Billy Joel and New York stadiums are a match made in heaven for fans of the Piano Man. Of course, he's been packing them in with a regular residency at Madison Square Garden that's nearly spanned 100 shows since 2014. In 2008, he brought a galaxy of stars to Shea Stadium (including Paul McCartney, on a return trip to the field) before the Mets' old home was torn down. In 2015, he played a set at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the last event before its renovation - and two years later, he played another concert there, for its first post-renovation event.
This fall, another stadium set from Joel's career will be revisited: his 1990 sets at Yankee Stadium, home of the 27-time World Series champs. Live At Yankee Stadium, originally released on video, will be restored and remixed from original audio and video elements as part of a 2CD/Blu-ray or 3LP package. Eleven of the tracks have never been released in any format.
Recorded over two nights on June 22 and 23, 1990, the Yankee Stadium set showcased Billy entering his third decade as a solo performer with no signs of slowdown. The previous year, 11th album Storm Front marked a new era for the singer/songwriter, boasting a new, expanded in-studio band and production not from longtime collaborator Phil Ramone but Mick Jones of Foreigner fame. Despite the sonic shifts, the album topped the Billboard 200 and featured hits in the chart-topping history lesson "We Didn't Start the Fire" and the Top 10 rocker "I Go to Extremes." (Check out a newly restored version of "Fire" below.)
The ground-up restoration of Live at Yankee Stadium includes the original 16-millimeter footage of the sets (overseen by Joel's onetime Atilla bandmate Jon Small) restored in 4K and re-edited, while the concert multi-tracks have been remixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos by Jay Vicari, under the guidance of Joel's longtime sound tech Brian Ruggles. The concert feature, including behind-the-scenes footage and vintage interviews with Billy, will be screened in select theaters for two nights on Wednesday, October 5 and Sunday, October 9 in partnership with Trafalgar Entertainment - and all album packages will hit stores about a month later on November 4.
Pre-order your copies and check out the full track list below.
Live At Yankee Stadium (Columbia/Legacy, 2022)
2CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Disc 1
- Storm Front
- Allentown
- Prelude/Angry Young Man
- I Go to Extremes
- New York State of Mind
- The Downeaster "Alexa"
- My Life
- Shameless
- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
- Pressure
- Miami 2017 (I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
- Uptown Girl
Disc 2
- We Didn't Start the Fire
- A Matter of Trust
- Only the Good Die Young
- That's Not Her Style
- Big Shot
- Goodnight Saigon
- It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
- An Innocent Man
- You May Be Right
- Piano Man
All tracks recorded live at Yankee Stadium, New York, NY - 6/22-23/1990
Disc 1, Tracks 1, 4-6, 9-11 and Disc 2, Tracks 1-2, 4 and 10 released on video as CMV Enterprises cassette 19V-49061, 1990
Disc 1, Tracks 1 and 4-5 and Disc 2, Track 10 released as CBS Australian promo CD 001013 3, 1990
Disc 1, Track 6 released on "Shout" Australian CD single - CBS 656831 2, 1991
Disc 1, Track 9 released on "Shameless" Australian CD single - CBS 657717 2, 1991
zubb says
Terrible cover art. I wonder why they didn't go with the cover art from the home video that looked like a baseball card. It was much better than this.
Bill says
Exactly
Rob M says
It makes me shake my head every time Columbia goes back to the live Billy well, that they never bless us with an expanded “Songs in the Attic” and skip right over the “Live in Long Island” 1982 concert, which hasn’t seen a release since LaserDisc.
Allen Chapman says
Billy hates his live albums, but when he doesn’t give the label anything new, so they rehash the old stuff. It’s great that this is getting a full release. This was the first tour I saw Billy on.
Bill says
Why no cheaper version of just the CDs? No sale, for me.
zally says
why cant columbia ever get it right. both shows on 4 cds 2 dvds/blu ray/ NO VINYL. only hard core billy fans will buy this not your casual fan. yep AWFUL cover. UGH
Ken Kerrigan says
Spinning the vinyl today - it skips at a shocking level. Just awful pressing