Kevin Bacon made a surprise appearance during the latest Billy Joel residency show at Madison Square Garden.
The actor took to the stage and joined Joel on “The Entertainer” and “You May Be Right.”
Joel’s incredibly successful residency will soon come to an end. In June, The Piano Man announced his MSG residency will end in July 2024 on what will be his 150th career performance at the legendary venue.
Thirty years ago, Billy Joel released what he said would be his final album, The River Of Dreams. A lot of artists announce “final” albums. Billy Joel actually stuck with it…at least as of now. He’s released a handful of new songs in the years since, but it’s been barely an album’s worth of material, and it’s been three decades.
While there have been some fans who want more new music from him, Billy seemed to be aware that he’d said everything he wanted to say: in “Famous Last Words,” the last song on The River of Dreams, he sings, “And these are the last words I have to say/It’s always hard to say goodbye/But now it’s time to put this book away.”
The lack of new material hasn’t slowed him down as a performer. He still headlines arenas and stadiums, and is now wrapping up his years-long residency at Madison Square Garden, where he’s been playing a show per month (not including during the pandemic) since January of 2014. But his twelve albums have an embarrassment of riches: he’s had over thirty top 40 hits. But his album tracks and deep cuts have some true jewels as well.
So here, we’re attempting to rank his best songs: some of the bigger singles didn’t make our list. But some deep cuts did: if you’re not familiar with them, check them out now, and thank us later.
(BI)=Written by Brian Ives
(EB)= Written by Erica Banas
