Glass Houses - A Billy Joel Podcast

Starting in the mid-2000s, BIlly Joel cemented his Madison Square Garden legacy with two unprecedented engagements. The first was a dozen shows spread over 4 months in 2006. The setlists were filled with songs that were rarely, if ever performed live, and The recordings from these dates made up his live album 12 Gardens Live, released later the same year. Then came the residency: one show a month...

When BIlly Joel plays his final show at Madison Square Garden on July 25, 2024, he’ll be closing out a nearly 50-year run of shows. And, in this episode, we’re diving deep into the first half of that legacy.  Starting in December 1978, Billy has played multiple nights at the Garden on all but one album tour. His engagements also included Face to Face shows with Elton John and the Millenium Concert...

Billy Joel’s groundbreaking 100th Madison Square Garden Residency Show was commemorated with an edited version of the concert airing on network television. The special entitled “The 100th: Billy Joel At Madison Square Garden” was broadcast in prime time on April 14, 2024 on CBS.  For fans, this was a step up in production from even the official concert clips on YouTube. The high-end production, so...

Thanks to a recently-unearthed audience recording, fans can now hear Billy Joel's first performance at the legendary Madison Square Garden. The performance took place on December 14, 1978, more than a decade after Billy first took to a stage as a professional musician.  Listening to it in 2024, perhaps the most interesting aspect about Billy headlining one of the world's most renowned venues is ho...

In the last installment of our Evolution of a Song series, we explored an older song that sported a studio arrangement that couldn’t be replicated live. The same can be said of "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid," the subject of this episode.  While the live version on Songs in the Attic became the definitive one for many fans, the Ballad of Billy the Kid studio recording featured a full string section....

With few exceptions, Billy Joel’s albums were sequenced with two sides in mind. It’s a phenomenon that’s come back to the forefront with the resurgence of vinyl records: The act of listening to half an album, then flipping the platter to hear the rest.  It’s a different experience than listening to the songs all the way through on CD or a streaming platform. And, it’s what we’re exploring in this...

The beauty of live music is that a song never sounds the same twice. Billy Joel’s no exception to this rule. And, with some songs nearly 50 years old by now, many of his older numbers have seen drastic changes over the years.  In the first installment of our Evolution of a Song series, we tracked how "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and "Everybody Loves You Now" changed from their first appearances to t...

Billy Joel’s world tour supporting the Storm Front album was a huge success by all metrics. But behind it was a story almost as tumultuous as the album title and front cover portrayed.  The tour was a necessity to earn back millions of dollars that Billy’s former manager, Frank Weber, had stolen from him over the previous few years. It also featured a revamped lineup that saw both bassist Doug Ste...

2014 was a renaissance for Billy Joel. It’s almost hard to believe, given all the time he’s spent in the spotlight a decade later. But, he’d been relatively quiet in the late aughts and early 2010s. That made the flurry of activity this year all the more surprising.  Billy kicked off his Madison Square Garden residency in January of 2014, which he supported with a number of high-profile media appe...

What the new compilation Billy Joel Live Through the Years - Japan Edition lacks in new material, it more than makes up for in providing context to 40-plus years of music.  The double-disc set, only released in Japan, features 32 live tracks recorded between 1972 and 2008. Starting with the Sigma Sound radio broadcast and culminating with a limited-release single, it tracks how Billy’s live show e...

The River of Dreams album was Billy Joel’s introduction to a new generation of fans in the early 90s. With chart-topping songs, a notorious Grammy appearance, and an extensive world tour, it was a landmark in Billy’s career.  But for drummer Zachary Alford, it was one of his first experiences in a major label session, and another step in his quickly-blossoming career.  Hot on the heels of high-pro...

Before Billy Joel was a household name, and before he was even a solo recording artist or known as a piano player, he released his first album on United Artists Records in 1967.  That album was The Hassles, by the band of the same name. Billy, still a teenager, wasn’t in the spotlight. Rather, he was the organ player who contributed a few original songs and vocals.    For this album episode, we’re...

It’s easy to write off the lyrical content of love songs. They’re often fairly simple, and are more emotional than thought-provoking. But a good love song, like any song, reveals something about the writer, and, often, the listener.    For our Valentine’s Day episode, we’re discussing our favorite Billy Joel love songs. But, we ended up doing more than discussing the lyrics and music.    We also f...

Although Disc Two of My Lives kicks off with a live version of a classic 70s song, the rest of the track list features Billy Joel B-Sides and early versions of songs from the 80s along with a few album tracks.    While it seems random initially, there’s a light narrative running through the selections. Here, you can compare work-in-progress tracks to the final versions, along with hit songs from t...

Since his days playing clubs and theaters in the early 70s, Billy Joel was always known for his passionate, high-energy concerts. That reputation only grew, literally and figuratively, as he graduated into arenas and stadiums after 1977’s The Stranger.    That makes his stop at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on The Bridge tour a unique evening. Billy and the band were in fine form on October 13, 198...

1993 was both the kickoff to a new album cycle and the end of an era for Billy Joel. River of Dreams came out in August, and was certified three times platinum by the end of the year. It was preceded by what was now a well-oiled publicity machine, and followed immediately by a world tour.    But, the album was his last release of new pop songs. As such, it would be the last time Billy would run th...

With 2023 coming to a close, we’re taking a look back at our year of podcasting and what’s happened in the world of Billy Joel. As always for our last episode of the year, we’re bringing some leftovers to the table: Odds and ends that didn’t quite make it into other episodes.    Don’t worry, they’re just as tasty as our main courses. And you don’t even have to microwave them.    You’ll hear excerp...

If you had to explain why Liberty DeVitto is a great drummer to someone who’d never heard a BIlly Joel record, how would you do it? That’s the question we’re exploring in our 100th episode.    It’s a somewhat tricky proposition. Liberty’s a well-regarded drummer who’s played on dozens of Top 20 records and toured with some of the biggest acts in the world. But he’s not a flashy player, nor is he t...

Every two weeks, Michael and I release a podcast episode where we tell someone else’s stories. Except that’s not quite true. As we discuss every note on an album, or labor over every second of a concert recording, we also talk about ourselves.  It’s one way music becomes more than just art. Billy Joel’s story becomes part of our stories, which becomes part of each other’s, and ultimately a narrati...

To paraphrase another famous rock band, Billy Joel’s The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 2 goes to 11.    The box set treats fans to 21 years of classic songs with just shy of a dozen records. That’s including an album never released on vinyl before, and a long-awaited expanded version of a fan favorite.    Released November 3, 2023, the collection includes every studio album from Glass Houses in 1980 thro...

The My Lives box set is a curious addition to the Billy Joel discography. The four-CD / one-DVD set, released in 2005, is a mix of unreleased demos, alternate takes, live recordings, cover songs, and a handful of album tracks.    At the time, it was the first glimpse many fans got at unreleased material and songs-in-progress. The first disc, in particular, offers a chronological journey from Billy...

Unreleased for decades, Billy Joel’s 1972 Sigma Sound Studios concert was arguably the kick-start to his career. With a flop record in Cold Spring Harbor under his belt. Billy and his then-backing band performed live on the air for WMMR in Philadelphia.    The session yielded a version of “Captain Jack” that became the station’s most-requested song for years. It drew the attention of Columbia Reco...

With a new album out and a New York-based band in place, Billy Joel was starting to heat up in 1976. His show at the Bottom Line in Manhattan on June 10th of that year is the proof.   The album, Turnstiles, had just come out a few weeks prior. And the orchestra, as Billy was now calling the band, had been on the road for just over two months.    The performance was simulcast on seven radio station...

In 2015, Billy Joel wasn't just selling out shows. He was making headlines across the nation. His songwriting was praised by everyone from George Gershwin to Snoop Dogg. He made an unexpected festival appearance, and journalists were diving into his history, introducing him to a brand new generation of fans.   It's almost hard to believe that just a few years earlier, it looked like Billy was gear...

Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man album earned him a new generation of fans upon its release in 1983. But the accompanying tour didn’t kick off until the next calendar year. Dubbed “From A Piano Man to An Innocent Man,” the shows were unlike any other Billy had mounted until this point.  The core band was augmented with backup singers and a horn section. And, with a handful of new hit songs, older conc...