting a mustache on my already finished painting," was how he put it to Howard Stern in 2010.

The conventional wisdom among music critics and smart culture thinkers is that an artist has to keep creating to stay relevant. But Billy Joel has stayed relevant - if he put out a new album next week, it would almost certainly debut at #1, and the support tour would surely rank among the year's highest-grossing - by not creating. For two decades, Joel's discography has remained essentially unchanged; what's different is the context in which that music is now heard. When Billy Joel was Public Enemy #1 among rock critics, he suffered in comparison to Springsteen in part because the artists were likened on Springsteen's terms. Springsteen consciously presented himself as part of rock's folk-based tradition, a link in a chain that included Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan. Billy Joel came from the opposite tradition; he was pop, a descendant of the corporate song factories that secretly powered '50s and early-'60s rock and roll. When he tried to traverse Springsteen's cool-guy rocker turf, he resembled an off-brand, helmet-haired Elvis Costello (though the tunes were usually crackerjack).

Twenty years ago, Springsteen and Joel represented opposing sides in a debate - "authenticity" vs. "artifice" - that formed the crux of nearly every conversation about popular music. Today, this dialogue has been marginalized to the point of virtual silence. Hating Billy Joel is no longer a meaningful act; at best, it suggests that you're the sort of person who's actively annoyed by things that most people tend to like or at least tolerate. But it doesn't register as an aesthetic choice in a larger cultural argument, because most people have long since checked out of the discussion. And this has helped how Billy Joel's music is perceived. Joel's strengths - his accessibility, his knack for romantic balladry, his understated versatility in adapting to different songwriting and production styles - are no longer held against him. As far as Billy Joel's legacy is concerned, staying put has been the next best thing to dying.

The timeline of your life is broken. Sift through the data of your past, and you'll find things get jumbled. Friends from one period of time find their way into the same memories as friends from another. Events are unmoored and sent floating toward the wrong mental harbors. I feel this happening as I listen to "River of Dreams," only the juxtapositions in my brain that seem wrong are actually correct. "River of Dreams" came out in August '93, and if I didn't buy the record the week it came out I surely picked it up shortly afterward. One month later, Nirvana released "In Utero," and I know for a fact that I made my mom drive me to Best Buy so I could purchase it immediately.

No matter how strange it might seem now that Billy Joel's midlife-crisis record and Kurt Cobain's late-career crisis record were rattling in my 16 year-old brain at roughly the same time, I couldn't have been the only person on the planet experiencing this. As practically every other star of his generation (including Springsteen) stumbled during the grunge era, Joel's commercial success continued unabated: "River of Dreams" debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, and eventually sold 5 million copies. The title track was a top-five hit. In accordance with Grammy law, "River of Dreams" was nominated for Album of The Year, along with REM's "Automatic For The People," "The Bodyguard" soundtrack, Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad," and Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales." ("The Bodyguard" won.)

Billy Joel fans tend not to place "River of Dreams" among his best albums; personally, I check out of Joel's catalogue after 1982's The Nylon Curtain, though I'm amenable to defenders of "An Innocent Man." After that, it's generally accepted that 1986's "The Bridge," 1989's "Storm Front," and "River of Dreams" represent a downward dip in Joel's creative arc, even if those records sold really well. This is where Joel moved from story songs and singer/songwriter pop to anthems of social consciousness and arena rock. Overt seriousness was impinging upon his songs; in a 1993 interview with Charlie Rose, Joel referred to "River of Dreams" as his "most personal body of work," as opposed to the mere records he made before.

I find Joel's '70s albums to be clearly superior to his '80s albums, but I'd take any '80s record over "River of Dreams." Many of the songs (particularly "The Great Wall of China" and "Shades of Grey") are informed by Joel's bitterness over getting ripped off financially by his former manager. Others (like "All About Soul") are bland odes to middle-aged contentment. The Amy Fisher references in the album's de facto "political" song, "No Man's Land," speak to the album's shelf life. Or they would if "River of Dreams" hadn't been Joel's last (for now) pop album. What saves "River of Dreams" from oblivion is Joel's subsequent silence, which has made this record seem more significant than it probably deserves.

Let's say Billy Joel's career after "River of Dreams" had proceeded like those of other aging rockers. Here's a guess of how this imaginary portion of his discography might've unfolded: In the late '90s, he releases an "Unplugged" album of big-band standards (his "anti-grunge record"); the early 2000s inspire his version of "The Rising" (his "September 11th record"); a few years after that he collaborates with Fats Domino and Dr. John for a piano-player version of "The Three Tenors" (his "Hurricane Katrina record"); and then he makes the "back to basics" album in an attempt to replicate the best parts of "Turnstiles," "The Stranger," and "52nd Street" (his "produced by Rick Rubin record"). If all of those albums actually existed, I doubt his 12.12.12 appearance would have resonated, or that it would suddenly be acceptable to name-check "Glass Houses" deep cuts on reputable blogs. What was previously missing from appraisals of Joel's music - a sympathetic perspective - only exists because he prematurely ended his recording career.

I don't mean to suggest that iconic musicians should stop writing new songs to help their reputations. Last month, David Bowie broke a 10-year silence by releasing a new album, "The Next Day." It's not the best Bowie album (or the 10th-best), but I'm glad it exists, if only because "66 year-old David Bowie" is another interesting persona for David Bowie to exercise on a record. But if I may point out the thunderously obvious: Billy Joel is not David Bowie. His persona has always been the same; it's the culture around him that's changed.

At this point, "New York State of Mind" is accepted as a standard that's beyond reproach. Like Joel's other signature songs - it forms a triptych with "Piano Man" and "Just The Way You Are" - he arguably sounds better singing "New York State of Mind" as an old man, since the weariness of the text and the loungy nature of the music suits a person who's been around the block a few hundred times. This also makes Billy Joel different from his contemporaries, at the 12.12.12 concert and elsewhere: He doesn't have to re-create his younger self to make his songs work the way they're supposed to - his music has always been a little old-fashioned. Even as a young man, Billy Joel was a lovably unsexy guy in his early 60s.

So he doesn't write anymore, not pop songs anyway. Instead he goes about his relatively ordinary life in plain sight in a cedar shake house in the middle of Sag Harbor village. He has a few of his vintage motorcycles in the garage, and his boat slip is within walking distance. He is seemingly never alone, spending his time in the company of his two pugs or his live-in girlfriend of three years, Alexis Roderick, a former Morgan Stanley risk officer (who he probably wishes had been alongside him in the 1970s to assess his first record deal). What he lacks in output, he more than makes up for in opinions - about his legacy, his mistakes, a rock-star life lived hard and the heroes and villains he met along the way. If the new music of many of his contemporaries is any measure, prolificness is an overrated quality. Once a pop genius, always a pop genius. We ought to know by now.

Andrew Goldman: You're by no means a fogy, but you're 64 now. When you look at other rockers your age, how do you think you're faring? Are there other guys whom you look at and think, there but for the grace of God?

Billy Joel: It was funny, because backstage at the 12.12.12 concert, nobody is a spring chicken anymore. Here comes Keith, and Keith is from the time of King Tut. Then there's Pete Townshend and Mick and McCartney. Rocking-chair rockers. Bon Jovi is next door to me, and then Bruce is down the hall, and we kind of felt like the youngsters. But everybody is still doing it much older than I thought we would ever be. I thought there was a mandatory retirement age at 40, but then the Stones broke that barrier. Now Bruce and I are in our 60s, and the older guys are in their 70s.

Andrew Goldman: You had a double-hip replacement two years ago. I was watching old clips of you doing these jetés across the stage in the '80s. Do you think your hip problems were from years of stage work?

Billy Joel: I was probably born with dysplasia. In the old days, when they took a baby out, sometimes they used forceps. I was a breech baby, so the theory was that they displaced my hips. Over the years, jumping off the piano, landing on a hard stage certainly didn't help. Way back in the early '70s, I used to do somersaults, flips off the piano. I would climb up the cables and hang upside down, anything to get attention. When you're an opening act, you gotta do whatever you can. But over the years it got excruciating. I couldn't walk at one point; I had one of those little scooter chairs, banging into furniture. By the time I finished the tour with Elton in March 2010, I was in a lot of pain, and over that year it got worse and worse and worse. I'm glad I did the surgery, because my life changed. I'm able to be ambulatory again.

Andrew Goldman: Did you have any ambivalence about touring with Elton? You were kind of pigeonholed as a pop star who plays piano the same way that he was.

Billy Joel: No. That was when I first started out. Elton was already established, and I came a few years after him, so there were inevitable comparisons. There weren't that many piano players around - Leon Russell, me, Lee Michaels, one or two other guys. I met Elton in the '70s in Amsterdam, and it was a mutual-admiration society: he liked me, I liked him and said some day we should tour together. It was left on the back burner for a good 20 years, and then one day I just said: "Why don't we do this thing with Elton? It should be fun." And it was, and we did it for 16 years. There's going to be comparisons - "Oh, who's better, Elton or Billy?" Who cares?

Andrew Goldman: Are you cool with Elton now? Basically he said that you're not writing new songs out of fear or laziness.

Billy Joel: That's his opinion. I don't do it because I don't wanna. He tends to shoot off his mouth - he shoots from the hip. I think his heart is in the right place. Maybe he's trying to motivate me, to get me mad or something. He's kind of like a mom.

Andrew Goldman: He actually kind of looks like a mom.

Billy Joel: Yeah, he's got mom hair.

Andrew Goldman: Was he angry? He seemed to suggest you dropped out of shows that you had committed to doing with him.

Billy Joel: There was a misunderstanding - this is my theory, and I haven't spoken to him directly about it yet. I think his booking agent told Elton that I was going to continue touring with him, and they were already counting the money to do the stadiums. But I never agreed to do it. I finished every date that I had agreed to do. When Elton heard that I wasn't going to play, he got very bugged, very disappointed and very angry maybe.

Andrew Goldman: He also said that you hadn't really been serious about rehab, because you went to a place where they allowed you to watch television, while he went to a place that made him scrub floors.

Billy Joel: He doesn't know anything about my private life. I stayed at his house once in France. He's a very friendly, charming man, a nice fun guy, but we really never spent much time personally together. He doesn't really know that much about me, so I let a lot of that slide. I'd work with him again, sure.

Andrew Goldman: He's right that you've written almost no pop songs since your last album, 1993's "River of Dreams." Why did you stop?

Billy Joel: I never stopped writing music. I'm still writing music - piano pieces, orchestral music, dramatic pieces - but they could become songs. Some of them are like hymns that I just don't have words for, but I might.

Andrew Goldman: Do you miss writing popular music?

Billy Joel: No.

Andrew Goldman: Why not? Is it too much effort?

Billy Joel: No, no, no, it's not because of the effort. I got tired of it. I got bored with it. I wanted something more abstract, I wanted to write something other than the three-minute pop tune even though that's an art form unto itself. Gershwin was incredible, Cole Porter was incredible, Richard Rodgers, great stuff, Hoagy Carmichael and John Lennon, the three-minute symphony. For me, it was a box. I want to get out of the box. I never liked being put in a box.

Andrew Goldman: Nice box to be in.

Billy Joel: Very nice box to be in for a while, but then it becomes like a coffin.

Andrew Goldman: You've always thought of yourself as a rocker, so if I went back to 1968 and told you that songs like "Just The Way You Are" would be standards now, would you be excited?

Billy Joel: Yeah, sure, I'd be excited, absolutely. When The Beatles did "Yesterday," I remember the first time I heard it. I said, "That's a classic, that is going to be around forever." OK, it's a ballad. So what? The Beatles wrote ballads; they also did rock and roll. That's the kind of mold I put myself into. I'm not going to just stick to one kind of music, I'm going to do all kinds of music. I like it all.

Andrew Goldman: A critic once wrote that you're "naturally inclined to write big melodies like McCartney" but that you idolize John Lennon. Do you agree?

Billy Joel: I idolized both of them equally. I didn't really delineate who was writing the lyrics and who was writing the melody. I assumed it was a collaboration. When Paul would get too sweet, John would kind of sour it down, and when Paul was at a loss for a lyric, John would throw something in offhand that was sardonic. I loved the combination of the both of them.

Andrew Goldman: Do you think there's a finite number of great songs in any one person?

Billy Joel: Everybody is different. Some writers can write reams of great books and then JD Salinger wrote just a few. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. They were all phenomenal. Mozart wrote some 40 symphonies, and they were all phenomenal. That doesn't mean Beethoven was a lesser writer, it's just some guys are capable of more productivity, some guys take more time. Mozart pisses me off because he's like a naturally gifted athlete, you listen to Mozart and you go: "Of course. It all came easy to him." Beethoven you hear the struggle in it. Look at his manuscripts, and there's reams of scratched-out music that he hated. He stops and he starts. I love that about Beethoven, his humanity shows in his music. Mozart was almost inhuman, unhuman.

Andrew Goldman: Is songwriting hard for you?

Billy Joel: Yeah, I relate to Beethoven. I write backward - I write the music first and then I write the words. Most people write the words first and then they write the music. Keith Richards was explaining his method of songwriting. He calls it "vowel movement." They come up with a riff, and it's like sounds, and whatever sound...like "start me up" - "up" works because it has a consonant at the end of it, but if you go "take me home," it wouldn't have worked. I kind of subscribe to that. It has to sound right sometimes even more than being a poetic lyric. It's a struggle to fit words onto music, and I want it to be really, really good, so I take a long time. I love having written, but I hate writing. So then I go through postpartum depression, and it's: "Ugh, I gotta start all over again? Where am I going to get the" - what do you call it? Sitzfleisch?

Andrew Goldman: Over the years you've resisted being characterized as a balladeer. You recently said you were afraid that "Just The Way You Are" would become a "gloppy ballad" for weddings.

Billy Joel: Yeah. It ended up being that. When it's done by a wedding band, they tend to glop it up.

Andrew Goldman: But then you came out with an album full of ballads called "She's Got a Way," and I wondered if you'd made peace with that notion.

Billy Joel: Columbia put that out. Do you know how many compilations there are that people think I put out? People think I'm doing it, and it kind of dilutes what I did in terms of the album forms. To be fair to Columbia records, I haven't given them anything since 1993, that's 20 years ago.

Andrew Goldman: What do you owe them?

Billy Joel: At this point, probably four or five regular albums. It's indentured servitude when you sign with a record company. I don't even own my own masters. They own the masters.

Andrew Goldman: Do you get a regular call from Columbia saying: "Billy, you're short four albums we paid for. What do you have?"

Billy Joel: No, they just say, "We'd like to put out this." What am I going to do, sue them? I can't stop them.

Andrew Goldman: Over the years you talked a lot about being angry about how critics responded to you and would even on occasion read and rip up bad reviews onstage.

Billy Joel: That never went away. I read things, and I didn't think they were fair or true. I would get my back up. There could be seven other very good reviews, but I only paid attention to the bad ones. I would say, "Did you see what this guy said about me?" Maybe it was a Long Island thing. We had a chip on our shoulder.

Andrew Goldman: Did you think that history would provide you redemption?

Billy Joel: I don't know if I thought of pop music or rock and roll in terms of history, the Nixon of rock and roll. My descendants will treat me better than my contemporaries.

Andrew Goldman: Speaking of descendants, there was a video of you doing "New York State of Mind" with a Vanderbilt University freshman, Michael Pollack.

Billy Joel: I've been doing master classes at colleges all over the world. It's for music students, mostly, and people who want to be in the music business. Pick my brain. Don't ask me about what happened with Christie and "Uptown Girl." Ask me about the job, how you do the job, because there was no book about it when I was starting out. I want to help people. So sometimes a kid will say, "Can I try something on the piano with you?" We used to have a gong on the stage. Sometimes somebody gets up there, and you give them about 30 seconds, and if they suck, we hit the gong. But I've had people come up onstage and do really terrific stuff. So this thing went viral.

Andrew Goldman: I'm not a musician, but that kid looked exceptional.

Billy Joel: He was a good piano player. I'm glad the video got out, because for him, he might have a shot at having a career in music now. He's got chops, and it was all done by ear. I don't know if you heard in the beginning of the tape, I said, "What do you play?" He goes, "Piano." I said: "Oh. What key do you do it in?" He goes, "What key do you want it in?" Whoa, this kid's got chutzpah.

Andrew Goldman: Two years ago, at the last minute, you pulled out of writing your memoirs. This was a big deal - like a $3 million advance from HarperCollins. The thing was all written, right?

Billy Joel: It wasn't finished. Some of it hadn't been filled out in detail, but there was a beginning, a middle and an end. Then I saw this marketing campaign - "Divorce, Depression and Drinking." We talked about some of those things, but that's not the essence of the book. I realized that was going to be the nature of the campaign. They wanted more sex, drugs and rock and roll, and there's not that much in my life. What I wanted to do was have a book that set the record straight. There's so much misinformation about me. There have been some ersatz biographies where they talk to someone I knew for five minutes or some disgruntled members of the band. And I'd be reading these books saying: "No, no, that's not right. You know what? I should write a book." I wasn't interested in doing a tell-all. I'm not going to talk about people who I was involved in relationships with. I'm just not that kind of guy.

Andrew Goldman: So the publisher actually told you, "More sex."

Billy Joel: Fred Schruers, my co-writer, was submitting it. They said to Fred, "We need more of the sex and the wives and the girlfriends and drinking and divorce and the depression." I covered it all. But I didn't go into detail about my personal life. If they want to poke Fred with red-hot needles to get him to make up salacious details, go ahead, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not a psychoanalyst. I don't know why I drank so much. I don't subscribe to Alcoholics Anonymous, I don't subscribe to 12-step stuff. Sometimes I just overdid it.

Andrew Goldman: What did you drink?

Billy Joel: I started with Dewars White Label Scotch and then, when I really got heavy into it, it was vodka. Vodka is a hard-core alky drink. I could take it in shots or I could just mix it with something. I can't even smell the stuff anymore. It makes me sick. But it wasn't consistent, it would be periods of time, during a divorce or something.

Andrew Goldman: So did you quit cold turkey?

Billy Joel: No, I have a glass of wine once in a while, and I don't hide it. I have a glass of wine with a meal.

Andrew Goldman: A decade ago, before you entered rehab, there was a period of two years in which you had three car accidents that involved hitting inanimate objects.

Billy Joel: The first accident, there was no booze involved. And I didn't hit a tree. It's these really dark roads back up here at night. The car went off the road and into a mud rut. I had gone through a break-up and was really broken up about it, and I decided I'm drinking too much. I should go to rehab. But people made a connection, like, "Oh, he went there because he was in a car accident from drinking." No. The second accident was over here on the way out of town. It's called Dead Man's Curve, and it was black ice; that wasn't drinking, either. The car slid and smashed into a tree. I went to rehab in '05 because, when I was with Katie, she said, "You're drinking way too much." I never had a DUI in my life. That's another fallacy. Look at the police records.

Andrew Goldman: What was going on with you at the time?

Billy Joel: I was kind of in a mental fog, and it had nothing to do with the booze. My mind wasn't right. I wasn't focused. I went into a deep, deep depression after September 11th, 2011. September 11th, 2011 just knocked the wind out of me, and I don't know even now if I've recovered from it. It really, really hurt that man could do that to man. And then there was a break-up with somebody, and it took me a while to get me back on my feet again.

Andrew Goldman: You know they have medication for that.

Billy Joel: Well, I used booze as medication.

Andrew Goldman: In 2008, you accompanied your wife on "Oprah." You looked so uncomfortable, I remember thinking it looked as if there was somebody offstage pointing a shotgun at you to keep you from running away.

Billy Joel: I was very uncomfortable. I was in shock. I didn't realize behind me there were these screens of, like, auto accidents and things about drinking and divorce. I thought I was going to come talk about music. I did the show because Katie had a book coming out. She said, "Please, help me get on the show." I said, "I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, don't make me do it, don't make me do it." But I said, "OK, I'll do it, and it's going to suck." Sure enough, it did. My daughter saw the show, and she cried, she thought it was so bad.

Andrew Goldman: Why? Because you looked so unhappy?

Billy Joel: Because she thought it was a mean line of questioning, and she knew I wasn't happy. She could see it. This is why I didn't want to do the show. I don't like doing TV, especially a show like that. All those touchy-feely kind of shows like "The View" or "Oprah," people talk about their feelings. I don't like that.

Andrew Goldman: On the "Oprah" show, Katie said that when she met you in the bar of the Peninsula Hotel in 2002, she had no idea who you were or what music you played. You must be quite a charmer.

Billy Joel: I guess I am. Maybe that's part of the reason I was successful onstage. She really didn't know about me. She thought I had a song called "Uptown Girl" and "Only The Good Die Young." That's all she knew. She thought I was a one-hit-wonder kind of guy.

Andrew Goldman: Is it true that the same day you met her, you took her to your Broadway show?

Billy Joel: Yes, she was in the city with some friends from college, and I took her out to dinner at a nice Italian place. I wanted to make an impression. We went to a place that had truffles, I think. Then I took her to "Movin' Out." Once in a while, I would go there and sit in with the band at the end of the show at the encore. It was one of those nights. I made an impression there, and then we stayed in touch with each other.

Andrew Goldman: That's one way to make an impression, take somebody to your jukebox musical.

Billy Joel: Hey, you saw the film version of "Tom Sawyer," right? Walking on the fence, a feather on his nose to impress Becky Thatcher? I never forgot that. I'm shameless when it comes to that.

Andrew Goldman: Right before you married Christie Brinkley, you dated Elle Macpherson. And later you married Katie Lee, also a young, very beautiful woman. Do you think your relationship with female beauty is any different from any other red-blooded American male?

Billy Joel: A lot of guys are just too intimidated to even ask them out, but I had a great way to meet people. People are just interested in you because you're a rock star. OK, some guys use a car. Some guys have a cute dog. I'm a rock star. That's who I am, what I do. What's wrong with that?

Andrew Goldman: What's the hardest part of being married to you?

Billy Joel: There's a pain-in-the-ass factor with celebrity. There are a lot of moments you don't have because people interrupt them, and you try to be polite, but sometimes people just don't think. I try to be as nice as I can and as polite and well mannered as I can, but sometimes it's ridiculous, so I don't go out as often as I should. I was never able to take my daughter to an amusement park, which I would have liked to have done, or do things in public, because it kind of gets silly with people's perception. On the other hand, I was married to some beautiful women. I always get compared to how beautiful they are and how not beautiful I am, and it's kind of funny, it's like "Beauty and The Beast." I don't mind being the beast, I want them to be good-looking, and if they don't mind me looking like me, why should I care?

Andrew Goldman: So your three marriages didn't turn out so great. Your finances were no picnic, either. You were famously taken advantage of twice and made a lot less money than people would imagine.

Billy Joel: I suppose I kept myself purposely stupid about the commerce side of it. It was dumb. I really should have looked after things.

Andrew Goldman: Your first record deal as a solo performer, in 1970, was with the producer Artie Ripp and was notoriously bad.

Billy Joel: Yeah, I pretty much gave up my publishing, my copyrights, my royalties. He had to get his pound of flesh.

Andrew Goldman: Your first wife, Elizabeth, once claimed that when all was said and done, you made less than $8,000 off the initial release of the album "Piano Man."

Billy Joel: Yeah, that sounds about right. It was a terrible deal.

Andrew Goldman: Then, in the late '80s, you discovered that your former brother-in-law and manager, Frank Weber, had seriously mismanaged your money. Didn't you literally open up a safe-deposit box and find a bunch of IOU's?

Billy Joel: That and bad investments and tax shelters, just bad everything. It was much more of an emotional betrayal for me than financial, because this was somebody I trusted so much.

Andrew Goldman: It's probably a really ugly exercise, but did you ever compute what you lost?

Billy Joel: At one time there was an audit, and I was given a figure of $30 million. I didn't even know I had anything like that. I thought maybe 3, maybe close to 10 million. But I'm not bitter about any of that stuff.

Andrew Goldman: Oh, I would be so bitter.

Billy Joel: People don't understand, I've met these people again, and I shake hands with them. I saw Artie at some kind of music event in LA like 10 years ago. "Hi, how ya' doing?" I don't have any hard feelings, I don't.

Andrew Goldman: You don't have hard feelings about a guy who made a ton of money off a bunch of albums he didn't even work on?"

Billy Joel: I came out fine. I didn't like getting ripped off, and I didn't like the fact that my daughter might not have what she deserved to get. It wasn't so much about me. The same thing with Frank Weber. I saw him a couple years ago out here in the Hamptons. He was going into a restaurant, and I said, "Hey, how ya' doin' man?" We sat and talked. I have absolutely no hard feelings. I let all that go. I can't carry that stuff around. You'd be pissed off your whole life. Bad things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.

Andrew Goldman: So was there a point when you actually started paying attention to the business side?

Billy Joel: Yeah, after I got screwed the second time. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It was time to grow up. I always had this sense that OK, I'm an artist and I shouldn't have to be concerned about something as banal as money, which is baloney. It's my job. It's what I do. I didn't pay any attention to it, and I trusted other people, and I got screwed.

Andrew Goldman: Did you experience any actual deprivation?

Billy Joel: No. I never went without a meal. I just didn't have the money I was supposed to have. I know what poor is. When I was a kid, we didn't have anything. There was a rumor that I filed for bankruptcy - that never happened, either. I owed Uncle Sam a couple of million bucks in income tax, and the money that I thought was there, wasn't there. I had to sell a place in the city. I was building a house out here in the Hamptons, and I owned a place on Central Park West. I sold it to Sting. I was praying for a rock star. They don't care what their accountant says. If they want something, they buy it. Then I sold the house that I was building to Jerry Seinfeld. I keep exchanging star homes. I bought Roy Scheider's house. Mickey Drexler bought my old place in Martha's Vineyard. I'm the Realtor to the stars.

Andrew Goldman: Were there tours you went on just because you needed the dough?

Billy Joel: I became a road warrior. I said, "That's how I earn a living." I went out on the road and stayed out on the road for years. Made it all back, and I enjoyed it.

Andrew Goldman: You recently said you aren't touring now because you don't want to feel like you've got to play all your hits. Are there songs you would just as soon never sing again?

Billy Joel: I wouldn't say never, but there are some I'd like not to have to do. I can't do a show without doing "Piano Man." I've done shows without doing "Just The Way You Are." I hardly ever do "Uptown Girl." We had a lot of hits, so I have the luxury of being able to pick what hits I'm going to do and what hits I'm not going to do.

Andrew Goldman: You also said you have no interest in being what you called "an oldies act."

Billy Joel surprised an assembly of students at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens on Thursday when he showed up to answer questions and perform a pair of songs on different pianos at the school for 400 students.

Joel appeared with Tony Bennett, who opened the school through his Exploring the Arts Program in 2001. Currently, Bennett's program supports 14 schools in New York and will launch three schools in Los Angeles by the end of this year, according to The Associated Press.

In between performing "New York State of Mind" and "She's Got A Way," Joel participated in a Question & Answer session with students in the audience, beginning with "What do you think is one of your biggest mistakes?"

Looks like the "Piano Man" is changing his tune!

Billy Joel has sold his gorgeous Miami Beach home for a cool $13.75 million, and we have to say it's an awfully impressive property to part with!

The breathtaking Mediterranean-style home features seven bedrooms and eight-and-a-half baths, complete with a massive bar with wine cellar, gourmet kitchen and outdoor summer kitchen, too.

It's an entertainer's dream!

Best of all, the picturesque estate sits right on the waterfront of La Gorce Island, a swanky and secluded area fitting for a mega-star.

While this stunning seaside home is certainly something to marvel at, we're betting his next abode is even more immaculate.

Two of pop music's most legendary "Piano Men" - Elton John and Billy Joel - reconciled Thursday night at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City, putting an end to whatever lingering awkwardness was between them in the years after John gave a blunt interview calling his former touring partner lazy and an alcoholic.

Wealthy New York hedge funder Thomas Kempner Jr. celebrated his 60th birthday with a host of billionaires - and Billy Joel, who was paid up to $2 million to perform. Kempner, head of Davidson Kempner Capital Management, LLC and the son of the late wit, fashion darling and social doyenne Nan Kempner, was feted by friends and family at the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday night. A throng of sharp-suited financial heavyweights attended including Blackstone's Tony James, hedge funder Dan Loeb, former Goldman Sachs honcho David Hamamoto and Kempner's banker father Thomas Kempner. We're told the party was organized by Kempner Jr.'s wife, Kitty, and Joel played for an hour and a half. One guest joked, "It was a lovely party - some of Thomas' family members made touching speeches, then Billy Joel played with his band for a long time. But it was amusing to see all the billionaires dancing to Billy's 'Allentown' about the depressed manufacturing industry. Nobody there would know anything about working at a steel mine unless they owned one." Representatives for Kempner and Joel declined to comment on how much he was paid to perform.

Billy Joel will play a surprise concert Wednesday at The Paramount Theater in Huntington to benefit Long Island Cares, his first Long Island concert in 11 years.

Joel, who had been rehearsing with his band at the Huntington theater last week for his upcoming European tour, made a "spur-of-the-moment" decision to play there for his first public Long Island show since he played Nassau Coliseum with Elton John in 2002.

Tickets for the Paramount show, which sold for $79.50-$150.00 at Ticketmaster, sold out completely within 15 seconds, even with a two-ticket limit per person. Considering how Joel holds the record for the most sell-outs at Madison Square Garden and sold-out two nights at Shea Stadium to close the historic venue, competition for tickets at the 1,555-capacity Paramount was fierce. Tickets are already selling for $500 apiece on Stubhub.com and Craigslist.com.

Though the Hicksville native has been considering retirement from touring this year, he has seemingly enjoyed being on the road, performing sporadically throughout the year, including festivals in New Orleans and Australia, as well as the short upcoming European tour. Joel is set to be honored by the Kennedy Center in December, when he will receive the nation's highest award given to performers for his contribution to popular culture.

Joel's concert is a boon for The Paramount, which was recently named one of the busiest clubs in the world by Pollstar magazine. "It was a dream from the beginning that he would play the venue," says Stephen Ubertini, co-owner of the Paramount.

Dominic Catoggio, another Paramount co-owner, says that Huntington venue had planned for a "Piano Man" concert even before it opened in 2011. "[Co-owner Brian Doyle] would say, 'If Billy Joel is going to play here, we need a bigger elevator, so we got a bigger elevator," Catoggio says. "It was a dream – a dream we had since day one."

Doyle adds, "It's definitely a 'Bucket List' moment – right at number one."
Ubertini says Joel decided to rehearse at The Paramount after seeing concerts at the venue and enjoying himself. "It's the ultimate compliment for us that he's chosen to play here," he says. "It's a watershed moment."

Paule T. Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares, says the Hauppauge-based charity, founded by singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, is excited by Joel's benefit.

Billy Joel celebrated being a hometown boy at his first Long Island concert in 11 years Wednesday night at The Paramount.

"Long Island, long time no see," he said before announcing his plans to play more than just hits. "It's great to be in Huntington - easy commute to work."

Joel dedicated his hopeful anthem "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" to "everybody who's been through Sandy." He offered up "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" to the South Shore. And he changed the words to "Piano Man" to "It's a pretty good crowd here in Huntington."

He also paid tribute to Long Island Cares, the Hauppauge-based charity founded by Harry Chapin that Joel chose to receive proceeds from the sold-out show.

Joel, 64, has been considering retirement from touring, but recently he has enjoyed performing at festivals in New Orleans and Australia, and has a short European tour set for later this month - the reason he and his band started rehearsing at The Paramount in the first place.

"This is harder than it used to be," Joel said. However, he was clearly in good spirits, breaking out in a wide grin at the ovation he got for "The River of Dreams," as well as being in fine voice. His recent hip surgeries seem to have done the trick as he swiveled his hips during the encore "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me."

Joel's concert brought out VIPs of all sorts - from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who recently rode with Joel in a motorcycle memorial to honor September 11th victims, to actor Paul Rudd, from numerous Judd Apatow movies.

It also brought the shops and restaurants of downtown Huntington to life, with many blasting Joel's music out their front doors.

Tickets for the show sold-out within 15 seconds Tuesday, even with a two-ticket limit per person and only two hours' notice.

Considering how Joel holds the record for the most sellouts at Madison Square Garden and sold out two nights at Shea Stadium, competition for tickets at the 1,555-capacity Paramount was predictably fierce. Scalpers were charging more than $800 on StubHub.com and Craigslist.com for tickets, which originally ranged in price from $79.50 to $150.00.

Joel addressed the wild mark-ups, saying, "We're not worth that much - maybe if [Jimi] Hendrix came back."

Of course, many fans were thrilled to see Joel in such an intimate setting no matter what the cost. After all, Joel is set to be honored by the Kennedy Center in December 2013, when he will receive the nation's highest award given to performers for their contribution to popular culture.

He showed off how diverse that influence has been, adding a Latin influence to "Don't Ask Me Why" and some ragtime to the extended opening of "New York State of Mind," which became a poignant sing-along.

Joel also made a point of explaining how rare some of the night's performances were. "I don't think we've ever played this one before," he said, introducing "Blonde Over Blue" from the "River of Dreams" album. "It could be a car wreck." After the song got a huge ovation, he said, "I like that one. We're going to keep it."

He closed the two-hour show with thank yous for Long Island and The Paramount, as well as a potential promise. "Maybe we'll see you soon again," he said as he left the stage.

Diehard Billy Joel fans lined up Wednesday outside the Paramount in Huntington for a chance to see their idol perform close to home.

Many had seen him perform more than a dozen times. And many had found ways around expected difficulties with Ticketmaster.com.

The man with the most Joel shows under his belt might have been Charlie Merangelo of Huntington. Wednesday's show was his 39th performance, with more planned next month. He is planning a trip to Dublin and Manchester to see Joel but couldn't pass up the chance to see the singer in his backyard.

Equally determined was Gail Gallo of Stony Brook, a nurse who was heading into her 13th Joel concert. So determined was she to see the Huntington show that she skipped online sales and went right to a dealer and paid $799.00 each for two tickets. She plans to donate an equivalent amount to Long Island Cares-the Harry Chapin Food Bank, which is a beneficiary of the Joel concert. She also grabbed the first spot in line, arriving about noon. She said she'd gone to Hicksville High School, where she was four years behind Joel.

Paul and Kathy Sgroi of Smithtown brought a 1975 Joel album, hoping to get an autograph. They said they were able to get tickets through a friend.

And Michele Bica from Northport, in line with a friend Laurie Costell-Hickey of East Northport, pronounced herself "super excited" to be attending her fourth Joel concert.

Attorneys Lee Reynolds and Michael McCarthy, who represented the Paramount on zoning issues, also attended with their wives, Kim McCarthy and Erica Reynolds. They had seen Joel in 2008 in what was supposed to be the last concert at Shea Stadium until one more was added at the last moment.

A few people stood on the sidewalk near the theater, asking passersby if they had tickets for sale.

Billy Joel fans hoping to grab tickets for the singer's charity concert Wednesday night to benefit Long Island Cares - The Harry Chapin Food Bank will have to break the bank to see the Long Island icon in person if they're perusing secondary ticket markets thanks to brazen ticket re-sellers, many seeking upwards of $1,000 a ticket.

Just as quickly as tickets sold out Tuesday for the good-hearted gig at The Paramount in Huntington, people turned to sites such as StubHub.com and Craigslist.com to capitalize on the charity event, which will help raise money for the food bank with a portion of the proceeds going to the charity.

"It is disheartening that people would resell tickets to a charity benefit show for a profit," Paramount spokesman Adam Ellis said in a statement to The Long Island Press.

One Craigslist.com user had much harsher words for someone who posted an advertisement on the web-site asking for $900 to see the Long Island music legend in concert. "This is a charity event," they blasted. "You're a scumbag."

Tickets for the "Piano Man's" rare LI gig went on sale Tuesday at noon and sold-out within seconds through Ticketmaster. Prices ranged from $79.50 to $150.00.

The Paramount made the announcement two hours before tickets went on sale.
Some disappointed fans of the "Piano Man" vented that they weren't given enough heads up, forcing them to look elsewhere.

But when they clicked onto StubHub.com's web-site they were greeted with exorbitant prices ranging from $800.00 to $1,200.00.

Some interested ticket seekers added to the hysteria by posting their own advertisements on Craigslist.com. One user apparently ready to give up on their 0-6 New York Giants said they would trade four tickets to an upcoming game for two Joel tickets.

Paule Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares - The Harry Chapin Food Bank, said that although it's "disappointing" people would try to profit off the event, he didn't look at it as people taking money from the charity.

"The fact that some people decide to purchase [tickets] and mark them up and sell them," is nothing new in the concert business, he added.

Joel's last performance was at a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Garden on December 12th, 2012, which also attracted a slew of people attempting to re-sell tickets, infuriating victims of the superstorm.

After Billy Joel delivered a blistering, surprise club show at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, Long Island last night, tour dates are beginning to surface for 2014. No official announcement has been made but right now, Songkick.com shows a January 7th, 2014 date in Sunrise, Florida at the AT&T Center. Live Nation briefly listed a January 22nd, 2014 date in Jacksonville, Florida at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, though it has since been removed.

Billy Joel hasn't toured America since he wrapped a co-headlining run of dates with Elton John in early 2010. After that, he took time off to recover from hip replacement surgery and reappeared last year at the December 12th, 2012 benefit for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Earlier this year, he played Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Soundwave Festival in Australia. He heads to England and Ireland for a four-show tour later this month.

Joel's Long Island gig featured many deep cuts from his catalogue, fittingly; in April 2013, he told Rolling Stone that he was sick of merely playing his hits. "I don't want to be an oldies hack where I'm just playing songs everybody is familiar with," he said. "I don't have any new material, but I realized that if I play older material that has never been heard before, like an album track or an obscure song, that's almost the same as doing a new song."

Rolling Stone reached out to Joel's representatives for comment on the tour dates and have yet to receive a reply.

Just two songs into his set at the tiny Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York, Billy Joel made it clear this wasn't going to be his standard show. "We're not going to play all hits tonight," he said. "I'm tired of that shit. We want to mix in some other stuff that we haven't done for a long time."

The concert, essentially an open rehearsal for Joel's upcoming mini-European tour that doubled as a benefit for the food bank Long Island Cares, was quietly announced Tuesday morning, about an hour before tickets went on sale. It still sold-out within seconds, and scalpers were charging upwards of $4,000 a seat. Hordes of people stood outside the 1,555 seat club, begging strangers for a ticket, and it's really no surprise. Outside of two festival dates earlier this year, this was his first full show since his co-headlining tour with Elton John wrapped in early 2010, and he hasn't played a legit headlining gig since Valentine's Day of 2009.

A few things were apparent during the opening song, "Everybody Loves You Now" from Joel's 1971 debut LP "Cold Spring Harbor." He moved to the piano a little slowly (no doubt due to his hip replacement a few years back), but his voice was shockingly powerful and he was clearly having an absolute blast. He seemed to be going through the motions on those last few Elton John tours, but the long break has obviously revitalized him. It's been a long time since he's played a room anywhere near as tiny as the Paramount, and he soaked in every bit of love from the screaming fans, who had absolutely no idea they'd be seeing Billy Joel in concert when they woke up the previous morning.

He wasn't kidding about steering clear of the hits, at least in the first half of the show. Early on he busted out the "The Stranger" deep cut "Vienna," the "Streetlife Serenade" gem "The Entertainer" and "The Great Wall of China" from "River of Dreams." It might be tough to pull off these tracks in a stadium, but this was a club full of die-hard Long Island Billy Joel fans going nuts and many of them greeted each tune with delirious glee.

Even the fanatics had to search their memory banks for "The Nylon Curtain" tracks "A Room of Her Own" and "She's Right On Time," not to mention "Stop In Nevada" from "Piano Man." The latter song was from Joel's brief period where he tried to write western-themed material. "I moved out to California and was there for three years," he said. "I'd go into the mountains and I was into this whole country thing and western thing and I decided to try and write a song like one of those songs."

Absolutely nothing in his catalogue seemed off limits, even "Blonde Over Blue," a gushing tribute to his ex-wife Christie Brinkley from "River of Dreams." "I don't think we've ever done this one, ever," he said before trying it out. "So this might be a train wreck. This may be the only time we ever do it." They pulled it off without a hitch. "I like that one," he said afterwards. "I'm going to keep it."

Some songs are unknown for a reason, and just about the only bumpy moment of the night was "This Is the Time" from "The Bridge," which even Joel admits is his worst album. It's simply a schmaltzy song that never takes off. He followed it up with "Don't Ask Me Why," a standout tune from "Glass Houses."

Even though he sprinkled in a few crowd-pleasers like "New York State of Mind," "Allentown" and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" into the first half of the show, a small minority of fans seemed a bit bored with so much (at least to them) unfamiliar material. Those people jumped to their feet, however, when he played the opening notes of "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant." This is practically the Long Island National Anthem, and nearly every person screamed every single word in the saga of Brenda and Eddie at the top of their lungs.

The rest of the night was a greatest hits parade, including "River of Dreams," "We Didn't Start The Fire," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," "Only The Good Die Young," "You May Be Right" and, of course, "Piano Man." Some of those songs I thought I never had to hear again, but when he straps on the harmonica and plays the opening notes of "Piano Man" it's impossible to avoid getting caught up in the moment. The entire room filled with euphoria, and the familiar tale of the real estate novelist, Davy from the Navy and the microphone that smells like a beer suddenly feels new again.

Joel was never a critical favorite during his heyday, and the endless criticism must have played at least a small role in his decision to stop releasing pop songs twenty years ago. But with each passing year, love for the man seems to grow, and it's becoming harder and harder to remember a time when the tastemakers deemed him uncool. Simply put, he's outlasted the haters, and (to steal a line from Matt Stone in the Rush documentary "Beyond The Lighted Stage") you gotta give it up to him now, or you're just being a dickhead.

It's unclear how much of this show will make it into the cavernous arenas of England and Ireland later this month, but hopefully he won't lose his courage and he'll continue to devote over half the show to rarities. There's no word on more American dates, but his final words to the crowd were fairly hopeful: "Maybe we'll see you soon."

Billy Joel stepped onto the stage of Long Island's Paramount Theater last week feeling rather nervous.

"I was wondering if I was going to be any good," he admits. "Could I still do this?"

It was an understandable concern - it is 20 years since Joel's last pop record, and 11 since he headlined in his native Long Island – but unnecessary: the show, a warm-up for his imminent, sold-out British tour, was ecstatically received. "We played half of a dozen songs that we rarely play and some that we have never performed," Joel tells me down the line from his Long Island home. "You have to mix it up - only singing hits becomes really boring."

It is an enviable problem to have. Billy Joel has sold more than 150 million albums, his Greatest Hits double album alone has shifted 23 million copies, and he is the third biggest-selling solo artist of all time in the United States, bigger than Springsteen, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Which is pretty good going for someone who says he has a horrible piano-playing technique and is not a real rock star.

Billy Joel was born 64 years ago in The Bronx to an English-Jewish mother and a German Jewish father who had fled the Nazis. Joel's father was a classically trained pianist and Joel had lessons from the age of six. And then he saw The Beatles.

"I was 15 when I saw them, and I remember thinking they looked like me and my friends," he recalls. 'They looked like working-class stiffs - they didn't look like they were fabricated in Hollywood."

Joel began playing in local bands before releasing a debut album in 1971 that was indifferently received, before 1973's "Piano Man" provided his signature song and put him on the road towards superstardom. During the next two decades, he released a string of hit singles and albums, winning Grammy awards for Album of The Year in 1978 and Song of The Year, and Record of The Year for "Just The Way You Are." He dated Elle Macpherson and married another supermodel – Christine Brinkley – and in 1987 he became the first American rock star to play Russia since the building of the Berlin Wall. He seemed to have it all, but the one thing that eluded him was critical acclaim.

Billy Joel has never been cool. One critic referred to him as "the sort of popular artist who makes elitism seem not only defensible but necessary."

"When I was first starting out, I was considered hip for about two seconds," says Joel, "and immediately after that I was naff - isn't that the word?" How does he feel about that now? "It's a very superficial way to judge things," he says, "just to be cool doesn't have a whole lot of substance to it anyway." That Joel is not accorded the critical respect accorded to peers such as Springsteen and Neil Young seems unfair and perverse: anyone whose back catalogue includes "Piano Man," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," and "Only The Good Die Young" ought not to need defending. Despite having written a boatload of songs that are now timeless standards, Joel became disillusioned with pop music.

"I did a few tours with Elton John," he says, "and the show never changed - it was basically the two of us doing our greatest hits. It became stale and sterile."

The craft of songwriting also began to lose its appeal. "I got bored writing popular music," he says. "I just got tired of writing in the same format: it can't be too long, it's got to be played on the radio. It's a box, and after a while that box becomes a coffin."

Joel is, however, stepping inside the box for a short British tour, but there is one song he is not looking forward to singing. "I am dreading doing 'Uptown Girl'," he admits, "because it's going to destroy my throat, once I do that song it's really hard to sing anything after that."

The video for "Uptown Girl" featured his second ex-wife Christie Brinkley. Joel has talked in the past about how he took up music to compensate for his looks, which are more roadie than rock star. "I have a face made for radio," he tells me, "but I don't care I'm not a handsome guy - I want my girlfriend to be good-looking, not me."

As a strategy, this has had mixed results: Joel has been married and divorced three times, his last wife (in conversation he uses "Ex-1" and "Ex-2" rather than names) was 33 years younger than him, and his current girlfriend is 32 years his junior. There was speculation that it was the emotional fall-out from his divorces that led to a spate of car crashes between 2002 and 2010, which he claimed were due to wet driving conditions but which some attributed to drinking. Joel is a private man who resents such intrusions into his personal life - he recently returned the advance he had been given to write an autobiography when he realized his publishers were hoping for a sensationalist insight into his life.

"People want to know about your private life, your girlfriend, your habits: none of your business!" he tells me. "I feel like I gave enough away by writing the music - I opened up my soul, what else do you want?"

He then reveals the real reason he had started drinking. "I was in New York on September 11th, 2001, and it had a devastating impact on me," he says. "It hit me like a ton of bricks. I went into a deep depression and started drinking. I lost faith in humanity." So what restored his faith, I ask. "That girl who was shot by the Taliban [Malala Yousafzai]," he says. "She is the antidote. We need people like that. I get inspired by people like that."

Pop no longer inspires Billy Joel. He lives quietly with his girlfriend and the one hundred motorbikes that he keeps in his garage. People mostly leave him alone. He is still writing music, but it is abstract and classical and it may never be recorded or released.

"Just because I can put out albums and the record company would release them and people would buy them, that don't mean I should," he says.

When I ask him what he has listened to lately, he says Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten. He doesn't know who Arcade Fire are. At the age of 64 Joel is embracing the music he grew up listening before rock and roll entered his life.

"I took classical lessons until I was 16 and then I stopped," he says. "It's like I fell in love with rock and roll - I met this girl with mascara and fishnet stockings and cigarettes, and she dragged me away with her for a good 45 years - and now all of a sudden I have discovered the girl next door again and she looks pretty good."

Is it hard for a rock star to return to civilian life? "I don't sit around saying, 'Gee, I miss the adulation, I want the applause," he says, "but what I do miss is making music with other musicians." Which is why he's returned to playing live.

"I had both hips replaced recently - that was literally a pain in the ass," he says, "and so it's been three years since I have done anything. I want to do these dates and see how it feels to get back in the saddle."

For the first time in his career, Billy Joel play Brooklyn.

On New Year's Eve, the "Piano Man" will perform at the Barclays Center, marking his inaugural appearance at the venue.

This will be Joel's first arena show in the New York area in seven years. Earlier this month, the star played a special benefit show at the 1,555-capacity Paramount Theater, marking his first Long Island concert in eleven years.

While Joel was born in The Bronx, and famously raised in Hicksville, LI, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz revealed that the musician's grandparents lived in Flatbush. "He frequently visited them as a kid," Markowitz remarked.

The politician was on hand Thursday to announce Joel's coming date in Daily News Plaza, at the front of Barclays Arena. Joel himself did not turn up at the event, through a choir of nine students from Brooklyn's High School of the Arts did. They performed several Joel songs, accompanied by their teacher on piano, including "The River of Dreams."

The New Year's Eve concert will begin at 9:30pm, with Ben Folds Five as the opening act.

"Say goodbye to Hollywood and say hello to Brooklyn," commented Markowitz. "Billy, you finally made it to the big time."

Back on November 28th, 1973, a struggling young musician who had released a largely ignored first album played two shows on the same day at The Roxy Theater in Northampton.

Surprisingly, the theater not only was sold-out, but the crowd was enthusiastically familiar with the album and vocal in its appreciation of the young "Piano Man."

The show was the first in the Lehigh Valley for Billy Joel, and one that would become a milestone in his career.

Joel's "Cold Spring Harbor" never did become a hit. But his next album, "Piano Man," launched him to superstardom, selling four times platinum with its gold title track and favorites such as "Captain Jack," which he played at The Roxy in what may have been its live debut.

Forty years later, Joel's Roxy concert has become the stuff of legend.

Joel subsequently played the Lehigh Valley four more times from 1974-1982, at Northampton County Area Community College in Bethlehem Township, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Allentown Fair's Agriculture Hall and Lehigh University in Bethlehem.

He last played the area on December 27th, 1982, at Lehigh's Stabler Arena, a concert that saw him twice play a new hit he had released – a tale of a struggling city called "Allentown."

That song, of course, most connects Joel to the Valley, and stories told of his Roxy Theater shows suggest the idea for it was formulated during that visit.

It's eight o'clock on a Friday, an unusual crowd shuffles in. From couples collecting pensions to pre-adolescents, they're there to see a show that's been sold out since June. But before the "Piano Man" comes out there's another man with a piano to get the crowd going. Unfortunately for Tom Odell, very few of the 14,000 present have much interest in his brand of piano rock.

Even his big hit "Hold Me" and a cover of "Oh! Darling" by The Beatles fail to get more than passing interest from the audience. "I grew up listening to Billy," Odell tells the audience to get his biggest cheer of the night. "He's the reason I got into piano."

Billy Joel is also the reason so many people paid up to €100 for a ticket, but the cheer he receives for his cinematic entrance music seems to indicate that most would be willing to pay more. He takes his seat at his grand piano. With his bald head, snow-white goatee and slight paunch, he looks his 64 years but it wasn't the sex appeal that drew the crowd.

"My Life" opens the show and sets the tone from the get-go. Despite the 14,000 singing voices and the eight man backing band, it's Joel who is the focus of the watching eyes. His voice is in fine fettle too. It may not have that unique quality that it once possessed, but it's still powerful and able to hold a note.
He throws a few obscure tracks into the mix but, for every "Where's The Orchestra?" or "Blonde Over Blue," there's a "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" or "New York State of Mind." He has his showman attitude too. He has the nods and winks that he throws to the audience and the banter with his band; he's still just a jazz-club boy done good.

And like any good rock and roll show, there is a liberal helping of cheese to add to the mix. If it's not the guitar solos that would be more fitting if played in a light-blue, sleeveless, denim shirt it's the sax solos that should be silhouetted against the moon or the American flag billowing on the screen at the back of the stage. There is also Joel's rotating piano and his fair share of dad jokes too. "Mine is bigger," he says when talking about Odell's piano, "but I still have pianist envy." The drummer is quick with the ba-dum-bum-tss, though.

"Uptown Girl" attracts some huge cheers and quite a few groans when it gets its few minutes. It does stick out like a disposable pop sore thumb in a set where everything else sounds so much more substantial.

"She's Always A Woman" gets a great swaying and singing reaction, while "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" is a magnificent, multi-act epic. But it's a spine-tingling rendition of "Piano Man" that is the highlight. It really felt like an "I was there" moment as a sea of waving arms and raised voices greeted one of the finest songs ever put to wax. It would be a suitable close to any show, but as he and the band exit, we know there'll be a return.

For the encore, Billy the storyteller behind the piano is replaced by Billy the rocker, guitar over his shoulder. "We Didn't Start The Fire" sees The O2 hopping before the Elvis-like theatrics of "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me." Joel takes his place back behind the piano for "You May Be Right" before "Only The Good Die Young" closes the night. Joel stands up from the piano before dropping to his knees in exhaustion; but it's no more than a hint of James Brown-esque showmanship.

"He knows that it's me they've been comin' to see," Joel sings on his most famous of songs. It's a pretty good crowd for a Friday and they've all put quite a lot of bread into the "Piano Man's" jar. Most, if not all, would do so all over again if they could. Billy Joel offers an unforgettable show, and his first Dublin date in seven years is well worth every penny. But please, Mr. Joel, don't leave it so long next time.

Before sitting down at the piano on his first British tour in six years, Billy Joel hitched up the trousers of his black suit and smoothed down a spotty tie like a tough, old mafioso at a backroom meeting. At 64, he's bald with a white goatee. But the bones of a formidable teenage boxer lie beneath.

The six-time Grammy winner came straight off the ropes with a one-two punch of late-'70s smashes: "My Life" and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)." His shoulders hunkered over the keys while stubby fingers pounded away with fierce attack-ack-ack-ack. Both songs are punchy declarations of defiance, yet the tunes were surprisingly light on their feet and soon Joel's saggy, hang-dog eyes were twinkling, his head thrown back in exhilaration.

In recent interviews, the Bronx-born singer/songwriter has admitted that his music has long been dismissed as "naff" by the kind of critic who once wrote that Joel's sound made "elitism not just defensible but necessary." Yes, his songs are unabashedly populist. They get up in your face with cocky melodies, FM production and blaring New York brass. The one-time piano-lounge singer is an entertainer and has never been a man who writes for the benefit of bedroom introspection. You can't imagine the cooler Bruce Springsteen (with whom he's often compared because of their blue collar narratives, but whom he's actually outsold) dressing up as a mechanic and leaping around like Joel did in the video to "Uptown Girl." But there was such joy in that!

Now freed from the prejudices of the past, a new generation is being bowled over by the sheer force and heart of Joel's material. Tickets for the London show of this sold-out UK tour were shifting online for £1,500, and an enthusiastic audience gave him his dues on the night.

In exchange for this faith, the pugnacious Joel delivered the big hitters with crowd-stirring flair, from debut single "Piano Man" and his sole UK number one "Uptown Girl" to fan favorites "We Didn't Start The Fire," and "Allentown." He twirled the microphone-stand like a hefty majorette during the stomp of "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" and inserted "Rule Britannia" into "The River of Dreams," where he proved his falsetto could still drift upwards into an everyman's spiritual. It's by no means his best song on record, but live it proved a warm, uplifting embrace: a big boxer's bear hug at the end of a knockout night.

Billy Joel just announced that he will hold a press conference at Madison Square Garden on December 3rd, 2013 to make an "exclusive and historic announcement." Neither he nor the arena have given indication of what they are going to announce, but the moment will be broadcast live on Fuse, the MSG Network, and BillyJoel.com.

It's doubtful they're announcing that Joel is the new center for the Knicks, so it obviously has something to do with his concerts. He's announced four Madison Square Garden shows in 2014 so far: on January 27th, 2014, February 3rd, 2014, March 21st, 2014, and April 18th, 2014. Ticket sales were very strong, though it's a little odd he's only doing one a month.

Might he be planning an unprecedented one-show-a-month residency at Madison Square Garden for all of 2014? He could easily sell-out all the shows, and it would mean he doesn't have to schlep all over the country. He sold-out 12 nights at Madison Square Garden in 2006 without any difficulty and could easily repeat the feat. He could probably do five nights a month all year long and sell those out. He has a huge fanbase around New York.

Twelve Madison Square Garden shows, even one a month, doesn't seem like a "historic" announcement, though. Might they have something more up their sleeves? This past April, he did tell Rolling Stone that he's contemplating complete album shows. "I got tired of doing the greatest hits set," he said. "If I was going to play again in places like New York, I would probably feature entire albums. It would give me a chance to do songs we haven't played... We'd do one album and then play some obscurities. I enjoy playing those more than I enjoy playing the hits."

Billy Joel does have 12 pop albums, making the one-show-a-month plan feasible. It would also give him plenty of time to learn all the songs. Fans would travel from all over the world and the shows would be actually historic. It would mean he'd have to play "The Bridge" and "Cold Spring Harbor," two albums he's slagged off in the past, too.

There is a strong chance we're reading too much into this. He might merely be announcing that he plans to beat his 12-show record by doing 13, or he might be announcing he's going to do three or four of his most popular albums a few times each. Maybe it's even going to be a farewell run, though that seems unlikely. We'll have to wait until next Tuesday to know for sure, but here's hoping he's feeling super-ambitious and plans to play his whole catalogue.

Billy Joel is saying goodbye to Sagaponack, NY.

The oceanfront home where he lives part time has just been listed for $23.5 million. It's the second time the rocker has tried to sell the 5,550-square-foot house. He took it off the market last January. Its asking price was $16.75 million, down from $22.5 million when Joel first tried to sell it in 2009.

A pool is being constructed on the 1.07-acre lot and other upgrades are under way, says Biana Stepanian of The Corcoran Group, who is marketing the property once again.
Joel likes the property "because it's sort of like the ultimate beach house," Stepanian says. Selling is "just a preference," she says.

"He has ventures he does," she says. "He's always been a good real estate guy."

Joel also owns properties in Centre Island, Sag Harbor, and Huntington Bay. There's no particular reasons he is selling, she adds. "It's not something he had to do."

The house once belonged to late actor Roy Scheider. Joel bought it in 2007 for ex-wife, Katie Lee, before they split. Lee, a cookbook author, did a renovation with celebrity TV designer Nate Berkus. It included a chef's kitchen with "a large pantry and state-of-the-art appliances," according to the listing. Parts of the house are now being redecorated, says Stepanian, although the kitchen remains intact.

There are views of the ocean from all parts of the four-bedroom, six-bathroom house, as well as vistas of farmland reserves. A separate studio with a loft is now a gym, but "it could be a lot of things," says Stepanian. There is also a two-car garage.

The house sustained no damage from superstorm Sandy, although some of the dune shrubbery had to be replaced, she says.

Joel decided to put the house back on the market now because "people are looking earlier than when the season usually starts," Stepanian says. Construction in the area has leveled off - including next door at a property Joel used to own, some say for privacy's sake. "Back a few years ago, things were just beginning to percolate," she says. "Now it's like, What else are you going to do?"

Billy Joel views his upcoming honor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the way he views most incredibly positive things in his remarkable life - with skepticism.

"I always find myself wondering, 'Why me?'" Joel says. "I think it's even in my music. Whenever I talk about something good happening, there's always a little knife in the song that says, 'Watch out. Something bad's gonna happen.'"

He says his wariness only increases when he's given some sort of award for his career achievements. "I've already gotten my award and my reward for making a living doing what I love," he says. "It's like an abundance of good fortune. There's a part of me that goes, 'Wait a minute.'"

It may take more than a minute to digest the enormity of the Kennedy Center Honor - the nation's highest award given to performers, the American equivalent to knighthood in Great Britain or the Legion of Honor in France. Before Joel is honored at a gala on December 8th, 2013, he and the rest of this year's Kennedy Center class - opera singer Martina Arroyo, musicians Herbie Hancock and Carlos Santana, and actress Shirley MacLaine - will also be guests of honor at a State Department banquet and a White House reception. (The gala will be taped to air December 29th, 2013 on CBS.)

"It's kind of knocked me for a loop," Joel says. "I think there's a lot of worthy artists in the country they would pick before me.... But I really do appreciate it. It's an honor."

Joel and his fellow honorees were selected for lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. "Billy Joel's melodies have provided the soundtrack of our lives for over four decades, making him one of pop music's most prolific and memorable singers and songwriters," says Kennedy Center chairman David M. Rubenstein.
Rubenstein says Joel and the others spent their careers "elevating the cultural vibrancy of our nation and the world."

By The Numbers

That certainly applies to Joel. The Hicksville native has sold more than 150 million albums around the world and is the third-biggest-selling solo artist of all time, behind only Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks. His
"Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II" album is the third-biggest-selling album of all time, behind only Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the Eagles' greatest hits collection.

Legendary concert promoter Ron Delsener says he had tears in his eyes when he learned Joel was going to be honored by the Kennedy Center. "He's the greatest symbol of America that we have today," says Delsener, who began supporting Joel in 1970, when he booked Joel's band The Hassles in Central Park.

"He's George Gershwin," Delsener adds. "His lyrics touch everybody. He's a poet, much like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon - Billy's right there with them. And he's a Long Islander! That makes me very proud."
Jimmy Webb, chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the singer/songwriter behind classics like "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman," says that even though Joel has been wildly successful, he is still underappreciated.

"Sometimes, the commercial aspect of Billy's career overshadows the fact that he's this deep musician who has reached into classical music for a lot of the inspiration that drives these pop songs," says Webb, who counts Joel as a friend and a neighbor, since he and his wife moved to Bayville. "And he writes some damn good lyrics."

A song like "Allentown" shows Joel's skill, Webb says, combining a catchy melody with lyrics that explained an important American issue. "It's a masterpiece," he says. "He has earned a kind of universal respect among songwriters for his powerful writing voice - the persona of the blue-collar hero that everybody here in America admires. And there's a deep connection between him and the working guys. They know when people care about them, and they know when they don't care about them."

Webb, whose collaboration with Joel on "Wichita Lineman" for his 2010 album "Just Across The River" is Joel's most recent pop recording, says Joel "richly deserved" the Kennedy Center honor. "He has an enormous talent as a composer," he says. "He's a composer like Aaron Copland."

Pop culture critic and author Chuck Klosterman says Joel's Kennedy Center qualifications go beyond music. "His influence is much more cultural than musical," he says. "Billy Joel has had more influence in defining the type of culture he has consistently written about -
blue-collar intellectuals."

Klosterman says Joel's cultural importance is indisputable. "Nobody is as famous as Billy Joel and as successful as Billy Joel without being great," he says. "It's impossible to make the argument that his success is due to anything besides his ability to create songs that mean a lot to people."

However, Joel's influence stretches beyond pop culture.

Cold War Ender

Theodore Levin, an ethnomusicologist and professor of music at Dartmouth College, says Joel's six concerts across the Soviet Union in 1987 helped end the Cold War. The tour was the first time most Soviets had seen rock music from the West, and their initial reactions were just like their American counterparts'.

"The Billy Joel concerts had a major impact," says Levin, who helped organize the exchange. "It really was a symbolic opening to the West and to Western culture. Until then, Western-style rock had been underground. It had been ideologically verboten. It had been promoted as a symbol of a sick society, musically degenerate. Suddenly, here was an official embrace of a major Western pop star and everything that went along with that. This was absolutely a turnaround."

Joel became part of a movement of "citizen diplomacy," where residents of both countries would get acquainted through various cultural exchanges and learn that they were more similar than different, Levin says. The hope was that citizens in both countries would then pressure their governments to normalize relations.

By hosting Joel, the Soviet government hoped to show its people and the rest of the world that they could produce a first-class concert tour as well as anyone in the West.

Joel shouldered more of the risk. There was no telling how the Soviets were going to react - or if they would even come - to a rock concert. And some American groups questioned why he would want to entertain people who were, at that point, seen as enemies, Levin says, adding that when the tour was announced, a handful of people protested. "It was very courageous of him to do this," Levin says. "No one knew how this was going to play out."

Joel recognizes the concerts gave him a strong bond with the people of the former Soviet republics, but he sometimes forgets how deep it goes.

"I was in Florence, Italy, last week, and I was having dinner," Joel says. "This guy who was the director of a Russian ballet company saw me and freaked out. He couldn't contain himself. He was jumping up and down."

"Oh, my God, I saw you when you played in Moscow in 1987," the ballet director told Joel. "Everything changed. You changed entire country. Now, we do whatever we want. We are free. And you helped do this."

Mind-Blowing Impact

"I was really taken aback," Joel says. "I knew it was a momentous point in their history. I don't think it was because of me, necessarily."
Joel says the excitement was more because a Western performer was bringing the same kind of concert Americans would see at Madison Square Garden to the Soviet Union.

"It was palpable that something was going to happen," he recalls. "It felt like America in the '60s.... The people in the street were buzzing with change. Kids were looking like we looked in the '60s. They were at the edge of transition."

Before Joel's shows, concert fans in the Soviet Union weren't allowed to stand during performances. When Joel played, that became impossible to enforce. "The audience was as good as we've had anywhere," he says. "They went crazy. They wrecked the chairs. All of a sudden, the rules changed.... It was a very exciting series of shows -- maybe the most exciting shows I've ever done."

It ranks with his Berlin concert the night of German reunification and the night he played in Cuba in 1979. "There were armed guards with AK-47s surrounding the stage, and the kids just pushed right past them," Joel says. "That's when I realized this is powerful stuff. It's not just me. It's popular music. It's popular culture, rock and roll."

He saw it in the Soviet Union, where American culture was popular - blue jeans, Coca-Cola, Hollywood movies. "That was a bigger influence to them than politics," Joel says. "Popular culture is politics."

Such international acclaim is confirmation of Joel's musicianship and the strength of his catalog, Klosterman says. "When you see an American succeed in other countries, it suggests that they are actually dealing with the art directly as opposed to filtering it through the media's perception of someone," he says. "To say you're a huge Billy Joel fan in the United States has a specific meaning. In other countries, that's not how it is. In other countries, it's actually just the songs, especially in countries that are not predominantly English-speaking."

That's heady stuff for a guy who took boxing lessons in order to protect himself when he first started taking piano lessons, especially when it wasn't always clear that he showed promise.

Morton Estrin, who taught classical piano to Joel, says he remembers the then-11-year-old's interest in Beethoven but doesn't recall thinking his student was anything out of the ordinary. "He was OK for the elementary level," says Estrin, who still teaches piano in Hicksville, though he has cut back on his own performances. Estrin says he does see bits of classical music training in Joel's work. "He borrows melodies from great composers and applies them into his own style," he says. Asked if he was surprised by Joel's career success, Estrin says, "Well, it happened."

A Plain Speaker

Joel, who will celebrate his 50th year in the music business next year, has generated intense, divergent opinions about his career that few superstars can match. "What makes him different is how literal and straightforward the lyrics are," Klosterman says. "When your words mean exactly what they say, it makes someone who is looking for art to be strange or art to be complicated to be disappointed and think, 'This is schlocky' or whatever. To the average person, who is looking for art to inform their life, when they hear a song that is straightforward, they think, 'I know what this means, and I know how this feels.' That might be part of the dissonance between how audiences respond to Billy Joel and how critics and hipsters do."

Klosterman says another part of the problem some critics have with Joel is that he may be too nice. "In pop music, figures who are more villainous, like Lou Reed, tend to be appreciated more because they're more interesting," says Klosterman, whose most recent book, "I Wear The Black Hat," focused on the idea of villainy. "With Billy Joel, the issue seemed to be that he was perceived as being uncool. No one said he couldn't play. No one said he couldn't sing. It was 'He's not cool.' His attempts to be cool seemed to be more damaging. But over time, nobody cares about that. Cool is definitely a present- tense thing."

After Joel's recent tour of England and Ireland, critics were calling for a reappraisal of his career, because, as Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote, "it was obvious that he has been the victim of an injustice."

However, Joel says he's not really interested in that. "There will always be revisionism," he says. "If something lasts and has resonance throughout time, there will always be reappraisals. I gave up trying to second-guess what critics want a long time ago. I never really understood what the problem was in the first place. Everybody's entitled to not like my stuff. Maybe it's my voice. Maybe they hate the subject matter. Maybe they just don't like the way it's produced. Who knows? There's a million reasons why. I can't figure that out, and I gave up trying."

And the reappraisals may have to wait, anyway, since Joel's career isn't over yet.

He has developed a new show, mixing classics with songs he hasn't often played live before and booked a string of area dates including his first concert in Brooklyn, at Barclays Center on New Year's Eve. His planned return to Madison Square Garden, where his 12 shows in 2006 set a record for longest sold-out run, has already been extended to four shows running into April.

Mum On Touring Plans

Joel says he hasn't decided whether he'll do shows in other parts of the country, aside from a run of January concerts in Florida. "I have said I'm tired of touring and that I may not tour again," he says. "The reason for that is I wonder if I'm still any good at it. I don't want to do it if I suck. If I'm no good at it, I'm gonna take myself out of the lineup. I would retire."

His friends, like Delsener, who saw Joel at a rare, intimate show at the Paramount in Huntington, NY in October, have told him to keep going. "He doesn't have to do it," Delsener says. "His fans demand it. And he's happy with his life now, so he's coming out to do something."

Joel says the fun he had at the Paramount and the reaction he got at the "12.12.12" benefit for victims of superstorm Sandy last year encouraged him to return to limited touring.

"When we came off the stage , we looked at each other and said, 'OK, that was all right.' We didn't think we were that good. But the reaction was 'Oh, my God, you were so good! Are you gonna play again? Are you gonna play again?' I guess people really liked what we did. I thought, 'Maybe I should give it a try.'"

At this stage in his career, Joel knows why he keeps performing. "If I can't do it well, people would probably still come to see me," he says. "People would probably come to hear the songs. But if I'm not good at it, I don't see the point in doing it, even if I could make money. That's not what it's about. That's never been what it's about. It's about the fun and the joy of it and knowing that the audience is feeling good and that you made a lot of people happy. That's a great feeling."

Yes, after all these years, after all these accolades, the "Piano Man" keeps going because he gets us feeling all right. He knows we want him to sing us a song.

Meet Madison Square Garden's newest franchise: Billy Joel.

The "Piano Man" will be the first-ever artist-in-residence at a major arena, after a historic agreement announced Tuesday that will have Joel playing the Garden monthly for as long as fans want him.

The first of the new concerts in his residency will be May 9th, 2013 - his 65th birthday. Pre-sale tickets will be available to Citi Private Pass program cardholders starting at 10:00am, Wednesday. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10:00am Saturday through Ticketmaster.

"There's no better venue in the world," Joel said. "I'm honored to be part of the Madison Square Garden family. "Joel said he was honored that the Garden approached him with the idea, especially as a Hicksville native.

"This was the mecca," Joel said after the announcement. "When I was coming up on Long Island, New York was where you wanted to get to -- that's where things happened. To do this is crazy. I'm still trying to digest it."

Joel was welcomed to the venue by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Madison Square Garden Company executive chairman James Dolan and members of the other Garden franchises - the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty.

"How fitting it is that a New York icon joins another New York icon," Cuomo said. "Billy tells the New York story because Billy is the New York story.... Faced with hardship and challenge, his determination, hard work and talent overcame, time and time again."

Dolan said he expected the partnership to yield "many unforgettable nights of music," before adding, "Billy, having you as our music franchise feels a little bit like having the pope as your parish priest.

"Though artist residencies have become increasingly common in Las Vegas, where Garth Brooks and soon Britney Spears will have regular shows, they have yet to be tried at major arenas, especially ones with schedules as packed as the Garden's sports-and-concert-filled slate.
However, the arrangement worked well for both the venue and Joel.
Melissa Ormond, president of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, said, "Billy will be a major part of our future and will serve as a powerful anchor for the Garden's concert schedule."

Gary Bongiovanni, president and editor-in-chief of Pollstar, which covers the concert industry, said the partnership seems like "a natural marriage" and could run for the foreseeable future. "If it does well, it could almost be an alternative to Broadway as a draw to New York," he said, adding that it's a great move for the Garden. "Who wouldn't want a guaranteed sell-out every month?" The Joel connection sets the Garden, which recently completed a $1 billion renovation, apart in an increasingly crowded arena landscape in the area, which now includes Brooklyn's Barclays Center and Newark's Prudential Center, as well as the soon-to-be-renovated Nassau Coliseum.

Cuomo said he expected the residency to draw Joel's fans from around the world to New York to see him. Joel wasn't looking for a strenuous schedule because his voice now needs more time to recover between shows. However, his recent tour of England and Ireland, and a warm-up gig at Huntington's Paramount reinforced how much he still enjoys playing - though it may have also convinced him how much he likes to be at home in Oyster Bay, NY.

"I've been schlepping for almost 50 years now and I'm tired of the schlep," he said, though he will continue to play sporadic dates around the country. "This way, I can commute to work. It just all works."

Joel said before agreeing to the arrangement he consulted with various friends, including Bruce Springsteen, who said, "'That's not a bad idea. You don't have to schlep all over the world,'" according to Joel. Joel will receive the Kennedy Center Honor, the nation's highest award for performers, on Sunday, following a White House reception and State Department dinner. He then returns home to prepare for his New Year's Eve concert at Barclays Center, several Florida shows and his previously scheduled Garden gigs, which start January 27th, 2014.

He said it was his idea to celebrate his 65th birthday on the Garden stage. "What am I gonna do? Wear a silly hat?" he said, laughing. "I'd rather be working."

"Billy Joel is so much more than a 'Piano Man'," said his friend Tony Bennett, who said the Hicksville native was adding to the American Songbook. "He's our poet and our pal."

Don Henley offered an achingly simple version of "She's Got A Way." Garth Brooks provided a country-tinged version of "Only The Good Die Young" and a faithful take on "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon," backed by a gospel choir and, later, U.S. Armed Forces veterans, which drew a standing ovation and tears from many in the crowd. Rufus Wainwright hugged himself during an emotional version of "New York State of Mind," before leading the crowd in a sing-along of "Piano Man." Brendon Urie of emo rockers Panic! At The Disco delivered a dramatic version of "Big Shot."

It was part of the rich tapestry of American culture celebrated by the 36th annual Kennedy Center Honors. The event went from a performance of Verdi's "Aida" in tribute to opera singer Martina Arroyo to a hip-hop call-and-response from Snoop Dogg, who was honoring jazz great and hip-hop pioneer Herbie Hancock. Rock guitarist Carlos Santana was treated to a duet from Sheila E. and Steve Winwood, and fiery guitar solos from Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello. Actress Shirley MacLaine was hailed by friend Kathy Bates and a host of Broadway stars, including Sutton Foster, Patina Miller, and Anna Kendrick.

This year's honorees all viewed the nation's highest award for performers - the American equivalent to British knighthood or France's Legion of Honor - from the presidential box, seated next to President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who hosted the performers at a White House reception immediately before the gala, which will be broadcast on December 29th, 2013 by CBS.

"The diverse group of extraordinary individuals we honor today haven't just proven themselves to be the best of the best," Obama said at the reception. "Despite all their success, all their fame, they've remained true to themselves - and inspired the rest of us to do the same."

On the red carpet, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said, "Billy is, in many ways, New York's favorite son.... For the country to recognize him as one of the nation's best, for his talent and his citizenship, is a great affirmation for him and for the state of New York."

Though this year's class of Kennedy Center honorees were being hailed for their lifetime achievements in bringing American culture to the world, none of them are resting on their laurels.

Last week, Joel became a Madison Square Garden franchise, the first musician ever to sign on to a residency at a major arena. The partnership will yield a monthly Joel concert at Madison Square Garden as long as public demand continues.

Santana has a residency of his own at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. MacLaine will return to the cast of the PBS sensation "Downton Abbey" starting next month. Last month, Hancock released an impressive 34-CD box set of his work, while Arroyo continues to train new generations of opera singers from around the world through her Martina Arroyo Foundation in Manhattan.

Brooks praised Joel at a State Department dinner Saturday night, saying Joel's music "can put you in shoes that you would never understand if it wasn't for that song."

Joel said on the red carpet that he was touched by having so many people - known for excellence in politics and sports as well as music - tell him how much they enjoyed his music. "You see all these famous people on the news and you forget that they're people too," he said. "To hear them say they've listened to your music and have gone to your shows - I'm just stunned."

Andrew M. Cuomo, the governor of New York, and Billy Joel, the New York-bred singer-songwriter, seem to be having a moment.

They have appeared together three times in the last week. Mr. Cuomo helped announce Mr. Joel's new monthly gig at Madison Square Garden; Mr. Joel helped fund-raise for Mr. Cuomo's re-election campaign; and Mr. Cuomo showed up on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, declaring himself the "New York cheering section for Billy Joel."
"I'm a big Billy Joel fan," Mr. Cuomo said at Madison Square Garden. "He is a great New Yorker, and he's always there for New York when we need him." He has helped memorialize September 11th, 2001 and performed in concerts for Hurricane Sandy relief, Mr. Cuomo said. "He's always been there for New York - and he's a friend, and he's a buddy, and I enjoy being with him."

Mr. Joel, 64, returned the favor in song, rewriting one of his many hits, "Honesty," as a cheeky satire, "Albany," filled with political analysis ("Albany is such a lonely town / Everyone is so untrue"), strategic advice ("Find a bunch of millionaires with lots of cash to burn / And make sure all your sex tapes hide your face"), and long-term planning ("You can be the governor / You can be a friend / Maybe someday you can even be the president.")

Mr. Cuomo, 56, is not the only local politician to proclaim himself a fan of a homegrown superstar - Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey claims to have attended more than 130 Bruce Springsteen concerts. But Mr. Christie's affection has been largely unrequited (President Obama did broker a phone call between Mr. Christie and Mr. Springsteen during the 2012 campaign), whereas Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Joel seem to be mutually admiring.

The men have become close friends in the past several years, bonding over shared love of boats, motorcycles and Italian food.

Mr. Cuomo invited Mr. Joel to join him on September 11th this year for a tribute motorcycle ride to Ground Zero, where the governor arrived on a customized black Harley-Davidson emblazoned with the state coat of arms; 10 days later, Mr. Cuomo went on Mr. Joel's boat for a community event to clean up Oyster Bay Harbor, New York, where Mr. Joel recalled his time working on an oyster dredge in the 1960s.

The two men were also spotted sharing a Saturday night dinner at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, and they have crossed paths on the benefit circuit, posing for pictures together at the annual gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Last Tuesday, at Madison Square Garden's announcement that Mr. Joel would play a monthly concert at the arena, Mr. Cuomo described Mr. Joel as a New York bard.

"Billy's music and his words voice the challenges of ordinary New Yorkers, the struggles they face, the dreams they share," Mr. Cuomo said, "from high school sweethearts Brenda and Eddie to the struggle of the working middle class in 'Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)' to the economic challenges of the Long Island baymen in 'The Downeaster Alexa.'"

That night, the two men reversed roles, with Mr. Joel headlining a birthday fund-raiser for Mr. Cuomo at the Roseland Ballroom, where the most expensive tickets went for $50,000, and guests were served Tuscan kale, free-range truffled chicken breast and New York State apple crumble.

On Sunday, when Mr. Joel was one of the five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, Mr. Cuomo called him "New York's favorite son." A Cuomo aide said that Sunday night in Washington was the first night that Mr. Cuomo had spent out of state since taking office.

Mr. Cuomo's trip was not devoted entirely to honoring Mr. Joel. Before returning to New York on Monday, he collected campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists at the offices of the Podesta Group, one of the capital's most powerful lobbying firms, and attended a meeting of the Democratic Governors Association.

Mr. Cuomo was asked if his visit signaled that he was interested in running for president in 2016. "No," he responded, "but thank you for asking."

Billy Joel will appear in a special live performance from Barclays Center in Brooklyn on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest," performing one of his classic hits as the first song of the new year.

Show host Ryan Seacrest will lead the traditional countdown at midnight, and co-host Jenny McCarthy ("The View") will join him throughout the broadcast, live from Times Square. Billy Joel joins previously announced performers Blondie, Capital Cities, Miley Cyrus, Daughtry, Jason Derulo, Fall Out Boy, Florida Georgia Line, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Icona Pop, Enrique Iglesias, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Robin Thicke, and The Fray.

"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2014," is a bi-coastal celebration with a West Coast celebration hosted by Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. Coverage of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2014," will feature hours of special performances and reports on New Year's celebrations from around the globe, beginning at 8:00pm [ET/PT] on ABC.

Billy Joel was exactly one hour into his New Year's Eve show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center when it came time to select one final song before the ball dropped at midnight. Instead of slaying the capacity crowd with a huge hit, he reached way back to 1974's "Streetlife Serenade" and resurrected the super obscurity "Souvenir." "And your memories will turn to dust," he sang without any accompaniment from his large band. "But that's the price you pay/For every year is a souvenir/That slowly fades away." Almost nobody in the crowd seemed to know the tune, but they still listened to the sad, reflective song in awed silence - or at least they were as silent as 20,000 drunk Billy Joel fans can be in the final moments before midnight strikes on New Year's Eve. When it ended, Joel counted down to the big moment about 30 seconds early, and then botched it again when he realized his mistake and started the count over. Nobody cared. As confetti rained down upon the audience, the entire place was singing "Auld Lang Syne" and dancing in the aisles.

The celebratory night (Joel's first New York arena show since 2006) began shortly before 11:00pm after a spirited set by a reunited Ben Folds Five. Joel kicked things off with "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out on Broadway)." It's essentially a science-fiction tale about America turning into absolute chaos after New York is destroyed in 2017. When he wrote it nearly 40 years ago he couldn't have possibly imagined singing it at a Brooklyn hockey arena just three years before the ludicrously far-off year of 2017. But there he was causing the place to go ballistic with the line "We held a concert out in Brooklyn to watch the island bridges blow..."

Joel addressed the crowd when the song ended. "This is actually the first time I've played Brooklyn since I was about 17," he said. "I was in the band in the mid-1960s called The Lost Souls. We used to always play for these guys in Bay Ridge. They paid us real good, lots of cash. We went into the house, set up in the living room, and everything looked like it came off the back of a truck. We were chasing after their daughters and stuff. I didn't know who these people were! Then I saw 'Goodfellas' and figured it out. I could have gotten whacked!"

The New York-themed songs continued with "New York State of Mind," but then Joel put the hits aside for a bit to focus on lesser-known tunes like the mournful "Where's The Orchestra?" and the ebullient/obsessive "All For Leyna." "Until The Night" from 1978's "52nd Street" clearly tested the audience's patience, but Joel has made it known he has no interest in only performing songs you hear every day on the radio. He hasn't made a pop album in over 20 years, so dusting off the Christie Brinkley tribute "Blonde Over Blue" as opposed to the more obvious "Uptown Girl" makes a lot of sense, even if it causes some people to check their e-mail or get a beer.

"New Year's Rockin' Eve" was supposed to cut in live around 12:05am and Joel timed it so "Big Shot" would end right before that, but things were running a little behind at ABC. "They changed it?" Joel said. "It's two minutes from right now? I could have played another song!" To kill the time, he lead the band through his 1974 instrumental "Root Beer Rag" before he was given the green light. The television audience got to hear a rollicking "You May Be Right," and the final hour of the show was largely devoted to huge crowd pleasers like "The River of Dreams" and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant."

Brooklyn is technically part of Long Island, and Joel's army of fans from the area filled every inch of the arena. It's quite possible that nobody was happier to be a part of the experience than Mike DelGuidice, lead singer of the Billy Joel tribute band Big Shot. In a story straight out of a movie, DelGuidice was actually hired to play guitar and sing back-up in Joel's band a couple of months ago. The two of them have a remarkably similar look and voice, and watching them harmonize and interact onstage was wonderfully surreal.

It's not exactly like Joel needs a lot of help in the singing department, though. His voice is remarkably powerful and sounds almost exactly like it did back in the 1970s. Many of his peers go to ridiculous lengths to look young, while their increasingly deep and strained voices reveal their actual age. Joel has never made even the slightest effort to mask his age, but somehow his vocal cords remain frozen in time.

As always, the main set wrapped up "Piano Man." It's easy to imagine that Joel would be happy to never sing that again, but it's hard to hold something back that's guaranteed to make 20,000 people deliriously happy. The encore began with "We Didn't Start The Fire and closed out with "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" and "Only the Good Die Young."
Just like in the old days, Joel twirled the microphone stand around during "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" and threw it a good 10 feet into the air. He's a wonderful showman, and this gig was a perfect way to kick off a very busy year. He's playing Madison Square Garden once a month for the indefinite future and going on his first solo tour since 2008. Just a year ago it seemed like he was retired, but something clearly motivated him to recommit to his career.

Mike DelGuidice is going along for the ride, but less than 24 hours after walking offstage at the Barclays Center he's going to play BB Kings Blues Club in Times Square with his Billy Joel tribute band. Imagine playing "Piano Man" twice in the same day: once with Billy Joel at an arena and the other time in a basement club. Somebody's 2014 is off to a very magical start.

Billy Joel's New Year's Eve show didn't just mark his first public concert in Brooklyn, but it now holds the record for the biggest show yet at the Barclays Center.

Joel's concert - which also drew an international audience for "You May Be Right," broadcast as part of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" - brought just over 18,000 to the Brooklyn arena.

"We are thrilled that so many people wanted to ring in the New Year at Billy Joel's first arena show in New York City since 2006," Barclays Center chief executive Brett Yormark said in a statement. "In this city, being first matters, and we are proud that Billy, an iconic New Yorker, chose Barclays Center to make his dramatic return. …It was an unforgettable event and continues our goal to bring the best to Brooklyn and to further provide an unprecedented customer experience."

Joel's attendance numbers were higher than other sold-out shows at Barclays Center because his open stage setup allowed the arena to sell 100 seats behind the stage, which turned out to be pretty good seats since Joel played on a stage that rotated throughout the show. There were also an additional 600 spots made available when the arena allowed each suite holder to purchase six standing-room-only passes. There were also 100 seats set on the concourse opposite the stage.

Joel's tour continues in Sunrise, Florida next week and returns to the area on January 27th, 2014, when his monthly residency at Madison Square Garden begins.

Before midnight on New Year's Eve at Barclays Center, in his first Brooklyn concert since he played in a Long Island garage band, Billy Joel sat at a Steinway grand piano between two guitarists. He wore a dark suit and tie, sang clearly and evenly, and spoke to the audience by announcing the name of a song, the album it came from, the year it was released. About a third of those songs, going back to his first record from 1971, were not hits, and he hadn't performed some of them much or at all in recent decades. At least for the first hour - before the concert grew looser and more obvious - he seemed consumed by the task of generating new value, and he was formidable, no joke at all.

Excellent management and catalogue maintenance, as well as the undying love between the 1970s generation and its own younger tastes, has given Mr. Joel a constant listenership to his current age of 64. This is true even though he has not made a new pop record since "River of Dreams" in 1993: an admirable demurral.

Since then, a lot of his gigs have had special contexts - tandem tours with Elton John, the with-many-friends concert bonanzas to close Shea Stadium, the 12.12.12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief. His next move is a residency at Madison Square Garden, where he will be considered a franchise and will perform once a month as a fixed New York tourist attraction, beginning January 27th, 2014, indefinitely.

That takes care of his middle-age core audience. They'll have to come to him, and in the process, they'll associate him that much more with New York City, which they already do. (The lyrics of his first three songs at Barclays named all five boroughs, as well as Harlem, Chinatown, the Hudson River, and the Palisades. Those two guitarists, as he made a point of mentioning, were from the North Shore and South Shore of Long Island.) It's brilliant business.

But there are other issues for Mr. Joel to consider, if he wants. One is finding an audience of younger listeners; an episode of "Glee" last November, including seven of his songs, addressed that. Another is how to earn respect from snobs, aesthetes, critics, and anyone else who likes art to feel unfinished or mysterious or understated. His recent Kennedy Center honor may have helped some. The new regimen he exhibited at Barclays, of deep album cuts and full-retrospective dignity - a preview, perhaps, of what's to come at Madison Square Garden - might do more.

Mr. Joel's map through English-language pop of the last 60 years connects a list of composers who were or are obsessive connectors themselves: George Gershwin, Paul Simon, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Paul McCartney, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Elton John. In his work, you're not hearing one sensibility but always several at once: doo-wop, say, filtered through American musical theater, filtered through jazz, filtered through rock. There's always indirect power in those songs, tertiary sourcing, hidden juice. But you may have to squeeze hard.

What gives a pop song room for serious reconsideration, 30 or 40 years later? Often it's a kind of problem or vacancy, an emptiness that the listener fills in himself. When Mr. Joel spoke between songs on Tuesday, he sounded a lot like Lou Reed, who was born seven years earlier and grew up about 12 miles away from Mr. Joel in Nassau County. For once, comparing them feels appropriate.

Mr. Reed's music had that room: a lot of repetition, empty spaces, terseness, intuition, blankness, bluntness, talking as singing. By contrast, Mr. Joel's has extra chords, variation, arrangements within arrangements, long vocal notes, clear narrative, pleasing rhyme devices (the parallel-vowel sandwich of "white-hot/spotlight" in "Big Shot"), improvisation (Tuesday night's trumpet solo and swing-rhythm interlude in "Zanzibar") and singer/songwriterly narratives about watching artists or being one: Tuesday's concert included "The Entertainer," "Piano Man," "Where's The Orchestra?," "Everybody Loves You Now."

His work has been to finishing school, and his hits, particularly from the '80s onward, can be difficult to get inside and reconsider. They represent more than a drive to please; they represent a drive to squash all possible complaint. They're full up and hardened by the setting agents of sentimentality and professionalism.

After his Saturday night concert at Sunrise's BB&T Center, Billy Joel stopped by Sardelli's Italian Steakhouse in Hollywood with a group of 14.

Joel compared Sardelli's to Rao's, the famous New York City Italian restaurant, which The Wall Street Journal called "the single toughest restaurant reservation to get in the United States, bar none."

"This is like the Rao's of South Florida," Joel said.

The "Piano Man" asked chef Fulvio Sardelli, Jr. to cook for the table. Here's what the restaurant is now calling the Billy Joel Menu:

Prosciutto di Parma/ wine poached pears/ arugula/ Candied walnuts/ Gorgonzola; Cubanelle pepper/ sausage & bread stuffing/ pomodoro sauce; Sweet & spicy shrimp/ shaved red onions/ cilantro/ habanero jelly; Fennel/ arugula/ green apple/ Parmigiano/ candied walnuts/ sherry vinaigrette; Colorado lamb chops/ black garlic butter/ mint/ Yukon potatoes; Sea scallops/ pork belly/ parsnip puree/ shitaki & oyster mushrooms/ asparagus; Pork chop/ green apple & pancetta risotto / apple jus / wilted greens; Maine lobster garlic & oil / Italian parsley/ crostini; La Fiorentina steak for two; Bone-in rib eye; Fried long hot peppers pomodoro; Baby sweet potatoes/ truffle honey; Rapini & sausage/ roasted garlic; Asparagus/ pancetta; Parsnip puree; and fresh fruit.

Monday's Billy Joel show at Madison Square Garden will be his 47th at the venue, and the first in a potentially never-ending monthly residency there. After Elton John and the Grateful Dead - who have played the Garden 64 and 52 times, respectively - Joel is the third-most prolific performer in the venue's history, including a record 12-show run in 2006.

Even before the residency was announced, his status as a New York institution was already chiseled in stone. Born in the Bronx in 1949 and raised in Hicksville, Long Island, William Martin Joel joined his first band, The Echoes, as a teenager. Since then, he's sold over 150 million records, received the Kennedy Center Honors and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

While Joel is a superstar now, his early days held more than their share of struggle and chaos. We spoke with people who've worked with the musician to compile an oral history of his late 1960s and 1970s - when Joel's New York state of mind was often one of desperation.

Irwin Mazur (Billy's first manager): My dad had a rock and roll club on Long Island called "My House." So this group comes in, around 16 or 17 years-old, doing Top 40 songs. I didn't love the band, but I did love this kid - Billy - and I convinced him to leave his band and join mine, The Hassles.

At the time, Billy was a shy performer who often refused to face the audience.

Mazur: There was always a darkness about Billy. You ever know people who, even when they're having a good time, they're not really having a good time? I always thought it stemmed from his dad abandoning his family. [Billy's parents, Howard and Rosalind, divorced when he was around 10, and his father moved to Europe.]

In 1969, after The Hassles, Billy and the band's drummer, Jon Small, formed a heavy-metal duo called Attila. When that failed, Billy found himself adrift.

Hank Bordowitz (author, "Billy Joel: The Life and Times of An Angry Young Man"): Billy was trying everything to earn money. He became a rock critic for a magazine called "Changes," writing reviews for $25 a pop, but he didn't like criticizing other musicians. He tried house painting, he mowed lawns. He worked at a typewriter factory, and on an oyster dredge. One guy [there] told him, "You'll get a raise when you're 40, and a pension when you're 65," and he thought, "I gotta go."

Broke, Billy would sometimes crash at a laundromat. It was a place open all night, where he could stay warm. Sometimes, he lived with Jon and his wife, Elizabeth Weber. Around this time, Billy and Elizabeth began an affair.

Bordowitz: The closet in Billy's room adjoined the closet in Jon and Elizabeth's room. Jon was a womanizer, and Elizabeth knew it. So Jon would go to work, and apparently, Billy would go to Elizabeth's room.

In time, the guilt of sleeping with his friend's wife - in the man's own home, no less - weighed on Billy. He wanted to come clean, but Elizabeth, who had a son with Jon, made it clear that if he told Jon, she would leave them both. The situation was driving Billy mad.

Mazur: He called me one night after midnight and asked me to meet him at a diner. So I go, and he tells me he's been having this affair, and Elizabeth is threatening to leave everybody. Billy was not in the best of places. I think he was drinking. My wife and I were living in Far Rockaway, and we took him to live with us, sleeping on our couch.
I get up one morning, and on a table are the words to a song I had never seen, called "Tomorrow Is Today." One of the key lines is, "What's the use of always dreaming if tomorrow is today?" It was like, "Give me the sleeping pills and let me die." It was like a suicide note. The next thing I know, Billy is in a coma at Meadowbrook Hospital. He drank furniture polish.

Billy spent about four days in the psych ward, but told Irwin that all the polish did was make him "fart lemon juice." When Irwin took him home, Billy said he was quitting the music business. He didn't, but he did eventually tell Jon that he loved Elizabeth. Jon responded by breaking Billy's nose with one punch. Elizabeth eventually left Jon for Billy.

On the musical front, Billy gave Irwin 30 days to get him a record deal. Irwin managed to get Billy's demo to Artie Ripp, who owned a small label called Family Productions.

Mazur: Family Productions was distributed by Paramount, which was as good as breathing farts. They were an awful record company. I saw quickly that things were not going to go well with this record.

Artie Ripp produced Joel's 1971 debut, "Cold Spring Harbor," which sank like a stone. In addition to weak support on the business end, Billy has long contended that the album was recorded at the wrong speed. (Artie denies this.) The first time he heard it, he was reportedly so angry that he threw the album out the window. He blamed Artie for the album's failure. That said, the record demonstrated Billy's talent for turning his life into memorable, meaningful songs.

Artie Ripp: Most of the songs on that album are about Elizabeth. Look at the titles: "She's Got A Way," "You Can Make Me Free," "Everybody Loves You Now," "You Look So Good To Me." There's a whole cycle of life there, going from "I'm in love with her" to "I can't have her" to, finally, the reality of "I'm at the end of the road, where do I go from here?" You read those lyrics, you'll know everything about his love for Elizabeth, including his loneliness.

Billy and Elizabeth moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Billy began playing piano at a bar called "The Executive Room," under the name "Bill Martin." Elizabeth worked there as a waitress. Billy spent six months there, and wrote his signature song, "Piano Man," based on that time.

Bordowitz: When he sings, "the waitress is practicing politics," that was Elizabeth. There really was a Davy who was in the Navy, and probably would be for life. [Another guy,] Paul, was a real estate broker, but he wanted to be a novelist.

Later that year, Billy signed with Columbia Records and hit the road, opening for such acts as Yes, Captain Beefheart, and The Beach Boys.

Richie Cannata (Billy's former sax player): They had us open for The Beach Boys. Think about that combination. A bunch of guys from Long Island with dark shirts and sunglasses, playing outdoor sheds in the afternoon, when the sun is very bright and people are waiting for The Beach Boys. That was hard on Billy. These people couldn't have cared less. They were waiting to hear "Help Me, Rhonda." He's trying to be serious, playing "New York State of Mind," and he gets hit in the head with a beach ball.
Larry Russell (Billy's former bassist): I did all this for free. There wasn't any money to pay the band.

Billy and Elizabeth married in 1973, and she took over as his manager soon after (they would divorce in 1982 and her brother, Frank, would later become Billy's manager). Billy's fortunes improved with the next two albums, "Piano Man" (1973) and "Streetlife Serenade" (1974).

Cannata: We were in the south of France, and a promoter took us out to this restaurant. We were throwing plates into the fireplace, and before we knew it there was a donkey in the place. It was absolutely rock and roll crazy. Elizabeth organized that. She was very strong.

As Billy gained confidence as a live performer, a surprising talent revealed itself.
Russell: There's a little bit of the comedian in Billy. He tends to emulate other people's voices.

Cannata: We did a few recordings at [the now-defunct New York City club] "The Bottom Line" for WNEW-FM, and Billy, who did these great impressions, said on the radio, "In the house tonight, we have Bruce Springsteen. Come on up, Bruce." Then Billy did his Bruce impersonation. I think he sang "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

As his popularity grew, one group was not on board: critics.

Howard Bloom (Billy's 1980s publicist): The LA Times' Robert Hilburn did a piece comparing Bob Seger to Billy Joel, and wrote that one artist is shit, and the other is a great lyricist. Guess which one he picked as a great lyricist. I was furious before I even met Billy, because Billy at that point was one of the great poets in rock and roll. And Bob Seger, whose music I adore, was nowhere near Billy's level [as a lyricist].

Despite the critics, both the song and the album "Piano Man" hit the Top 40 in 1973, a feat Billy would duplicate with 1974's "Streetlife Serenade" and its song, "The Entertainer." While 1976's "Turnstiles" failed to crack the top 100, the following year's "The Stranger" made him a superstar, producing four hit songs (including "Just The Way You Are," which went to # 3 on the Hot 100 and won the Record of The Year Grammy) and earning him a five-night stint at Carnegie Hall. Now, relocated back east, Billy's striving days were officially behind him. He would wrap up the decade with 1978's "52nd Street" and its hits, including "My Life," which also reached #3. It wasn't until 1980 and the song "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" that he finally had his first #1.

Cannata: Playing Carnegie Hall was an amazing feeling, and then every place we played was larger than the last. The band was awesome, the music was awesome, the performances were awesome. Everybody was in love with the music. It was just a great time in our lives.

Like the Empire State Building, the Yankees and pastrami on rye from the Carnegie Deli, Billy Joel is a New York City institution.

He'll cement his status as the preeminent Big Apple rock star starting Monday as he begins his residency at Madison Square Garden, performing a concert every month until, well, there is no until at the moment, but considering that most of the shows through August are either sold-out or nearly so, he could be here quite a while.

But the piano-playing singer-songwriter's connections to the New York City area stretch far beyond his residency, dipping deep into his life and music.

Here are some Billy Joel New York City factoids:
• Joel was born in the Bronx on May 9th, 1949, and was raised in the Long Island suburb of Hicksville.
• His first album, "Cold Spring Harbor," was named after a town on Long Island.
• He performed his first video special, "Live From Long Island," at Nassau Coliseum on December 30th, 1982. The special would be aired on HBO and released on VHS (remember VHS?).
• He is the only musician to have played at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Giants Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Nassau Coliseum. You can add Barclays Center to that now, after he played a New Year's Eve show there last month.
• He's performed at a number of benefit shows, including "The Concert For New York City" at Madison Square Garden on October 20th, 2001, where he sang "Miami (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" and "New York State of Mind," as well as "Your Song" in duet with Elton John. On December 12th, 2012, he performed a re-worked "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" at "12.12.12: The Concert For Sandy Relief," also at Madison Square Garden.
• On a tour in 2006, he played 12 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden over a few months period, and was the first non-athlete to have his number retired there - #12, of course.
• He lived in an apartment on Central Park South through much of the 1980s and 1990s with his then wife Christie Brinkley, selling it in 1998 for $1.675 million. It was sold again this past year for $11.4 million.
• Joel's catalogue was the inspiration for the jukebox musical "Movin' Out," which premiered on Broadway on October 24th, 2002, and ran for 1,303 performances and 28 previews. It would also play on London's West End and tour nationally. It was nominated for eight Tonys and won two, for Best Orchestrations and Best Choreography. It also was nominated for six Drama Desk Awards and won one for Outstanding Choreography.

Joel's New York City influence was also deeply heard in his music, both blatantly and subtly.

Blatant References:
• "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)"
• "New York State of Mind"

Subtle References:
Some songs had more off-handed references to places around town. Here are some of those local lyrics:
• "Captain Jack": "So you go to the Village in your tie-dye jeans..."
• "Big Man On Mulberry Street": (The title, of course, refers to the street in Little Italy.) "I cruise from Houston to Canal Street...," "I guess I made an impression on somebody North of Hester and south of Grand..."
• "You May Be Right": "I walked through Bedford-Stuy alone"
• "Big Shot": "Well, you went uptown riding in your limousine/In your fine Park Avenue clothes," "They were all impressed with your Halston dress/And the people you knew at Elaine's..."
• "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant": The Italian restaurant in the title was inspired by the now closed Fontana di Trevi at 151 West 57th Street, across from Carnegie Hall. The line "Or was more than a hit at the Parkway Diner..." refers to a restaurant in Hicksville where Joel grew up.
• "The Great Wall of China": The lyric "Help yourself, it's all you can eat at the Empire Diner..." refers to a popular eatery in Chelsea. Food Network chef Amanda Freitag will be re-opening the diner this year, according to its web-site.
• "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)": The lyric "He works at Mr. Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street..." refers to Napoli Restaurant in SoHo, at the corner of Sullivan Street. It is now closed.
• "We Didn't Start The Fire": In a list song such as this, there are a slew of references to things New York, many of them sports related - Joe DiMaggio, "Brooklyn's got a winning team..." Roy Campanella, Mickey Mantle. Other mentions with a New York angle: Walter Winchell, The Rosenbergs, "Peter Pan," payola, and Bernie Goetz.

Billy Joel kicked off his historic residency at Madison Square Garden in grand style last night. No other rock-star has ever attempted anything like this: a gig a month for as long as he wants, on his home turf, in the white-hot spotlight of the world's most famous rock arena. "...It was a momentous occasion. ...All night long, he played to the local crowd, as well he should. ...And every minute of last night's show was a reminder of why Billy Joel can keep these monthly blowouts going as long as he's willing to show up." - Rolling Stone

Far from an average gig, Joel's Madison Square Garden show represented the first in an open-ended run of once-a-month "residency" shows at the World's Most Famous Arena. "...His maiden residency show included a carefully selected give-and-take between can't-miss hits and deeper catalogue items. ...It helps it all go down that Joel remains an engaging entertainer. Looking at his seasoned face in the giant video screens, he said: 'I didn't think I was going to look like this. I look just like my dad. I thought I was going to look like Cary Grant.' Still, it's the hummability of Joel's tunes that make the strongest argument for their indefinite durability. Another draw comes from Joel's working-man perspective. ...From the ovations here, Joel seems well on his way toward morphing from musician to New York institution." - New York Daily News

Billy Joel is now a Madison Square Garden franchise. The new era began Monday night with "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)," as Joel became the first musician to set up a residency at a major arena, while other superstars like Britney Spears, Shania Twain and Garth Brooks are opting for smaller spaces in Las Vegas. "...Their groundbreaking partnership is working well so far, as Joel focuses on catalogue rarities like 'All For Leyna,' along with his well-known classics like 'Piano Man.'" - Newsday

He can't kick like a Rockette, or hold a torch with the grace of Lady Liberty, but on Monday Billy Joel began his nervy bid to earn a place amid the top tier of New York landmarks.

Far from an average gig, Joel's Madison Square Garden show represented the first in an open-ended run of once-a-month "residency" shows at the "World's Most Famous Arena."

Joel's promoters are praying that his power to sell concert tickets will prove potent enough to keep him filling Madison Square Garden until either the world ends - or he does.

It is a tall order, even for someone who holds the record for the greatest number of Garden sellouts in a single year (12, back in 2006) - not to mention his career tally of Garden sellouts: 46 dating back to 1978.

Joel, 64, acknowledged the gravity of the evening with a typically self-deprecating remark.

"I have no idea how long this is going to go," he said. "What was I thinking?"

The star implicitly referenced the rarity and risks of the situation through the balance of his repertoire. His maiden residency show included a carefully selected give-and-take between can't-miss hits and deeper catalogue items.

Workhorses like "New York State of Mind," "She's Always A Woman," and "Allentown," turned up as if to assure the broadest number of fans that his residency gigs would be a value-for-money event.

At the same time, Joel sprinkled in less celebrated songs to encourage repeat business from the die-hards. Songs like this could also help keep the star himself from keeling over from boredom and too much "Piano Man."

He offered "Summer, Highland Falls," with its lush cascade of piano chords and its clear Jackson Browne influence, as well as the more theatrical "Where's The Orchestra?"

It helps it all go down that Joel remains an engaging entertainer. Looking at his seasoned face in the giant video screens, he said: "I didn't think I was going to look like this. I look just like my dad. I thought I was going to look like Cary Grant."

Still, it's the hummability of Joel's tunes that make the strongest argument for their indefinite durability.

Another draw comes from Joel's working-man perspective. He's not a sophisticated lyricist, or a deep thinker. He accepts clichés unquestioningly, challenges no routine assumptions about love, and has no resistance to sentimentality.

If that limits the profundity of Joel's canon, it only increases its popular allure. The effect was in ample evidence on Monday night. From the ovations here, Joel seems well on his way toward morphing from musician to New York institution.

"Piano Man" Billy Joel began his Madison Square Garden residency Monday night with an energetic show that covered a wide swath of music from his five-decade career.
Shortly before 9:00pm, Joel and his band came out to thunderous applause and launched into "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)," a song Joel wrote in the early 1970s about post-apocalyptic New York City. His performance officially put him in the record books as the fourth franchise of the famed venue, which includes the Knicks, Rangers, and Liberty.

Throughout the evening, Joel seemed to touch on at least one song from most of his studio albums. The only notable omission was 1989's "Storm Front."

While he didn't hold back on the classics like "New York State of Mind" and "Allentown," Joel also performed the lesser played tracks "The Entertainer," and "Zanzibar" that included a sultry trumpet solo by Carl Fischer.

Joel performed the acapella "The Longest Time," and after he finished said: "It sounds better in a men's room." And when he introduced "Everybody Loves You Now," as a song from his first album, "Cold Spring Harbor," he told the audience: "I doubt you have it. I don't have it."

Throughout the night, the 64 year-old musician maintained a strong stage presence and his voice never seemed to waiver. For most of the night, though, he remained seated at his baby grand piano; on previous tours Joel would play guitar, organ, and run around the stage. He did manage to leave the piano during the encore to perform "You May Be Right," opting to work the microphone stand.

Before beginning some of his songs, Joel favored a throat spray. At one point he even joked: "I saw Madonna do this once, but it didn't help her much."

After loud applause, Joel played it down and launched into "Summer, Highland Falls."
Early in the show, the "Piano Man" acknowledged the first night of the franchise shows and his long career.

"I have no idea how long this is going to go," he told the crowd. "2014 is my 50th year in show business. What was I thinking?"

He also poked fun at himself when he saw his face on the video screen, remarking that he never imagined he would look like his father.

"I thought I was gonna look like Cary Grant," he joked to the crowd.
For the last song of the set, he channeled Derek & The Dominos by playing the piano coda from "Layla," before launching into "Piano Man." He even altered the lyric toward the end to reflect the evening by saying: "It's a pretty good crowd for a Monday," to enthusiastic cheers.

Perhaps the evening's most poignant performance was the spirited version of "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," that had the entire arena singing along, and even waving during the line, "Here we are waving Brenda and Eddie goodbye."

By the last of four encores, "Only The Good Die Young," the audience seemed fulfilled, raving about the show as they left. For many of them, this clearly wasn't the first time they'd seen the performer, and during the franchise run, it probably won't be their last.
The Grammy Award-winning icon announced in December that he would perform at Madison Square Garden every month for as long as New Yorkers demand. He's set to perform sold-out shows until September with more being added later in the year. His May 9th, 2014 show commemorates his 65th birthday.

Billy Joel opened his groundbreaking run as a Madison Square Garden franchise like a defending champion.

After all, he already holds the Madison Square Garden record for the most sold-out shows in a single run for his 12 concerts in 2006. His monthly residency, which started Monday night and is already essentially sold-out through September, is set to continue as long as the public is interested, Joel says.

Well, that's going to be a while.

Joel's two-hour concert Monday night showcased his wide range of strengths, with an eclectic set-list that balances his best-known rock classics with a mix of rarities that include the jazzy "Zanzibar" and the Broadway showstopper feel of "Where's The Orchestra?"

There were times when Joel paused to soak in the moment, recognizing that the night could be the start of a possible new New York institution. At one point, he laughed as he caught a glimpse of himself on the massive video screen in his sleek, open stage set.
"I didn't think I was going to look like this," he said, looking up. "I look like my father. I thought I was going to look like Cary Grant."

And though Joel seemed to be struggling with his voice a bit, even addressing it with a bit of throat spray that he said he saw Madonna use once that didn't really help her, he still masterfully led the show and his excellent eight-piece band. The way the crowd turned "She's Always A Woman" and "Piano Man" into roaring sing-alongs, Joel could easily have conserved his voice, though he sounded strong during "Summer, Highland Falls" and the doo-wop-drenched "The Longest Time," which he added "sounds better in a men's room."

The extended salsa-influenced opening of "Don't Ask Me Why" was a welcome twist, as were the jazzy trumpet solos from Carl Fischer in "Big Man On Mulberry Street" and "Zanzibar."

However, Joel's hard-hitting encore was simply solid rock, built around his piano and Tommy Byrnes' guitar work, especially on "Big Shot."

"It's gonna be really cold when you leave tonight," he told the crowd. "I'm hoping we'll warm you up a little."

Mission accomplished.

When Billy Joel announced, "I have no idea how long this is gonna go," he didn't mean the trumpet solo on "Zanzibar." He was talking about his historic residency at Madison Square Garden, which he kicked off in grand style last night. No other rock star has ever attempted anything like this: a gig a month for as long as he wants, on his home turf, in the white-hot spotlight of the world's most famous rock arena. His house. A crazy scheme? Maybe. But as the great man has spent his career proving, you should never argue with a crazy mind. "Twenty-fourteen is my fiftieth year in show business," he told the crowd. "So, what was I thinking?"

It was a momentous occasion, yet the "Piano Man" was his usual salty self. Trying to remember when "An Innocent Man" came out, he guessed 1985, two years off, but he just shrugged: "Eh, we all lost two years in the '80s." Catching a view of his mug up on the video screen, he cracked, "I didn't know I was gonna end up looking like that. I look like my dad - 'Hi, dad.' But I thought I was gonna look like Cary Grant." When he used a spritz of throat spray between songs, he confided that it was "the entertainer's secret," then added, "I saw Madonna use this once. It didn't help her much."

For most of the show, Joel held back on the hits, busting out surprises to the delight of a Garden packed with hardcore fans: "Blonde Over Blue" from "River of Dreams," "Summer, Highland Falls" from "Turnstiles," "All For Leyna" from "Glass Houses," even the excellent "Big Man On Mulberry Street" from "The Bridge." He played a rotating piano, backed with an eight-piece band mostly composed of local dudes who understand the occasion. (MVP: Sax man Mark Rivera, my former counselor at Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp, a mensch who tried valiantly to teach me the tambourine.)

He did "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" (his "Jungleland"), "Zanzibar" (his "Katy Lied"), "Don't Ask Me Why" (his "This Year's Model") and "The River of Dreams" (his "Graceland"). He also did his greatest song, "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," the best rock and roll Scorsese rip of all-time, plus an unspeakably awesome "She's Always A Woman." After a rare and gorgeous performance of his doo-wop homage "The Longest Time," Joel said, "It sounds better in a men's room, actually." (The best thing I heard in the men's room all night, from the next stall: "Isn't it a bitch when Billy Joel says, 'This next song is from 1983' and the asshole in front of you is like 20. Fuck you 20 year-old humps.")

All night long, he played to the local crowd, as well he should. The rest of the country loves Billy Joel madly, but America's Billy Joel is a totally different guy from New York's Billy Joel, with a totally different songbook. New York City is the place where "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" and "The Ballad of Billy The Kid" are classics, but "Just The Way You Are" is a deep-cut. (Fact: The couple next to me sat down for "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" but stood up for "Where's The Orchestra?") When Billy blew up nationwide with "The Stranger," he moved up but never moved out, so he retains the cred of a local rock hero, like Michael Stanley in Cleveland or the J. Geils Band in Boston, except his town happens to be the world's show-biz capital. It's like the old Henny Youngman joke: "My dad was the town drunk - in New York City."

For the encore, Billy Joel and his Affordables went for the hits, with the headbanger classics "Big Shot" and "You May Be Right." He finally got up from the piano, doing some dancing and mic-stand-twirling for his new wave satire "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," which remains an extremely weird song (all you Gary Numan fans from 1979, you are still so totally stonned) even if it inspired "Weird" Al Yankovic's lost classic "It's Still Billy Joel To Me." ("Now everybody thinks that new wave is super / Just ask Linda Ronstadt or even Alice Cooper.")

"Only The Good Die Young" has always sounded like a lesser item from "The Stranger," truth be told - when you're making a concept album about pretending to be an Italian Catholic guy, it's kinda cheating to throw in a song mocking Catholic girls. But there's no denying it was a perfect way to send all these thousands of screaming Brendas and Eddies home happy. And every minute of last night's show was a reminder of why Billy Joel can keep these monthly blow-outs going as long as he's willing to show up. (Needless to say, they're all sold-out through September 2014.) As the man once sang, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in if you know when to leave it alone - but Billy Joel's greatness is that he never knows when to leave it alone.

An estimated 18,000 fans of the "Piano Man" packed into New York's Madison Square Garden on Monday night for the debut of Billy Joel's groundbreaking monthly concert series.

Joel told "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose that the venue approached his team about a monthly "residency at the Garden."

"So I go, 'Wait a minute, that's nice. That's one place I don't have to schlep to. I can commute to it from where I live,'" he said. "And we love the Garden."

Joel's open-ended commitment to the world's most famous arena is unprecedented and represents a new challenge in the singer's five decade career.

"As long as there's a ticket demand and as long as I'm physically capable of doing it. I'm gonna be 65 years-old. Most people retire at 65," he said. "I'm kind of un-retiring."

When it comes to selling-out Madison Square Garden, no artist has done it better than Billy Joel. He set the record with 12 consecutive shows back in 2006 and this year's concerts are already booked through July.

When asked by Rose, he said his happiest moment onstage is when "we're onstage and it's cooking and the band is rocking and the audience is having a great time - that's fun."

Billy Joel will release his Russian recordings: "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia" on May 20th, 2014.

The set adds 12 tracks not on the original 1987 live release while the documentary is an update of "Live In Leningrad 1987" which hasn't been seen since its original VHS release. The deluxe edition add a book with rare photographs and new liner notes.

Joel's historic visit to Russia became a worldwide news event with journalists and writers covering the tour, which was filmed and concerts simulcast on radio worldwide.

During their stay, Joel and his family, along with musicians, staff, and a huge press entourage spent their days interacting with the Russian people, forging bonds of friendship wherever they went. The tour was seen as a major cultural turning point in the course of US and Soviet relations.

Seen and heard more than a quarter century later, Joel's Russian concerts stand out among the most electrifying and moving of his career.

Singer Billy Joel has a 2014 residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The singer is donating the proceeds from his sold-out May 9th, 2014 show - which is, coincidentally, his 65th birthday - to North Shore Animal League.

Howard Stern announced this amazing gesture on his morning radio show on Monday, March 10th, 2014.

Stern's lovely wife Beth is deeply involved with North Shore Animal League and she and her brilliant hubby do everything they can to help animals in need!

Billy Joel is selling the perfect Hamptons beach house for a global-warming denier who has deep pockets.

The house - which the "Piano Man" bought for $16.8 million from actor Roy Scheider in 2007 - is perched on an eroding bluff in Sagaponack, New York.

Joel's publicist Claire Mercuri denied the mansion is threatened by the surf.

"The house is well set back behind the dunes. It's never been damaged in any storm," Mercuri said.

Tons of sand were brought in after Hurricane Sandy to restore the beach.

Joel first tried to sell the Nate Berkus-decorated mansion five years ago - after he split from wife # 3, Katie Lee - for $22.5 million. The price gradually dropped to $16.8 million before the singer took it off the market.

Now, it's listed for $23.5 million - a big bet that the oceans won't rise as the polar ice caps melt.

SiriusXM announced today that it will launch The Billy Joel Channel, an exclusive channel featuring the works of iconic artist, Billy Joel.

The limited-run channel will launch on Wednesday, March 26th, 2014 at 6:00pm [ET] and will run through June 25th, 2014, via satellite on Channel 4. The Billy Joel Channel will also be available online and through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

The Billy Joel Channel will feature music spanning the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer's 50-year career: from his earliest work with The Echoes in 1964, to his solo debut "Cold Spring Harbor" from 1971, through his upcoming release, "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia." The Billy Joel Channel will also feature 40 years of archival interviews, including excerpts from his "Masters Class" sessions that he conducts periodically to music students around the world, as well as rarities from the vaults, previously unavailable studio tracks and live performances captured in his earliest days as a performer.

SiriusXM listeners will hear Billy Joel discuss his legendary career and share commentary about his music, as well as becoming the new Franchise at Madison Square Garden.

"Billy Joel is one of the most beloved musicians of the past five decades whose music and cultural initiatives remain relevant to fans of every age," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM. "Our channel celebrating the legendary "Piano Man" will offer listeners a truly comprehensive and deep dive into the music of one of today's most important musicians."

The exclusive channel will also feature long-time members of Billy Joel's touring band revealing experiences about their time on the road together on the special Guest DJ sessions.

Additionally, SiriusXM listeners will hear "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia," the complete concert recorded in Russia in 1987, including 12 unreleased tracks and bonus material, in its entirety on Tuesday, May 20th, 2014, the day of its release.

The Billy Joel Channel is an example of SiriusXM channels created with iconic and prominent artists, including Bruce Springsteen's "E Street Radio," Jimmy Buffett's "Radio Margaritaville," Willie Nelson's "Willie's Roadhouse," The Pink Floyd Channel, B.B. King's "Bluesville," Elvis Radio, "Siriusly Sinatra," Ozzy Osbourne's "Ozzy's Boneyard," Pearl Jam Radio, Eminem's "Shade 45," Tiësto's Club Life Radio and Neil Diamond Radio.

Howard Stern and SiriusXM announced today that iconic artist Billy Joel will sit down with Howard Stern and special guests for the deep and rich discussion to fascinate all Billy Joel fans. The "Town Hall" event, hosted by Howard Stern, will broadcast live from a secret, intimate location in New York City on Monday, April 28th, 2014.

The live "Town Hall" special will also feature a Questions & Answers session - Billy Joel answering questions from a select audience of SiriusXM listeners about his legendary 50 year career.

Additional details about the "Town Hall," including special performances and guests, will be revealed by Howard Stern in the coming weeks on "The Howard Stern Show" on Howard's two exclusive SiriusXM channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101.

"The 2010 interview I did with Billy Joel was one of my favorites of my career. Now, this special hits a whole new level, with surprise guests whose lives have been changed by Billy, from the unknown to the famous, giving Billy the tribute, and fans the treat, that they deserve," said Howard Stern.

"Combining Howard Stern's amazing interviewing skills and Billy Joel's musical mastery into one 'Town Hall' special makes this the can't-miss event of the season," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM. "Who knows what to expect when the "Piano Man" and "The King of All Media" sit down together. Subscribers in the room are going to love it, as will our nation of listeners."

The "Town Hall" will air live on Monday, April 28th, 2014 midday [ET] on Howard 100, and The Billy Joel Channel (Channel 4), and through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online at SiriusXM.com.

The Billy Joel Channel, launched on March 26th, 2014 and will air through June 25th, 2014, features music spanning the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer's 50 year career: from his earliest work with The Echoes in 1964, to his solo debut "Cold Spring Harbor" from 1971, through his upcoming release, "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia." The Billy Joel Channel also features 40 years of archival interviews, including excerpts from his "Masters Class" sessions that he conducts periodically to music students around the world, as well as rarities from the vaults, previously unavailable studio tracks and live performances captured in his earliest days as a performer.

Billy Joel got to watch a Billy Joel concert Wednesday.

The "Piano Man" himself was a surprise guest in the audience at Glen Cove's Deasy Elementary School spring concert, "The River of Dreams: A Billy Joel Tribute."

In the show, kindergartners through second graders performed 15 songs from various phases of Joel's career.

"We invited Billy Joel on a lark, but we didn't expect him to come. It was totally thrilling," said Nomi Rosen, Deasy's principal. "We were all beside ourselves. My heart was beating really fast."

Joel drove to the school, a mere 10 minutes from his Centre Island home, via motorcycle. He arrived casually five minutes before the 9:30am start.

"I asked him if he wanted to sit in front, but he said he would rather stay in the back so he wouldn't make the kids nervous," Rosen said.

Parents and staff made a joint effort to invite Joel because he lives nearby. Letters were sent as well as Facebook messages on his fan page.

"I found out two minutes before the concert started that he was here and it totally freaked me out. My nerves went sky high," admitted Rosita Mallo, concert director and music teacher. "This was a very welcomed surprise. It gave the kids extra energy to perform."

After hearing the kindergarten and first grade, Joel started getting flooded with photo and autograph requests, prompting him to exit early. However, the memory was already made.

"These kids will have a story to tell how they got to sing for Billy Joel," says Kim Velentzas, 42, of Glen Cove, who was in the audience to see her son Harrison, 7, perform. "For a Long Islander, that's a big deal."

Billy Joel, in a wide-ranging interview at an event that included performances of his hits by Tony Bennett and Melissa Etheridge, dished on his past, including trying heroin and almost forming a supergroup with Sting.

The "Piano Man" opened up Monday in a two-hour interview with Howard Stern in front of 150 people in New York, where he also discussed his career, family, childhood and current month-to-month run at Madison Square Garden.

Joel, who's 64, said he tried heroin once but it "scared" him. He said it was the inspiration behind the song "Scandinavian Skies" from his 1982 album "The Nylon Curtain."

He also said he talked about forming a group with Sting, Don Henley and "another guitarist."

"I liked being in a band," he told the audience. "Someday we might put together a silly supergroup."

Bennett closed the three-hour event, which aired live on Stern's SiriusXM radio show, with a rousing rendition of "New York State of Mind" that earned him roaring cheers at the Cutting Room as Joel watched on. Etheridge was a firecracker when she played guitar and sang "Only The Good Die Young," which she said she listened to religiously in high school.

Joel said he doesn't have plans to release new music but said he recently recorded a Christmas song with Johnny Mathis, who's 78.

"He sounds great!" Joel said.

Joel answered questions from Stern, his sidekick Robin Quivers and fans, including TV personalities Rachael Ray and Matt Lauer, who asked about Joel's daughter, singer Alexa Ray Joel.

"She's really good," Joel said. "Everyone thinks dad set it up...she did it on her own."

The interview ranged from Joel talking about attending the Woodstock festival in 1969, only to last a day and a half and miss Jimi Hendrix, to growing up Jewish on Long Island though he attended Catholic church and was baptized.

Joel sang and played piano between conversations and mimicked other artists including Johnny Cash to Elton John. He performed a duet version of "She's Always A Woman" with Pink, who walked down the aisle to the song when she got married in 2006.

Appearing on "The Howard Stern Show" this week, Billy Joel admitted he once tried heroin (which he wrote about in his freaky 1982 song "Scandinavian Skies") and that he considered forming a supergroup with Sting and Don Henley.

Here are some other surprising facts about the "Piano Man."

He Tried To Commit Suicide With Furniture Polish

After breaking up with a girl at 21, Joel looked in his mother's stuff for poison. He considered bleach, but the skull and crossbones put him off.

He figured furniture polish would taste better, but "All I ended up doing was farting furniture polish for a couple of days and polishing my mother's chairs," he told Details.

The experience inspired his song about the dark side, "The Stranger."

He Was A Pretty Good Boxer

After bullies knocked the books out of his arms when Joel was walking to his piano lessons, he took up boxing as a teenager and even won a few amateur fights in the Golden Gloves competition.

In one of his last bouts, he got his nose broken.

He Left Woodstock Because of Foul Toilets

Joel spent a day and a half at the 1969 music festival in upstate New York because he wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, but the bathrooms were so disgusting that he left.

The Nasty Song "Laura" Is About His Mother

Joel's drummer Liberty DeVitto confirmed that Rosalind Joel inspired the swirling, angry tune that contains such lyrics as "Laura/Calls me/in the middle of the night/passes on her painful information" and "I'm her machine/She can punch all the keys/She can push any button I was programmed through."

DeVitto hinted that Laura became the title because it has the same number of syllables as "mother."

And "Vienna" Is About A Trip To See His Father

He barely knew his German father, Helmuth, later known as Howard, a classical pianist who fled Germany during the Holocaust and made his way to The Bronx, where Billy was born.

When Joel was in his 20s and in Europe, he hadn't seen the old man in over a decade but heard his father was in Vienna, where the two had a visit.

"Big Shot" Is About Bianca Jagger, Sort of

Joel has said that the song is a mockery of himself, but he told Howard Stern in 2010 that he wrote it after having dinner with Mick and Bianca Jagger, and imagined the lyrics describing Mick's thoughts toward his then-wife.

He Had A Heavy-Metal Period

In 1970, he was part of the duo Attila, which released one album, the cover of which features Joel dressed as a barbarian and surrounded by hunks of raw meat. He was 19 or 20 at the time.

Before that, two years after seeing The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Joel founded a band that did covers of British Invasion songs.

He's An Atheist But He Believes In Ghosts

When he lived in East Hampton, Joel saw a 19th-century woman in his house, sitting and brushing her hair.

Despite being born to non-observant Jews, he attended Mass as a boy.

Growing up in Hicksville, New York, Billy had a lot of Italian-American and Polish-American Catholic friends, so he went to church with them on Sundays.

He even went to confession.

He Graduated High School at Age 43

He left Hicksville High without having completed his work, but in 1992 he turned in some missing essays and got his diploma.

He Thinks He's Funny-Looking

"I don't look like a rock and roll star," he told Details. "I look like the guy who delivers the pizza."

He Has Outsold Michael Jackson

According to the RIAA, Joel's US album sales stand at 81.5 million units, 6 million ahead of Michael Jackson. That puts him sixth all-time, behind only The Beatles, Elvis, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin, and The Eagles.

On October 13th, 2013, Billy Joel took to the stage of the Paramount in Huntington for his first Long Island Concert in more than eleven years to perform a special concert to benefit Long Island Cares, Inc.: The Harry Chapin Food Bank. The concert sold out in less than fifteen minutes and marked the beginning of a new Billy Joel limited tour, and the new Billy Joel franchise monthly concert at Madison Square Garden.

Following the concert at the Paramount, Billy Joel signed 21 commemorative posters that were custom-framed and sold for $500 each to further benefit the work of Long Island Cares, Inc. However, we have a limited number of unsigned posters available that make the perfect gift for Billy Joel fans. And although the posters are unsigned, they are quite beautiful when custom framed and ready to hang on any wall in your home or office. The posters are being provided for a $35 donation or a donation of $115 if you want the poster framed.

There are only 30 limited unsigned posters which are available on a first come, first served basis. Once these posters are gone they will not be reprinted. If you're a fan of Billy Joel, a supporter of Long Island Cares, Inc. this is an opportunity to own a one-of-a-kind print from an event that was "One Night To Remember."

Billy Joel's 65th birthday party turned out to be quite the bash at the sold-out Madison Square Garden on Friday night, packed with moments that will be memorable to both the artist and his audience.

"You're supposed to retire at this age," Joel said in his welcome. "Or at least not have the name Billy."

But Joel showed no sign of getting ready for retirement at this show, repeatedly saying how much he loved his job and how thankful he was that he could keep doing it.

Throughout the two-hour show, Joel doled out some presents, including turning the show into a benefit for the North Shore Animal League's "Bianca's Furry Friends" campaign being spearheaded by his friends Howard and Beth Stern to expand the group's Port Washington headquarters. For Joel's donation, Stern dubbed him "Saint Billy," the new patron saint of animals, while stars like Sting, Paul Rudd, and Judd Apatow looked on.

Jimmy Fallon made a surprise appearance, doing an a capella version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with Joel and then a ragtime-reggae version of "Sweat" with his barber shop quartet the Ragtime Gals.

However, it was Joel who provided the most surprises, including playing, for the first time in decades, "Scandinavian Skies," the song he recently revealed was about his experience with heroin. He tackled "Uptown Girl," which he rarely attempts these days due to the notes that tax his upper register at the end, and added a version of "A Hard Day's Night" into the middle of "River of Dreams."

Perhaps the most touching surprise of all, though, was when Joel paused at the beginning of "Piano Man" to regroup, after a huge outpouring of appreciation came from the audience. He recovered quickly, though, changing a lyric to "It's a pretty good crowd for a birthday."

"This really is a great job," he said later.

And as Howard Stern said when he introduced Joel to the crowd, hopefully Joel will keep doing that job "for the rest of his life and then some." "Even after he dies, just stuff him and wheel him out here for a while," Stern said.

Billy Joel's tour of Russia in 1987 has long been cited as one of the reasons for the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, as his introduction of rock concerts to the Russian people helped convince them they wanted more of the Western lifestyle.

That tour is the subject of a new documentary and boxed set collection, "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia" (Columbia/Legacy), a 2-CD, 1-DVD package out Tuesday that includes 11 previously unreleased songs from the tour. It offers the broadest picture yet of the tour's impact on the Russian people.

However, Mark Rivera, Joel's longtime friend and also the only current member of his band who was on the Russian tour, says the new boxed set also tells the story of the impact the Russian people had on the band.

"They were some of the most compassionate people I've ever met," says Rivera, who recently released his first solo album, "Common Bond," and has a solo headlining date at Manhattan's Cutting Room on June 13th, 2014. "They wanted to give us everything. It was amazing to be a part of that as a band member. It's hard to put the emotions into words. It was emotional what these people were getting from us, seeing that kind of show for the first time.... They wanted what we had."

How did you prepare for the Russian tour?
It was the great unknown. We were terrified. It was still the Cold War. But we were literally offering a musical bridge to our cultures, and we knew that was important.

Did the reaction surprise you?
After we played, the front rows of the arena were destroyed.... The diplomats were sitting there and when they were gone, the seats were destroyed. It wasn't a protest. It was just the guys jumping up and down on the chairs because they were having so much fun.

Do you think the documentary captures that?
I think more than any documentary I've ever seen. There's so much more footage in this that hasn't been seen. They captured the feeling - such an amazing outpouring of emotions.

How does the Russian tour rank among the other experiences you've had in the band in the past 32 years?
The most amazing night was when we played after September 11th, 2001 at Sony Studios. That night is the pinnacle of what Billy does. He offered a sense of healing.... It was the most emotional night I've ever spent with Billy. After that, it was "The Concert for New York City." ... And then Russia.... It's like what The Beatles did when they came on "The Ed Sullivan Show," they were the ambassadors to our culture. Billy did that in 1987 in Russia. I don't say that lightly.

"I notice that when I wake up in the morning, I'm singing something or humming something," says Billy Joel. "I have something going on in my head - some music, some kind of theme - just about every day."

Though he hasn't released an album of pop material since "River of Dreams" in 1993, Joel has never stopped making music. Seated in the den of his Long Island home, surrounded by souvenirs (from his six Grammy awards to a baseball signed by Reggie Jackson) from a career that has seen him sell more than 150 million records worldwide, he explains that he is regularly writing instrumental motifs, tunes, and sketches; he's just not worrying about when or how to record any of it, much less what this music might be called.

New product or not, Billy Joel's visibility never seems to slow down. His "Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II" collection is the third best-selling album in the United States. Already a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, last year he received the nation's most prestigious prize for an artist, the Kennedy Center Honors. In March, he and Jimmy Fallon sang doo-wop together on "The Tonight Show" and blew up the internet, and in May, he will release "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia," a 2-CD, 1-DVD set chronicling his 1987 tour of the Soviet Union.

This activity comes amidst an unprecedented "residency" at Madison Square Garden, in which Joel is headlining at the arena once a month through all of 2014 (with more shows to follow, he claims). He's also doing more out-of-town touring because, he says, he needs to "feed the elephant." For this round of concerts, he's digging deeper into his catalogue and playing a range of songs much broader than the set he performed during many years of touring the world alongside Elton John.

"That show never changed," he says. "Elton was the senior partner, and I'd say 'Why don't we try something different? Let's change it up.' [In an Elton John accent] 'Nah, nah, nah. It's not broken, don't fix it. Leave it alone. It's working fine.' OK, you're the senior partner, fine. But after 16 years, it was time to do something different or I'm going to go crazy."

Visiting Billy Joel, 64, at his North Shore estate immediately turns into a crash course on his storied history. He gestures across the water, pointing out Cold Spring Harbor - the community which gave its name to his 1971 debut album. He is talkative and candid, but what he seems most excited about is the new music he's writing, whether or not it ever sees the light of day.

"I used to listen to classical music when I was a little boy, and I kind of went away from it," he says. "I compare it to being seduced by a girl with torn fishnets and mascara, who smokes cigarettes, and dragged me away for a good 30 years. Then I rediscovered the girl next door, which was classical music.

"My favorite composer is Beethoven, because he would change his mood in the middle of a piece. He'd be going along, and it'd be nice, and then all of a sudden there'd be the sturm und drang, drama and tragedy. It was exciting. I always subscribed to that kind of writing. Wherever your mood takes you, that's what you should be writing."

Do you still identify yourself as a songwriter first?
Well, that's a big part of my life. If I had to find my phylum, I'm originally a piano player, and then a songwriter-slash-composer, and then a singer way down the road. I've been continuing to write music, just not songs - although some of the music I've written could become songs. Some of it could be symphonic, some of it could be a movie soundtrack. It could go any direction.

I guess I found that particular genre started to become confining. It has to be a certain amount of time, it has to be rhyming. It doesn't have to be, but traditionally that's the way it works. One day I sat down and started writing a piece of music, based on a lyric phrase, but the music started to become more expressive than what lyrics would have done. And I said, "Why am I writing lyrics when there's music here that conveys what I'm trying to say emotionally?"

Do you think about what you might do with any of this music? Why not let some of it loose?
I really stopped doing that a while ago. I stopped with "Well, this will be a song, this will be for a movie, this will be an instrumental piece." I just write the music because that's what happens naturally. Maybe at another time in my life I'll sit down and shake this all out and categorize it. But the important thing to me is that I'm still creating music. To what end, I actually don't know.

Some of this stuff is almost like hymns. When I was about 11 or 12 we went to church, and I loved singing the hymns, I thought a lot of them were pretty well written. That's probably the closest to song form that these pieces I'm writing are now. But I don't think much of it is recognizable as pop tunes.

When you were still writing pop songs, did that process come easily to you?
Once in a while you'd come across a song that was Promethean. It just sprang out of nowhere and got written in 15 minutes like it dropped from the sky. "New York State of Mind" was like that - got written in fifteen minutes, half an hour. "And So It Goes" was one of those. Some of the better stuff I wrote came very, very quickly. Ones that I had to labor on, I can hear the nuts and bolts.

Let's put it this way: I love having written. I hate writing. Once you've got it done, it's shiny and new. But then I go through a post-partum depression after that. "Oh, I have to do this again." I go through this kind of Cro-Magnon state in my cave, and I would mutter and kick things and probably drank more than I should have, just to get the Dutch courage to do it. I didn't enjoy the process, but I enjoyed the finished product.

Sometimes when I would have writer's block, I would have to do it with smoke and mirrors, play tricks on myself. I rented a studio downtown in Manhattan, and it was the entire top floor of the Puck Building, which was ridiculous. It was like 10,000 square feet, and there I am in the corner set up with my little keyboards, and some speakers and amps. I'd get stuck, and I'd walk out into the street and bring my spiral notebook with me. I'd go into a restaurant for lunch, put the notebook down, sit at the table, and do like Art Carney used to do in "The Honeymooners" (shakes out his arms). "OK, I'm going to write something." And the other people in the restaurant would look over and go, "That's Billy Joel, he's writing something, he's working on a song." The waiters would look out of the kitchen, "Oh, he's writing a song." And I would kind of pick up on their confidence in my songwriting capacities, "Yes, that's right, I'm writing a song!" It was sort of like fooling myself and being in the mood to be receptive to ideas. And I would actually get stuff written like that. "That's right, that's who I am. I'm a songwriter. I can do this."

Several of your songs can really be considered modern standards - "New York State of Mind," "Just The Way You Are." Can you tell as it's happening that a song like one of those is going to be something special?
I can't necessarily tell that it's going to be a hit record, but I can pretty much tell that it's going to have some life to it. Like "New York State of Mind," I recognized right away that that could be a standard. "Just The Way You Are," yeah, I felt that. I don't know if it was something different about them or if it was just something that was substantial. I liked something about everything I wrote - well, there's a few of them that were turkeys. I could pick them out now and make them go away if I could, but I can't. But the ones that have lasted, that have resonated, I think I did know once they were written, "This has got some heft to it. This will have a life." I didn't know that "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" was going to resonate the way that it did. That was actually a combination of a number of different songs that just got smushed together, like side two of "Abbey Road."

"And So It Goes," "She's Always A Woman," "The Downeaster Alexa" - I always wanted to write a folk song, and I'm particularly proud of that one because it's a real folk song, about real people. When that was done, I said, "That's good. That one's a good one." "Allentown" has had a long life. Didn't know what that was gonna be about for a long time. It originally started out as "Levittown," and then I realized there was nothing to write about. [Singing] "Living here in Levittown, and there's really nothing going down." So I said, "I'll put that away, and one of these days I'll know what the hell that's about." Then I read about the steel industry. I actually played a lot in the Lehigh Valley and those areas and saw what was going on. I said, "That's it. 'Allentown.'" Sort of like "Jimmytown," "Bobbytown," it's a real American name. To me, that's where the real America really begins.

Rangers fans should prick up their ears for a special Billy Joel tribute to the Stanley Cup squad.

Joel - whose own monthly Madison Square Garden shows are sold-out through November - has given his blessing for his 1982 hit "Allentown" to be reworked as "Rangertown" as an ode to the team as they battle the LA Kings.

The new version's sung by Joel band member Mike DelGuidice - who began his career by fronting a Long Island Joel tribute band called "Big Shot" before joining the rock icon's group.

The "Rangertown" song could make its debut when the team arrives back at the Garden on Monday to play its first Stanley Cup Final home game in the series.

"Piano Man" to the rescue!

Billy Joel played Good Samaritan when he came to the aid of a 65 year-old woman who had fallen in a crosswalk.

The bestselling recording artist was cruising on his motorcycle in East Hampton Village on Monday when he saw the woman had taken a spill.

Dressed in jeans, baseball cap and a leather biker jacket, the soft-rock legend lent a hand to first responders and carried the woman's belongings to the side of the road.

Joel then chatted with the woman as she sat on a nearby bench.

“Piano Man” Billy Joel has seen an ivory key or two in his day, but the musician has a message to piano aficionados: Stop killing elephants and rhinos to make instruments.

In support of a New York bill that aims to ban illegal ivory trade, Joel posted this message on his web-site:

To whom it may concern:

I wholeheartedly support the ivory sales ban bill pending in New York State.
I am a piano player. And I realize that ivory piano keys are preferred by some pianists.

But a preference for ivory keys does not justify the slaughter of 96 elephants every day.

There are other materials which can be substituted for piano keys.
But magnificent creatures like these can never be replaced.

Music must never be used as an excuse to destroy an endangered species.
Music should be a celebration of life – not an instrument of death.

Billy Joel

Listen to the "Piano Man," everybody. Elephants are friends not musical instruments.

Rosalind Nyman Joel, mother of singer/songwriter Billy Joel and the inspiration for several of the superstar's songs, died Sunday in hospice care on Long Island, surrounded by her friends and family. She was 92.

Though Joel spent her later years supporting various charitable endeavors and enjoying an active social life, it was her love of the performing arts and support of her son that ended up helping shape music history.

If your pockets are deep enough, it's not too late to rent a plum, celeb-owned home in the Hamptons for the month of August: Billy Joel's oceanfront beach house in Sagaponack, New York is still available for a cool quarter-million clams.

The shingled cottage sits on just over an acre of high-hedged grounds, with 145 feet of direct ocean frontage and 180-degree views. The 5,500-plus square-foot Nate Berkus-decorated digs have 4 en suite bedrooms and an airy ocean-view living room. If you like it, you can buy it…for $19.95 million.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that Billy Joel is the next recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Billy Joel ranks as one of the most popular recording artists and respected entertainers in the world. His piano-fueled narratives take listeners into the relatable and deeply personal moments of life, mirroring his own goal of writing songs that "meant something during the time in which I lived…and transcended that time." "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "The Entertainer," "Piano Man," "Big Shot," "New York State of Mind," "You May Be Right," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," "Allentown," "Uptown Girl" and "The Downeaster Alexa" are among many other classics in a rich and deep catalogue of songs that have acted as personal and cultural touchstones for millions of people.

Billy Joel will receive the prize in Washington, DC, in November and be feted with a series of events, including an honoree's luncheon and musical performances. The Gershwin Prize honors a living musical artist's lifetime achievement in promoting the genre of song as a vehicle of cultural understanding; entertaining and informing audiences; and inspiring new generations. Previous recipients are Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney, songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and the late Hal David, and Carole King.

"Billy Joel is a storyteller of the highest order," Billington said. "There is an intimacy to his songwriting that bridges the gap between the listener and the worlds he shares through music. When you listen to a Billy Joel song, you know about the people and the place and what happened there. And while there may be pain, despair and loss, there is ultimately a resilience to it that makes you want to go to these places again and again.

"Importantly, as with any good storyteller, the recognition experienced in a Billy Joel song is not simply because these are songs we have heard so many times, but because we see something of ourselves in them," Billington said.

Joel said, "The great composer, George Gershwin, has been a personal inspiration to me throughout my career. And the Library's decision to include me among those songwriters who have been past recipients is a milestone for me."

With a career spanning 50 years in the entertainment industry, Joel is the sixth top-selling artist of all-time and the third top-selling solo artist of all-time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

His multiple Grammy wins include Song of the Year ("Just The Way You Are," 1978), Record of The Year ("Just The Way You Are," 1978), Album of The Year ("52nd Street," 1979), and back-to-back wins for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male for two of his 13 multi-platinum albums, "52nd Street" and "Glass Houses" in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Among other best-known songs are "She's Always A Woman," "Only The Good Die Young," "My Life," "Honesty," "She's Got A Way," "Tell Her About It," "An Innocent Man," "You're Only Human (Second Wind)," "A Matter of Trust," "Captain Jack" and "The River of Dreams."

In December 2013, Madison Square Garden announced Joel as its first-ever music franchise. Joining the ranks of the Garden's other original franchises, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer kicked off monthly performances, as long as there is demand, starting January 27th, 2014. The monthly shows are sold-out through November.

Joel's life and work has reflected his abiding interest in history. In 1987, he accepted an invitation from the former Soviet Union to perform there, becoming the first American pop star to bring a full rock production to the Soviet Union. In a recently released documentary about the two-week tour, "A Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia," he notes that he decided to go in part because "I wanted to have an answer when my daughter said, 'Dad, what did you do during the Cold War?'"

About Billy Joel

Billy Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1972. In 1990, he was presented with a Grammy Legend Award. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, Joel was presented with the Johnny Mercer Award, the organization's highest honor, in 2001. In 1999 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has received the Recording Industry Association of America Diamond Award, presented for albums that have sold more than 10 million copies. In 2013 he was among those receiving 36th Annual Kennedy Center Honors.

In 2010 Joel released "The Last Play at Shea." The intersecting histories of a city, a team and a music legend are examined in a documentary feature film that charts both the ups and downs of the New York Mets and the life and career of Long Island native Billy Joel, the last performer to play Shea Stadium before its demolition in 2008.

New York's quintessential son, Joel performed six songs at the historic 12.12.12: The Concert for Sandy Relief, joining other music greats to raise awareness and money to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy. The show, which included tributes to first responders and those affected by the storm, was broadcast to an estimated 2 billion viewers and raised $32 million in funds before anyone took the stage. Billy, who is proud of his personal connection to Long Island and the tri-state area impacted by the storm, told the audience, "We're going to get through all this. This is New York and New Jersey and Long Island, and we're just too mean to lay down and die."

Joel was honored by Steinway & Sons with a painted portrait that hangs in Steinway Hall in Manhattan. Joel, who has been a Steinway artist for almost 20 years, is the first non-classical pianist to be immortalized in the Steinway Hall collection. His portrait hangs alongside those of legendary musicians including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Franz Liszt, Arthur Rubinstein, Ignace Paderewski, and more. The portrait of Joel, painted by artist and musician Paul Wyse, is one of only two living artists to be inducted into the collection, the other being Leon Fleisher.

"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's first Tony Award win - and Best Choreography.

Joel has earned three Awards For Cable Excellence and has received numerous ASCAP and BMI awards, including the ASCAP Founders Award and the BMI Career Achievement Award and, in 1994, was given the Billboard Century Award. Among his many other awards and honors, Joel has been given a Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991), an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music (1993), an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University (1997) and a Doctor of Music degree from Southampton College.

Joel has donated his time and resources to a variety of charitable causes outside the realm of his musical career. A longtime advocate for music education, he first began holding "Master Class" sessions on college campuses more than 20 years ago, giving sessions at colleges across the country and around the world. In addition, he has held classes as a benefit for the STAR Foundation (Standing for Truth About Radiation) and to establish the Rosalind Joel Scholarship for the Performing Arts at City College in New York City.

For his accomplishments as a musician and as a humanitarian, Joel was honored as the 2002 MusiCares Person of The Year by the MusiCares Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

About The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize For Popular Song

The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honors living musical artists whose lifetime contributions in the field of popular song exemplify the standard of excellence associated with George and Ira Gershwin, by promoting the genre of song as a vehicle of cultural understanding; entertaining and informing audiences; and inspiring new generations.

In making the selection for the prize, the Librarian of Congress consulted leading members of the music and entertainment communities, as well as curators from the Library's Music Division, its American Folklife Center and its Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

The Gershwin name is used in connection with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song courtesy of the families of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement following the announcement by Librarian of Congress James Billington that singer/songwriter/composer Billy Joel will be the next recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize For Popular Song: "Awarded by our government's oldest cultural institution, the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honors artists whose work has left a lasting impact on audiences and inspired new generations of performers. I'm very pleased this year's prize will go to Mr. William Martin Joel."

"A self-described 'Cold War kid' who came to be the legendary 'Piano Man,' Billy Joel's songbook reads like a map of the human heart and the American experience. His is the work of a storyteller who grew up on rock and roll and The Beatles, and got his start working at piano bars to help his mother out. He took his influences and experiences on post-World War II Long Island, and along with Phil Ramone and a band of brilliant musicians, created some of the most enduring hits of the late 20th century. Who can forget him electrifying the crowds in Moscow and Leningrad in 1987, bridging the gap between the American and Russian peoples in his signature way? The man makes great music, and we are grateful for his contributions.

"One of the world's most beloved singer/songwriters, Billy's songs are an essential part of American pop music, making him a fine choice for the Gershwin Prize. On behalf of the House, I congratulate him on this well-earned honor."

The "Piano Man" has sold his oceanfront beach “bungalow” in the Hamptons for just under its $19.9 million reduced asking price, the Post has learned.

But Billy Joel will still be twinkling the ivories on the East End - from his main Hamptons residence in Sag Harbor.

While Joel’s main residence is in Oyster Bay, he is an iconic fixture of the Hamptons - known in the past for his motorcycle rides and impromptu piano sessions.

Corcoran broker Susan Breitenbach, who represented the mystery buyer, declined to comment.

The property, at 9 Gibson Lane in Sagaponack, New York, is a two story, 5,500 square foot beach house on one acre, with room for a pool–and an oceanfront pool permit already in place.

It was built in 1994 for the late actor Roy Scheider - of “Jaws” fame - who raised his family there before he sold it to Joel, who bought it for his then-wife, Katie Lee, in 2007. Lee enlisted designer pal Nate Berkus to create the home’s stunning interiors. By 2009, however, the beach house was back on the market - for a whopping $22.5 million.

The traditional cedar-shingled home has four bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, four fireplaces - and 180 degree ocean views, along with 145 feet of sandy beach. The chef’s kitchen - created for foodie TV personality and cookbook author Katie Lee - comes with two Wolf ranges and lots of prep and storage space, along with a butler’s pantry.

In an unusual twist, the sleeping areas are on the main floor, while the kitchen, dining and living rooms are on the upper level, with an A-frame, cathedral-style ceiling with exposed beams and ductwork, to maximize the beach and ocean views, according to the listing.

The home also includes a two car garage with a one bedroom guest suite above that has a living room and half bath.