Wednesday, July 18, 2018

BILLY JOEL DAY 18 July Madison Square Garden 100th Performance

It's the 100th time that this singer and piano man performed at Madison Square Gardens. So today, 18 July 2018, is Billy Joel Day, declared the Governor of New York City. 

The honour was for his 'most consecutive performances and most lifetime performances' with his leadership and contribution to the music industry in the State of New York. It's been more than 50 times that he's appeared in the Big Apple.


He's from the Bronx man! Born and bred in New York. Appropriately a day for Mr Piano Man himself must be in that city.

Congratulations! 

All his songs, like Uptown Girl and We Didn't Start The Fire, sold more than 150 million copies internationally.  Billy Joel has written and recorded 33 Top 40 Hits in the US.

He is a six-time Grammy Award winner and a 23-time Grammy nominee and one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Billy Joel is the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States.

I used to forget the title of We Didn't Start The Fire so I usually describe it as the song with a mouthful or, it's got: Einstein, Budapest, Chou En Lai and River Kwai in it. In fact, Mr Joel himself admitted he forgot the lyrics sometimes and would read the lips of his audience for reference. 😂


This video carries 85.5 million views and 17 thousand comments. Now that's pop.

To have a day named after you? Hey, that's better than getting a knighthood or a million bucks.

I think he deserves the accolade, don't you?

NB:

Can local readers remember the names of vocalists or bands that performed Billy Joel songs on stage during Singapore's golden era of music? There are recordings too of his music recorded by locals on vinyl?

Anyone?
Image and YouTube Video by courtesy of Google.

2 comments:

HIROSHI DEGUCHI (JAPAN) said...

This is one of the numbers I sing on Karaoke everytime our family has a session.

JACKIE LADY said...

When you mentioned Billy Joel... immediately the tune and lyrics of UPTOWN GIRL play in my head. This is an evergreen song that I still sing and dance along with when I go for a Karaoke session.

The other songs I've heard before but UPTOWN GIRL's tune is always the first one that pops out of my head when his name is mentioned.

Thanks for sharing.