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Billy Joel turns 70 on Thursday, May 9, and is celebrating with a birthday concert at Madison Square Garden, where he's currently headlining an unprecedented years-long residency of monthly concerts. While the piano man hasn't released an album of original songs since 1993's River of Dreams, he's hardly been idle these past 26 years and remains a top concert draw. Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings are commemorating Joel the live performer with a new streaming playlist available today.
Live Through the Years is a 20-track survey of Joel onstage, recorded between 1977 and 2006, and features numerous rarities and audio debuts of tracks previously released on videos only. The set kicks off with a pair of tracks from the artist's June 4, 1977 Carnegie Hall show: "Prelude/Angry Young Man" and "She's Got a Way," both of which were previously available on the iTunes-exclusive edition of the 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of The Stranger. A further five tracks from later that year at Joel's Long Island hometown venue Nassau Coliseum have been drawn from the Best Buy bonus disc of that same release. Through the Years then journeys four years later to another Nassau show (December 29, 1982) for "Allentown," "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," and "Pressure." These tracks are making their audio debuts here, having been released as part of the Live from Long Island home video.
The set then jumps to the 1990s with performances from the Los Angeles Sports Arena ("The Downeaster 'Alexa,'" April 6, 1990, from That's Not Her Style: The Storm Front Tour promo CD); Yankee Stadium (three songs from the June 22-23, 1990 concerts preserved on the video release Live at Yankee Stadium); and another three from Frankfurt Germany on June 18, 1994 from the My Lives DVD. The playlist's final three songs have been taken from Joel's then-record breaking Madison Square Garden concerts from January through April 2006. "You're My Home" was released on the "All My Life" CD single, "Sleeping with the Television On" was a digital bonus track for 12 Gardens Live, and "A Room of Our Own" was a bonus track from the physical edition of that album.
Jam-packed with rare live cuts, Live Through the Years is available now on Spotify and streaming providers! You can check out the track listing below.
Live Through The Years (Columbia/Legacy, 2019) (Apple Music / Spotify)
- Prelude/Angry Young Man
- She's Got a Way
- Just The Way You Are
- Vienna
- The Ballad of Billy The Kid
- Get It Right The First Time
- Summer, Highland Falls
- Allentown
- Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
- Pressure
- The Downeaster "Alexa"
- New York State of Mind **
- Piano Man
- We Didn't Start The Fire
- My Life
- The River of Dreams
- Big Shot
- You're My Home
- Sleeping With The Television On
- A Room Of Our Own
Tracks 1-2 recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York City - June 4, 1977. Released on iTunes version of The Stranger: 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition - Columbia/Legacy, 2008
Tracks 3-7 recorded at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY - December 11, 1977. Released on Best Buy exclusive bonus disc of The Stranger: 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition - Columbia/Legacy 88697 22581-2, 2008
Tracks 8-10 recorded at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY - December 29, 1982. Released on Live From Long Island - CBS Fox Home Video 6297, 1983
Track 11 recorded at Los Angeles Sports Arena, California - April 6, 1990. Released on That's Not Her Style: The Storm Front Tour - Columbia promo CSK 2127, 1990
Tracks 12-14 recorded at Yankee Stadium, New York City - June 22-23, 1990. Released on Live At Yankee Stadium - CMV Enterprises 49061, 1990. (** also released on Columbia promo 001013 3 (Australia), 1991)
Tracks 15-17 recorded at Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany - June 18, 1994. Released on DVD included in My Lives
Tracks 18-20 recorded at Madison Square Garden, New York City - January-April 2006. Track 18 released on "All My Life" CD single - Columbia 88697 07255 2, 2007. Track 19 released on Sony Music Direct digital version of 12 Gardens Live (Columbia, 2006). Track 20 is a bonus track from physical edition of that album.
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That June 1977 Carnegie Hall concert is terrific, occurring before the release of the Stranger a few months later, and, with it, the surge of fame. At this point, Billy was the Piano Man, searching for a reprise of that hit. Fascinating to hear the audience's reaction to the classics from the Stranger, hearing them for the first time, and the dynamics of Billy's classic line-up before things so changed the following September. Much more of the concert is available on a 2 LP RSD set. It sounds great.
It is a great show, which was also available on CD as part of the 30th anniversary The Stranger box set.
Sadly, the show is very incomplete but what is there is indeed great.
Hey Bill. Any chance you would be willing to share a copy of the 77 Carnegie Hall show with me? It was all sold out on record store day! Lol
I understand that it was released on CD as a part of the deluxe version of the Stranger. I had no idea!
While this is a cool playlist, it's disappointing that Billy/Sony haven't done more with his catalog. The box set for The Stranger was pretty nice. Couldn't they do similar sets for the other albums? How about releasing Live From Long Island on Blu-ray? How about getting the quad mixes of Turnstiles and Piano Man out on SACD or Blu-ray (and maybe some 5.1 mixes of his 80's albums?) They just uploaded the 1976 Billy Joel Tonight concert to YouTube; that could make a great Blu-ray. It's all sitting in the vaults. Take my money!!!
A new upload of Billy Joel Tonight? An “official” version?
That would be great, since a version that’s been on there for ages has an unfortunate sound drop out during, I believe, “New York State of Mind.” Thanks!
Is this album or individual songs supposed to be available for purchase from itunes? Because as of this writing, they do not appear on itunes in Canada.
Five words: complete Songs From The Attic
^^^^ THIS.
Agree totally. I attended one of the club dates recoded for the album (Bayou, DC) and kept track of each song played. As good as Attic is, the performances that didn't make it, including his funny, often biting, between song commentary, were superior. I can understand why they were left off in the 80s, but is there any concern about image at this point?
While this is a fun digital comp.. nothing rare or unique here.. What's odd is that the press release above.. the track listing you list is significantly different than the actual track list. I'm hoping Columbia/Legacy decides to do more with Billy's back catalogue.. The DeVitto / Brown / Javors / Stegmeyer / Cannata era was unmatched!
Looking closer.. it wasn't significantly different.. Your original post mentioned Goodnight Saigon & Uptown Girl but it's since been fixed!
So...Apple Music has Live Through the Years listed as an "album." However, there is also a featured playlist that has some of these tracks. Hence the confusion.
Nice idea, but, sadly, it just points out how poor a job Sony has done with Billy’s catalogue.
How about deluxe sets of more albums than just Piano Man and The Stranger? How about some live albums from (complete) vintage shows we know were recorded? Mar E Sol ‘72, Bottom Line ‘76, Havana Jam ‘79, the Songs in the Attic outtakes, Syracuse and London ‘90, etc?
Then there’s stuff that was filmed: U Conn ‘76 (The long unavailable “Billy Joel Tonight” video), Houston ‘79, Long Island ‘82 (The also long unavailable, incredible “Live From Long Island”), Wembley ‘84 (Live on the BBC, which sadly never aired in the States), etc.
Audio and video releases of any of this stuff would be amazing. but, no. This stuff just sits in a vault somewhere. We get a few scraps here and there, but that’s it. A few songs from Live From Long Island here, but still no DVD to this day is kind of insulting.
Insulting to say the least. Since EVERY live show has been recorded I guess he'll be able to put out a new live recorded LP every year for the next 200 or so!! Our great, great , great, grandchildren will get these LP's but us who are alive we'll all be dead and buried. Nothing new as far as a studio LP now for almost 30 years. Well thats all fine and it's his choice, but heck look how many LIVE Concerts he has done in the last 50 years and ALL RECORDED!!