One of the musicians who stole the show at December’s 12-12-12 benefit for Sandy victims was Billy Joel, who performed a powerhouse five-song set at the Garden backed by his current band of young hotshot musicians. While the “Piano Man” has a pair of festival appearances set for later this spring at the Stone Music Festival in Australia and at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, we haven’t heard anything about the possibility of Joel returning to the road for a tour…until now.

Joel spoke with Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene about his upcoming gigs and much more in a revealing interview. There’s tons of good news for Billy fans within the piece including word that reports of his retiring were completely overblown as the legendary singer-songwriter will use the two festival gigs to put his “toe back into the water to see how performing feels.” If all goes well, Joel told Greene that he’d be open to playing some of his landmark albums in their entirety at future gigs. [We'll use this opportunity to get our request in for Joel to play 1977's The Stranger.]

We’re also excited to see Billy’s open to playing rarities at his shows…

The 63-year-old singer-songwriter is already giving a lot of thought to the kind of show he’d like to present later this year. “I’d like to do more songs that weren’t hits. I got tired of doing the greatest hits set. It was boring playing the same songs over and over. There are a lot of songs the longtime fans want to hear,” he says. “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 D.C., Detroit and Chicago.”

Though Joel is wise enough to know much of the audience will want to hear his hits and talks about a Led Zeppelin show that he left disappointed at because they didn’t play Whole Lotta Love. Billy Joel also discusses what he’s been up to the past few years, the potential for new material, the possibilities of performing with Elton John again and much more with Greene in the interview.

[Rolling Stone]

A dream came true for Long Island college student Michael Pollack back in January when the Piano Man himself Billy Joel came to visit his school, Vanderbilt University, for a Q&A and performance session. Joel was taking questions for students in the crowd at the event and called upon Pollack. The 18-year-old freshman asked Billy if he could perform New York State of Mind with him which garnered gasps from the audience.

Joel said yes and brought Pollack up on stage. The pair proceeded to kill it…

We believe Billy Joel when he says “remember that name” in regards to Pollack.

[via @Lefsetz]

The months in the planning 12-12-12: The Concert For Sandy Relief benefit concert is finally here. We’ll update this post with a setlist, photos, videos and our thoughts as the night goes along. The expected order of performances is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band > Roger Waters > Bon Jovi > Eric Clapton > Rolling Stones > Alicia Keys > The Who > Kanye West > Billy Joel > Chris Martin > Paul McCartnirvana.

Setlist:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Land of Hope and Dreams, Wrecking Ball, My City of Ruins, Born To Run (w/ Jon Bon Jovi), Living On A Prayer

Roger Waters: In The Flesh, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2, The Ballad Of Jean Charles de Menezes, Money, Us and Them, Comfortably Numb (w/ Eddie Vedder)

Adam Sandler: Hallelujah (w/ Paul Shaffer)

Bon Jovi: It’s My Life, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Who Says You Can’t Go Home (w/ Bruce Springsteen), Living On A Prayer

Eric Clapton: Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Got To Get Better In A Little While, Crossroads

Rolling Stones: You Get Me Rocking, Jumping Jack Flash

Alicia Keys: Brand New Me, No One

The Who: Who Are You, Bell Boy, Pinball Wizard, See Me Feel Me/Listening To You, Baba O’Riley, Love Reign O’er Me, Tea and Theatre

Kanye West: Clique > Mercy > Power > Jesus Walks > All Of The Lights > Run This Town > Diamonds From Sierra Leone > Diamonds > Touch The Sky, Gold Digger, Good Life, Runaway, Stronger

Billy Joel: Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway), Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song), Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas > New York State Of Mind, River Of Dreams, You May Be Right, Only The Good Die Young

Chris Martin: Viva La Vida, Losing My Religion (w/ Michael Stipe), Us Against The World

Paul McCartney: Helter Skelter, Let Me Roll It, 1985, My Valentine (w/ Diana Krall), Blackbird, Cut Me Some Slack (w/ Dave Grohl, Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic), I’ve Got A Feeling, Live and Let Die

Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind Pt. 2

All proceeds from tonight’s concert benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund and will be used to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Please head to the organization’s website to donate to the cause.

READ ON

Lots of musical legends are in New York City this week for tomorrow night’s 12-12-12: The Concert For Sandy Relief at MSG and NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon has snagged two of them for visits. Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters will stop by 30 Rock this evening for a chat with Jimmy, while on Thursday Long Island’s own Billy Joel will sit for an interview about performing at the benefit.

Waters has appeared on Late Night multiple times including a performance of In The Flesh with Foo Fighters during the show’s Pink Floyd Week. Both guests are not to expected to perform.

Earlier this evening NBC aired a one-hour telethon called “Hurricane Sandy – Coming Together” to raise funds for victims of the storm that ravaged the Northeast just days ago. Among the stars that participated were New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi as well as New Yorkers Billy Joel, Jimmy Fallon, Mary J. Blige and Tina Fey plus many more.

The Today Show’s Matt Lauer hosted the telecast which urged viewers to donate to the Red Cross by visiting RedCross.org, calling 1-800-HELPNOW or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Highlights of the performances included Sting’s gorgeous unplugged version of Message In A Bottle, Steven Tyler teaming up with Springsteen, Fallon and Billy Joel for a fun romp through Under The Boardwalk, a Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) that hit close to home and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s optimistic Land of Hopes and Dreams.

If you missed it, we’ve found a number of videos from the telecast…

READ ON

[Originally Published: May 13, 2010]

A status update from our friend Justin of the OhKeePah Blog read that he “likes songs with whistling,” which got us thinking about all the songs in rock history that feature whistling. There are plenty of duds but plenty of classic tunes as well that contain at least a little whistling in them.

For this week’s B List we’ve put together a list of the ten most memorable songs that include whistling. The tunes that you can’t help but hum along with when you hear them on the radio or see them on TV.

10. The Scorpions – Wind of Change

During the summer of 1991, you couldn’t listen to Top 40 radio for more than 20 minutes without hearing Klaus Meine’s distinctive whistling throughout The Scorpions’ epic power ballad – Wind of Change. The tune, which is about the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, made it to #4 in the States but still stands as the 10th best selling single in the history of Germany. READ ON for our nine most memorable whistling songs…

We got a big kick out of the following video for the same reason we loved mixing six different sodas together in our Big Gulp cup at 7-11 when we were kids. Eighteen Billy Joel songs – the entirety of disc one from The Essential Billy Joel – enter this musical version of a pit fight and within four minutes only a few tunes remain. See if you could pick out each of the songs.

[via WAXY]

If Howard Stern doesn’t re-sign with SiriusXM after his contract expires next month, at least he went out with a bang. This week, the shock jock completed fantastic interviews with two legendary artists – Jay-Z & Billy Joel.

The shock jock welcomed Billy Joel to his studio for the first time on Tuesday and had a grand piano set up for Billy to play. Howard conducted the interview more like a fan than like a journalist, which made for good listening. Stern called out requests & Joel obliged in most cases. As you can imagine, Howard also got some dirt out of Joel including an anecdote about Paul McCartney visiting Billy’s home. It’s a must-listen interview for Billy Joel fans. We’ve made a playlist of YouTube videos featuring the audio of the entire video, but we’re not sure how long it will be before Sirius has ‘em pulled.

On Monday, Jay-Z stopped by Stern’s studio to discuss his new book, Decoded. Over the course of the near hour-long interview, Hova talks about being a crack dealer, his family life, the music business and a bevy of other topics. We made a playlist of this interview as well, so check it out before the clips get pulled…

Perusing the handbill for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, one can’t help but notice the degree of music related content prevalent throughout this year’s festival. From high profile documentaries, to risqué themed narratives, to films with excellent soundtrack material, the Tribeca Film festival provides music-loving film buffs with plenty to ponder seeing.

Since few folks actually have the time and energy to really dig into the festival in great depth, we thought we’d give a brief rundown of some of the compelling content to be on the lookout for as many of these films will surely find their way to wider releases over the course of the coming year.

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage – Already one of the most highly regarded films at the festival regardless of genre, this Rush documentary is garnering some serious praise. From interviews with contemporary heavyweights like Billy Corgan, Kirk Hammett, and Jack Black, to heaps of rare live and behind the scenes footage, Rush fans may finally have their defining documentary. By most accounts, this is one of the highlights of the entire festival and a masterpiece for fans of either the band or music films in general.

Last Play at Shea – Set to the music of Billy Joel’s final performance at the storied ballpark in Flushing, Last Play at Shea ties together the history of the stadium, it’s Amazin’ Mets, and one of its most beloved musical performers in what sounds like a pretty touching documentary. Review

READ ON for more musical-themed flicks at the Tribeca Film Festival…

From Noon on Monday June 1 until Monday June 8 at 3AM Sirius/XM’s Jam_ON channel will turn into Dave Matthews Band Radio. To celebrate the release of DMB’s new album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, Sirius channel 17 and XM channel 56 will be entirely devoted to the band for the eight day period. The playlist for Dave Matthews Band Radio will span their entire career including everything from the band’s early days to live recordings from the band’s archives to every song from Big Whiskey and more.

You can still hear Jam_ON online on SIRIUS Internet Radio channel 10.

As always, we got a batch of links to help you get over the hump…

• Jambands.com has a full report straight from Summer Camp
• ex-Billy Joel drummer Liberty DeVitto sues the Piano Man
• iClips.net offers another “premium webcast” of Mountain Jam
• Marc Ford talks to Swampland about joining Booker T.’s band
• Sly Stone pops in on KCRW to discuss all sorts of crazy things
• Check out The Dead Weather’s second single from Horehound
• Jimmy Herring tells Randy Ray about his solo album and tour

Finally, everyone I’ve talked to that subscribed to Moogis for their series of fifteen Allman Brothers Band webcasts direct from the Beacon Theatre raved about the service. Moogis founder and ABB drummer Butch Trucks spoke with Artisan News Service about the future of Moogis…

“What I plan to do with Moogis is to wire up about five of the top Jam Band clubs around the country and we’ll be doing this over the next year or so and get Moogis to where it’s up and running every day. Every night you’ll be able to see new live concerts from one of those five or six clubs from one of the younger bands that are around. And maybe a couple of times per month we’ll take a mobile unit out and do a larger venue with The Allman Brothers or Dave Matthews or Phish or The Dead, you know the bigger bands.”

If anyone could pull off a high quality webcast of a Phish show, it’s Moogis.

The suits at MTV weren’t happy to see YouTube come into the picture a few years back to become THE place to watch old music videos. MTV made videos what they are before relegating them to MTV2 in lieu of such brilliant programing as The Real World – Weehawken and True Life: My Son Fucks Goats. This week, MTV finally got in the game by launching MTV Music.

The MTV Music portal features over 16,000 videos, Unplugged performances and exclusive MTV concert footage with the promise of much more to come. I spent a few hours combing through the site last night and found some really cool clips. Here’s ten great videos from the ’80s I hadn’t seen in years…

10. Every Little Kiss – Bruce Hornsby

Remember when Bruce Hornsby used to be a pop star? There are plenty of old Bruuuuce videos on MTV Music besides Every Little Kiss including Valley Road, The Way It Is and Across The River.

9. Foolish Heart – Grateful Dead

Most people focus on Touch of Grey when discussing the Grateful Dead’s music videos, but they actually made a number of promotional videos including Just A Little Light, Hell In A Bucket, We Can Run and this clip for Built To Last’s Foolish Heart.

READ ON for eight more videos from deep within MTV’s vault…

When I took over the editorial reigns of Hidden Track back in January I needed to cut a few columns out of the picture in order to deal with the added responsibilities. One of those columns was Grousing The Aisles, a weekly look at the best audio and video recordings available on the ‘nets. Well, after a long-hiatus I’m pleased to announce the triumphant return of Grousing The Aisles.

In order to celebrate the return of GTA, we’re going to roll out a new edition of the column each day this week. After that, we’ll probably publish a new version of the column every two weeks. We’re gonna start Grousing The Aisles week by looking at an audio recording of the first of Billy Joel’s incredibly epic two-show run at Shea Stadium.

Billy Joel 07/16/2008 DAUD [FLAC, MP3 Pt. 1 Pt. 2]

[Photo by Bruce Gilbert of Newsday]

There’s been plenty written about Billy Joel’s “Last Play at Shea” run, so we’re gonna focus on this above-average audience recording we found over at The Trader’s Den. As you can imagine Billy Joel isn’t exactly taper-friendly. The guy who made this recording had to sneak his microphones in ala What’s Happening’s Rerun at the Doobie Brothers’ concert. You’d expect the resulting tape to be tinny and filled with the audience singing along to every song, but you’d be wrong.

This recording sounds rich and captures the action pretty damn well. Sure, every once in a while you hear a Strong Island meathead call out for his favorite song, but those moments are few and far between. Billy’s voice sounds really good, although he struggles for some high notes. All of the guest appearances, including John Mayer’s ripping fills on This Is The Time, are just as good as you’d imagine them. We’re still on the lookout for audio from Friday night’s Shea-closing show, so let us know if you see it out there.

• Previously On HT: Billy Joel @ Shea – Night 1: Setlist and Review and Billy Joel at Shea Night Two: Setlist and More

The music’s over at Shea Stadium, where Billy Joel just completed his second of two sold-out concerts that are the final concerts ever at the soon-to-be-demolished ballpark in Flushing Meadows Park. The shows, billed as “Last Play at Shea,” featured a grand total of 68 songs and eight special guests.

As predicted by nearly everyone, Paul McCartney helped close down the park by singing and playing guitar on The Beatles’ classic I Saw Her Standing There with the Piano Man and his backing band before being asked back to the stage for a duet on the final song ever to be played at the venue, Let It Be. Congratulations Billy Joel, you just gave Shea Stadium the most fitting farewell concert imaginable. Now, let’s see if the Mets can close out the joint in similar fashion this October.

Without further ado, here’s tonight’s setlist thanks to the folks at Joelfan.com:

Billy Joel
July 18, 2008
Shea Stadium
Flushing, NY

Setlist: Star Spangled Banner, Miami 2017, Prelude/Angry Young Man, My Life, The Entertainer, Summer, Highland Falls, Zanzibar, Allentown, Ballad of Billy the Kid, New York State of Mind (with Tony Bennett), Root Beer Rag, Goodnight Saigon, Don’t Ask Me Why, Keeping The Faith, The Downeaster “Alexa”, This Night, Movin’ Out, Under The Boardwalk/An Innocent Man, Shameless (duet with Garth Brooks), She’s Always A Woman, Captain Jack, Lullabye, River of Dreams/A Hard Days Night, Walk This Way (with Steven Tyler), We Didn’t Start The Fire, It’s Still Rock ‘n Roll To Me, My Generation (with Roger Daltrey), You May Be Right

Encore: Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young,

Second Encore: I Saw Her Standing There (with Sir Paul McCartney), Piano Man, Let It Be (with Sir Paul McCartney)

We’ve also found YouTube clips of a number of songs from Wednesday’s show:

This Is The Time w/ John Mayer, A Hard Day’s Night > River of Dreams, You May Be Right, Please Please Me, It’s Still Rock N Roll To Me, Boys of Summer w/ Don Henley, Downeaster Alexa, National Anthem, New York State of Mind w/ Tony Bennett, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Take Me Out To The Ballgame > Piano Man, Pink Houses w/ John Mellencamp, Goodnight Saigon, She Loves You,

• Previously on HT: Billy Joel @ Shea Night One: Setlist & Review
• New York Times: Paul McCartney Joins Billy Joel at Shea Stadium
• Registration Required: Shea Night 1 Audio Torrent at DimeaDozen

Long Island’s Billy Joel brought a bunch of his friends to join him during the first of the two final concerts at New York City’s Shea Stadium tonight. Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Don Henley and John Mellencamp each joined Joel for a song during this epic affair. Check out Newsday’s photo gallery and review for more on the action.

[Photo by Bruce Gilbert of Newsday]

Here’s the setlist:

Set: Star Spangled Banner, Miami 2017, Prelude/AYM, My Life, Everybody Loves You Now, The Entertainer, Zanzibar, Allentown, Ballad of Billy the Kid, NYSOM (w/ Tony Bennett), Big Man on Mulberry Street, Root Beer Rag, Movin Out, Goodnight Saigon, Don’t Ask Me Why, This is the Time (w/ John Mayer), Keeping the Faith,
Downeaster “Alexa”, Innocent Man (w/ “Stand By Me” leading into), Boys of Summer (w/ Don Henley), She’s Always a Woman, Captain Jack, Lullabye, River of Dreams (w/ “Hard Days Night”), Pink Houses (w/ John Mellencamp), WDSTF, Still Rock and Roll, You May Be Right, Please Please Me (Beatles)

Encore: Scenes, Only the Good Die Young, She Loves You (Beatles), Take Me Out To The Ballgame > Piano Man, Souvenir [via Joelfan.com]

All of those Beatles covers and teases certainly aren’t going to put the rumors to rest that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will join Joel on Friday during the final gig.

The New York Mets will play the final baseball game at Shea Stadium this fall. Billy Joel, a quintessential New Yorker and baseball lover, will play the final musical notes at the stadium, which has been home to the Amazin’s since 1964, in July. From the Beatles historical concerts to Dwight Gooden’s fastball, Shea has provided some fantastic memories. Here’s a few remembered, mash-up style:

Scenes From an Italian Restaurant – Mike Piazza, who certainly provided his share of Amazin’ moments for the Mets, will probably best be remembered for his performance in the first baseball game played in New York in the post-9/11 era. On September 20, 2001, Piazza hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning that lifted the Mets over the Atlanta Braves 3-2 and brought the tiniest bit of joy to a still weeping New York City.

A Matter of Trust – The Mets lose the first two games of the 1986 World Series at Shea to the Red Sox setting off panic after a 108-win regular season and a dramatic NLCS win over Houston. Tim Teufel’s through-the-wickets error allows the lone run in Game One and Dwight Gooden is shelled for six runs on eight hits over five innings in a 9-3 Game Two loss. The Mets turn it around and win Games Three and Four in Boston.

Read on for eleven more Billy Joel songs that just drive Mr. Met absolutely crazy…