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Billy Joel Ending Madison Square Garden Residency After 10 Years

Clare Fitzgerald
Photo Credit: 1. Newsday LLC / Getty Images 2. Brad Barket / Getty Images
Photo Credit: 1. Newsday LLC / Getty Images 2. Brad Barket / Getty Images

Billy Joel is a music legend, with 13 studio albums under his belt, as well as compositions and live performances. One of his most famous songs is “Piano Man,” which has transcended time to remain one of the greatest songs ever recorded. This popular release has a rather interesting backstory, centered around his work during a label dispute.

Read on to learn more about the iconic song as well as his recent announcement that he’s ending his Madison Square Garden residency in 2023.

Disputes with his label

Billy Joel moved from New York to Los Angeles to work on his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, with record label Family Productions. However, the release was marred by an error. The producers had mastered it at the wrong speed, resulting in Joel sounding like a chipmunk.

Angered by the label’s mistakes and the tight constraints of his contract, Joel was looking for a change. He wished to switch to Columbia Records, but found himself embroiled in a legal battle, as his deal with Family Productions made leaving his contract particularly difficult.

While this was going on, Joel took a job as a piano-lounge singer at the Executive Room in Los Angeles’ Wilshire district. As he couldn’t use his real name, he performed under the pseudonym “Bill Martin.” Speaking to Alec Baldwin about that time in his life, he said:

“I dropped out of sight. I had to get out of this horrible deal I’d signed. I signed away everything – the copyrights, publishing, record royalties, everything. My first child. I gave it all away, and I said, ‘I’ve got to get out of this deal,’ and I hid in LA and I worked in a piano bar under the name Bill Martin.”

Inspiration behind ‘Piano Man’

“Piano Man” is a fictionalized retelling of Billy Joel’s own experiences working at the Executive Room. In an interview with Inside the Actors Studio, Joel revealed those mentioned in the song are based on real people he encountered while working at the bar.

Billy Joel and Elizabeth Weber sitting in their home
Billy Joel and his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, 1978. (Photo Credit: Newsday LLC / Getty Images)

“John at the bar” was the bartender who worked during Joel’s shifts, while “Paul the real estate novelist” references a real estate agent named Paul who sat at the bar each night, working on what he hoped would be the next great American fiction novel.

In a sweeter reference, “the waitress practicing politics” was his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, with whom he moved to Los Angeles in 1972. They married a year later. At the time, she worked as a waitress at the Executive Room.

Billy Joel standing in a room with records on the wall
Joel, 1978. (Photo Credit: Michael Putland / Getty Images)

Finally, “Davy” was inspired by US Navy sailor David Heintz. Speaking with Songfacts, Heintz’s daughter shared how her father met Joel and the feelings she has regarding edits that have since been made to the radio version of the single:

“He met Billy Joel in a pub in Spain in 1972 while he was in the Navy. He married while he was in the Navy, had three children. He passed away in 2003 of ALS. It really hurts when I hear this song played on the radio and they leave this part out.”

It wasn’t initially a hit

Before its release, “Piano Man” underwent numerous edits, as executives at Columbia Records had deemed it too long. To make it a more acceptable length for airplay, two verses were shortened and spliced together. A promotional 45 vinyl contained an even shorter version of the song, with the fourth verse and final chorus removed.

“Piano Man” was released as a single on November 2, 1973, and appeared on Billy Joel’s second album of the same name. While it’s now considered one of the greatest songs ever released, it initially failed to perform on the charts, reaching just 25 in the United States and 10 in Canada.

Billy Joel playing the piano
Joel, 2020. (Photo Credit: Johnny Louis / Getty Images)

The single didn’t become a hit until the release of Joel’s 1977 album, The Stranger. While it has since been deemed one of Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 greatest songs of all time, he has since come out to state that its success was a surprise, saying during an interview with Metro:

“I have no idea why that song became so popular. It’s like a karaoke favorite. The melody is not very good and very repetitious, while the lyrics are like limericks. I was shocked and embarrassed when it became a hit. But my songs are like my kids and I look at that song and think: ‘My kid did pretty well.'”

Ending his Madison Square Garden residency

Billy Joel has announced that he’s ending his Madison Square Garden residency. He’ll perform the last show of the NYC residency in July 2024, after 10 years of performing his biggest hits for scores of fans there. The last show will be his 150th at the venue.

“I’m kind of flabbergasted that it lasted as long as it did,” said Joel in a press release. “My team tells me that we could continue to sell tickets, but ten years, 150 shows – all right already!” Other than a 20-month break during the pandemic, he delivered solid performances every month.

Billy Joel greets fans after a performance
Billy Joel performs at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2019 in New York City. (Photo Credit: Taylor Hill/Wireimage)

In a 2021 interview with USA Today, he shared his first memories of Madison Square Garden. “I remember going there for the first time as a child with my parents to see a Christmas show featuring Gene Autry… It felt like the grandest place imaginable,” Joel said.

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The last leg of his residency will begin on October 20, 2023. The final ten shows of this legendary run are sure to be bittersweet for his many fans, representing the end of an era.

Clare Fitzgerald

Clare Fitzgerald is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News