ABC News 20/20 Billy Joel by ABC News

Description

At the young age of 30, having grossed over 80 million dollars in record sales and just off the cusp of the release of the album “Glass Houses,” Billy Joel sat down and spoke to ABC News for his first-ever television network interview. Billy Joel is known as one of the best songwriters/performers as well as one of the few classic balladeers.

In the interview, Billy Joel recalls his early piano lessons he took growing up in Hicksville, Long Island, and composing his own “fake Beethoven concertos,” one of which he demonstrates for ABC News. Joel talks about the disastrous recording of his first album entitled “Cold Spring Harbor,” which was recorded in the wrong speed, and how that prompted him to disappear from the music scene for some time. While on his music industry sabbatical, Joel took a job as a piano player at a small bar in Los Angeles that wound up being the inspiration for his hit song, “Piano Man.”

ABC News is also on hand as Billy Joel goes into the recording studio with his producer Phil Ramone, as they work on finishing a lyric in the song “Don't Ask Me Why.”

Anchor: Hugh Downs
Correspondent: Tom Hoving
Airdate: 5/1/1980

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