There are other artists I love more than Billy Joel, but I’ve always respected his talent and craft.
Paul McCartney’s comment about Just The Way You Are—that it’s the song he most wishes he would have written—I swear I’ve heard him say the same thing about God Only Knows.
Billy was right, Just The Way You Are is schmaltzy, and as a working musician back in the day I often had to play it at weddings, and the whole band would roll their collective eyes.
But I’ve since come to understand that underneath the schmaltz is a very high level of song craft and musical integrity. Plus, we get one of the very best jazz solos on a pop song from the great Phil Woods.
Same with another schmaltzy gem from the era, How Deep Is Your Love … these are both really solid songs, kind of perfect in the same way an Irving Berlin song is. That’s why they became standards.
Of course, let it not go unsaid that from a musical standpoint, God Only Knows is several orders of inspired genius higher, but then again, as McCartney has also said, it is the greatest song ever written. Or one of the greatest, at least … gotta leave room for Wichita Lineman.
Fred Simon
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As a teenager I saw Billy Joel at the small Westchester Premier Theater in December 1976 on the Turnstiles tour. Cut school to go and buy tickets when they went on sale. He was amazing. Energetic. Wise-cracking. Smoking cigarettes between songs. Jumped off stage and walked through the aisles singing. Great setlist and searing performances. I went to see him again in May 1977 in the field house at Rockland Community College. Another stellar show. He premiered songs from The Stranger which hadn’t been released yet. The audience cheered for songs like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant which we’d never heard before.
He won me over then and I’ve been a fan ever since. Billy Joel is one of a kind and his music will endure.
Joe Moss
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Bob, two more tidbits about Billy Joel when he came into my office in 1972 seeking work:
1. At the bottom of his resume that I still have, he wrote “Would like to do good steady gigs with professional people, need MONEY. Don’t call me unless you have a group together working and making money. I’m not interested in jamming or f..king around”. But a week later he came back in and crossed out the word “f..king” and replaced it with “messing”. I’m sure he thought that maybe a prospective employer may read it and be offended by his cuss word.
2. About a month later he came back in but now he was looking for other musicians for his band. I think by this time he had gotten a gig at the Roman Knight in Pico Rivera or a lounge gig on Wilshire Blvd, which I may have gotten for him but I’ve never been sure. Anyway, he was sitting at my counter looking thru the resumes of available players. A working top 40 guitarist named Mike Shure was sitting next to him. I overheard Billy asking Mike if he wanted to join his band. “Is it paying?” Mike asked. Billy said ” No, it’s my original thing”. “Sorry, I’m not interested” was Mike’s response.
Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com
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I saw Billy Joel open for Pablo Cruise at the Berkeley Community Theater and knock them into the stratosphere. According to the recent Janis Ian American Masters documentary, the same thing happened to her. At that Berkeley gig, Billy had a priceless retort to a PC heckler, “Stand up and show us your white socks.” He absolutely killed.
2021, Sony released a live CD of a 1975 Great American Music Hall gig in San Francisco around the Streetlife Serenade album. It’s beautifully recorded and performed. Lots of between song banter. Apparently they had a truck outside rolling tape. Check it out.
Kent Zimmerman
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Glass Houses was my first album and it’s one of my favorites. Seen Billy countless times and love him. I get it – he’s not Springsteen, Dylan, or Paul, but who cares? His songs are great and as the documentary says (I think it was Elizabeth) something like, Billy can distill an emotion to a song so perfectly – he gets to the DNA of the emotion (paraphrasing).
All for Lenya – the yearning, the feeling, etc. is so powerful. Pick any song and he hits the nail on the head. People can make fun of him, but his songs have endured. I love all his albums, and yes, even The Bridge (Running on Ice, Matter of Trust, Big Man) and Storm Front and River of Dreams albums are still great to me.
“I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more a fool who’s not afraid of rejection…”
Nathan B
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Bob, I hated Billy Joel. “Piano Man” was all I knew – and it made my skin crawl. However, one winter while working in the frozen food dept at Kroger , I kept hearing “uptown girl” and “pressure” on the back loading dock. I started to buy his albums. I grew up 15 miles north of Nashville – my folks are session cats. My dad still plays steel on the Grand Ole Opry. My upbringing couldn’t have been further from Joel’s … but I know what all his songs are about. I just do. His music touched me even though I had never been to any of the places he sang about. Billy is one of the greats of all time. He transcends COOL. He’s the real working class hero – not Bruce. Sorry. Bruce is handsome – Billy ain’t. I saw Billy on the eve of my 30th birthday- 9/10/21. I treated myself to seats on the field – where the Reds play. The two people who sat next to me were a Mexican woman and her teenage son. They couldn’t speak a lick of English but they knew all the words to every song. THAT is what it’s all about. LONG LIVE BILLY JOEL.
Coley Hinson
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I’ve always felt that Billy Joel begat Bon Jovi as the so-called “rockers” of their respective generations — both appealing primarily to a female audience, yet possessing just enough rock sensibility to attract the types of guys into Barry Manilow and Nickelback. That said, Billy wrote Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. Wow. I take it all back. Wait. Ah I don’t know.
Cheers,
Jay Aymar
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When he (Billy Joel) is no longer on this mortal coil his natural life force will be fully appreciated with his voice/songs in the air forever more. That’s quite a life achievement.
I traveled from London to New York in December 2017 to see him perform to his locals at the Madison Square Garden just to hear 25’000 people singing his neighbor-hood songs with him. A true music moment in my life that has gone through all the street genres..
Eddie Gordon
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As Jim James recently said, there are two camps of people. Those who have seen Bruce Springsteen live and those who haven’t.
You could say the same about Billy Joel. And as the years have gone by and every emperor’s clothing has been revealed, it’s even more true. Seeing either artist live may not make you like their music too much more than when you went, but it will likely drive you to testify on their behalf if you are any kind of music fan.
Glass Houses was the first album I ever learned all the words to. Then Songs in the Attic. I was 12. Songs in the Attic may be the best live record of all time. Precisely because it managed to reveal so much in those songs that the records never did. Versus other great live albums that were mostly presenting amazing versions of songs that were already good on the OG records.
Bruce should be in a Billy documentary. As a kid growing up in New Jersey on the Asbury Park shore with cousins my same age growing up in Oyster Bay, I spent half my summers in Jersey and half on Long Island. As a teenager, it didn’t take me more than one week to figure out these dudes were living parallel lives. And that was only through the records. This is before I knew about their backstories about how they both went out to California to see if they could make it. They both had distant fathers. They both signed shi*ty deals with their first managers that they had to get out from under. They both almost got fired by Columbia after their second albums.
If they weren’t living their lives at exactly the same time, a cynic would think that one was invented precisely because the other was successful but the timelines overlap too much. Like we did a Jersey/Long Island version now let’s do the other!
Jeff Gorlechen
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In April of 1977, Billy Joel played a tiny theater at the University of Maryland, about fifty yards from my dorm. Out of the roughly thousand concerts I’ve seen, this one stands out as one of the most memorable. He just had that amazing “it factor” that’s hard to describe. The songs, the talent, the stage presence… all 600 of us in attendance knew we were witnessing a future superstar.
The show had the energy and arrangements that would later show up on “Songs From the Attic”… amped-up, rocking versions of what was then a more subdued catalog. Liberty DeVitto on drums was a huge part of that sound.
But what really stuck with me happened early in the set. At the time, “Piano Man” was pretty much his only hit, and even that was a relatively minor one. So he played it third. Before launching into it, he gave a hilarious speech about how most artists save their big hit for the end of the night, teasing it with drawn-out intros while the audience waits for the payoff. He said he preferred to just get it out of the way so we could all relax and enjoy the rest of the show. It was so cool, and so unpretentious.
Then “The Stranger” came out, and that was it. He was playing arenas, and I sort of lost interest. I didn’t want to see him jumping off pianos and playing to crowds who only knew the hits post-Turnstiles. Big mistake. I finally made it to one of the MSG shows years later, and it was incredible. Almost as good as that tiny theater in ’77.
Of course, there’s nothing quite like seeing a young artist on the rise, and I’m just grateful I got to experience that with Billy.
All the best,
Rich Madow
Baltimore, MD
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I disagree with your first sentence to not watch if you’re not a fan. I’m from Long Island but I was never a Joel fan and never bought any of his music.
The hits infiltrated my life. They were everywhere. ( even in the supermarket). When I tell people I’m not a fan, they can’t understand it. BUT, his youngest kids go to my grandkids’ school in Florida-haha, and I’ve gotten more curious about him in recent years, because of it. So I definitely wanted to watch the documentary and I’ve been enjoying it immensely Bob. To learn about a person‘s past, and to understand why certain songs were written is revelatory. When he explains about a song and then the doc shows it being played in the stadium, I got chills, because I know it, and now I understand it!
Thanks for your insight and opinions, though. Joanne Schenendorf
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Bob, it’s so good! I don’t think I would have watched it without your write-up.
Lizzz Kritzer
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Hi Bob,
After watching the recent documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, I was stunned by what was left out. Not small details, but entire chapters of Billy’s early career…chapters my father, Irwin Mazur, lived through and helped shape.
His name isn’t mentioned… though he’s clearly featured in key photographs used in the documentary
This isn’t about bitterness or nostalgia. It’s about truth. And truth shouldn’t be optional when we’re talking about the legacy of someone as important as Billy Joel.
I grew up in a house where the music business wasn’t just something people talked about, it was lived…every day. My father built his career with real hustle and vision. He wasn’t a hobbyist or someone hanging around the edges. He was Billy Joel’s first real manager. He started managing The Hassles in 1966 and helped guide Billy through the most formative years of his music career. These aren’t vague memories. They’re backed by photos, paperwork, recordings, and real history.
I’ve had a #1 record, toured the world, and worked in this business for decades. I know how easy it is for certain names to get erased when a story needs to be simplified. But when that name is your fathers and when you saw him do for you what he once did for Billy, you can’t stay silent.
Let’s Get the Facts Straight
1966 – Billy Joel joins The Hassles
Irwin Mazur, age 24, has been managing The Hassles, the house band at My House, a Long Island rock club owned by my grandfather, Danny Mazur. The band is looking for a new keyboard player. Billy’s group, The Lost Souls, auditions for a spot at the venue. Instead of hiring the whole band, Irwin and The Hassles offer Billy the open position…along with a new Hammond B3 organ. He accepts. That’s how Billy officially becomes a member of The Hassles.
1967 – The Hassles and United Artists Records
Irwin secures a two-album deal with United Artists Records for The Hassles, an almost unheard of achievement for a young Long Island band with no national profile. The deal even includes an advance, a rare show of confidence from a major label at the time. Irwin is credited as the band’s official manager, and their self-titled debut album is released later that year.
1968 – Album Two
Hour of the Wolf is released. The Hassles’ second album comes out under the same United Artists deal. Irwin is still the manager, and credited as such.
1969 – The Hassles Split
The band breaks up, and Irwin continues managing Billy and Jon Small. Billy and drummer Jon Small form Attila, a heavy rock duo built around Billy’s organ and Jon’s drums. Irwin stays with them, managing the new project.
1970 – Attila and Epic Records
Irwin gets Attila a deal with Epic Records, with a significant advance. The album is released in July. It doesn’t do well commercially, but it’s a bold creative step for Billy.
1970–1971 – Downward Spiral
Attila ends, and Billy spirals.
After the album release, Jon finds out Billy is having an affair with his wife, Elizabeth. The band ends immediately. Billy enters a dark period …depressed, broke, and without direction, my parents give him a place to stay. During that time, Billy attempts suicide. He survives… Irwin gets him out of the hospital, remains by his side, and he slowly begins to rebuild.
1971 – A New Beginning
Irwin helps Billy start his solo career.
Still managing Billy, Irwin encourages him to regroup and write songs, his own songs…from the heart, with just piano and vocals.
1971 – Family Productions
After being turned down at nearly every record label in New York, Irwin is visiting his brother Ruby at Paramount Records, where he works as an art director. While they’re playing Billy’s demo in Ruby’s office, the door is wide open. Michael Lang (music business icon and promoter of Woodstock) pokes his head in. He says it’s not really his style but believes Artie Ripp at Family Productions would love it and makes the introduction.
Artie Ripp, who had an imprint/distribution deal through Paramount, hears the tape and makes an offer to sign Billy Joel as a solo artist.
That leads to the release of his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor. Again, Irwin Mazur is credited as manager and executive producer. Unfortunately, the mastering is botched, causing the final product to play faster than intended—but the songs show early brilliance. It’s Billy’s first solo album.
1971–1972 – A Breakthrough
At Irwin’s request, Family Productions funds tour support to put Billy on the road to promote the album. Billy is sent on a nearly year-long tour. The turning point comes in April 1972, when Billy plays the Mar Y Sol Pop Festival in Puerto Rico. He delivers a breakthrough performance that puts him on the radar.
1972 – Leveling Up
Following Mar Y Sol, Columbia Records’ A&R department contacts Irwin to set up a call with Clive Davis. Clive expresses interest in bringing Billy to Columbia and says he wants to see him perform live. A showcase is scheduled at the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles.
1972 – Blindsided
With no explanation, Irwin is fired before the Troubadour show.
After six years guiding Billy from a local club band to the edge of global success… that was it.
What Deserves to Be Remembered
My dad never chased the spotlight. He wasn’t in it for fame or credit. But he was there, every step of the way. He managed. He booked the shows. He bought the gear. He fought for Billy when no one else did. He gave him a place to stay, a path forward, and a belief that never wavered.
I’m not here to rewrite anyone’s legacy. I just felt that, as his son, I had to speak up. The truth matters. and this is the truth.
Bob, if you feel this is worth sharing with your readers, please feel free.
Sincerely,
Bret “Epic” Mazur
P.S. Just realized I never actually said this—my dad, Irwin Mazur, is very much alive!
He’s 83 now, still sharp, and still remembers every detail of those early days with Billy. In fact, he just attended The Hassles’ induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame this past June. This wasn’t meant as a eulogy, just a moment where I felt it was time to speak up for someone who deserves to be remembered while he’s here to see it.
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My family (on my father’s side) ARE the original/founding Hicks’ of Hicksville. Robert Hicks, a leathergoods merchant, arrived in 1622 on the “Fortune”, the sister ship to the Mayflower. His progeny (specifically Valentine Hicks and Elias Hicks) would eventually move to Long Island and found the town of Hicksville where Billy Joel grew up.
I’m “Robert L Hicks”, the namesake of the original Hicks. On my maternal side are the Smiths, who founded Smithtown on Long Island. If anyone goes ‘way back’ on the Island, it’s me and my family! :-). We were the early settlers and first founders there.
R. Lance Hicks
