Billy Joel 19891994
 Storm Front (1989)
The song We Didn't Start the Fire, the first single from the album Storm Front, was released in September 1989. The song became Joel's third and most recent US Number 1 hit, spending two weeks at the top.
Storm Front was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first Number 1 album since Glass Houses, 9 years earlier. Storm Front was Joel's first album since Turnstiles to be recorded without Phil Ramone as producer. For this album, he wanted a new sound, and worked with Mick Jones of Foreigner fame. Joel also revamped his backing band, firing everyone, save drummer Liberty DeVitto, guitarist David Brown, and saxophone player Mark Rivera; and bringing in new faces, including talented multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero, who would go on to become Joel's musical director and architect of his live sound. After We Didn't Start the Fire, Storm Front also produced the top ten hit I Go To Extremes (#6). The album was also notable for its song Leningrad, written after Joel met a clown in the Soviet city of that name during his tour in 1987, and The Downeaster Alexa, written to underscore the plight of fishermen on Long Island who are barely able to make ends meet. Another well-known single from the album is the ballad And So It Goes (#37 in late 1990). Billy Joel became the first-ever performer to hold a show at Yankee Stadium, packing the house for two sold-out nights in a row.
River of Dreams (1993)
Joel started work on River of Dreams in early 1993. Its cover art was a colorful painting by Christie Brinkley that was a series of scenes from each of the songs on the album. The eponymous first single was the last top 10 hit Joel has penned to date, and #1 for a staggering twelve weeks on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. The album includes hits such as The River of Dreams, All About Soul,(With Color Me Badd on backing vocals) and Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel), written for his daughter, Alexa. A radio remix version of All About Soul can be found on The Essential Billy Joel (2001), and a demo version appears on My Lives (2005). The song The Great Wall of China was written about his ex-manager Frank Weber and was a regular in the setlist for Joel's 2006 tour. 2000 Years was prominent in the millennium concert at Madison Square Garden, December 31, 1999, and Famous Last Words closed the book on Joel's pop songwriting (for now).
1994present
On August 25, 1994, Joel and second wife Christie Brinkley divorced. In August 1995, Billy Joel's long-time bassist Doug Stegmeyer committed suicide in his Long Island home. Stegmeyer had played on every one of Joel's albums from Turnstiles through The Bridge. Stegmeyer also performed as bassist on Joel's live album ???????.
On December 31, 1999, Joel performed at New York's Madison Square Garden, which at the time was considered to be Joel's last solo concert. The concert (dubbed The Night Of The 2000 Years) ran on close to 4 hours and was later released as 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert.
In 2001, Joel released Fantasies & Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces. All were written by Billy Joel and performed by Richard Joo. Joel often uses bits of these songs as interludes in live performances, and some of them are part of the score for the hit show Movin' Out. The album topped the classical charts at # 1. Joel performed New York State of Mind live on September 21, 2001, as part of the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert, and on October 20, 2001, along with Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway), at the Concert for New York City in Madison Square Garden. That night, he also performed Your Song with Elton John.
Joel has toured extensively with Elton John on a series of Face to Face tours. During these shows, the two have played each other's songs and performed duets. They grossed over $46,000,000 in just 24 dates.
In 2005, Columbia released a box set, My Lives, which is largely a compilation of demos, b-sides, live/alternate versions and even a few Top 40 hits. The compilation also includes the Umixit software, in which people can remix Zanzibar, Only the Good Die Young, Keepin' The Faith, and live versions of I Go To Extremes and Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) with their PC. Also, a DVD of a show from the River of Dreams tour is included.
On January 7, 2006, Joel began a tour across the United States. Having not written, or at least released, any new songs in 13 years, he featured a sampling of songs from throughout his career, including major hits as well as obscure tunes like Zanzibar and All For Leyna. His tour included an unprecedented 12 sold-out concerts over several months at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The singer's stint of 12 shows at Madison Square Garden broke a previous record set by New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen when he played 10 sold-out shows at the same arena. The record earned Joel the only retired number (12) in the arena owned by a non-athlete. This honor has also been given to Joel at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia where a banner in the colors of the Philadelphia Flyers is hung honoring Joel's 46 Philadelphia sold-out shows. He also had a banner raised in his honor for being the highest grossing act in the history of the Times Union Center (formerly the Knickerbocker Arena and Pepsi Arena) in Albany, NY. This honor was given to him as part of the April 17, 2007 show he did there. On June 13, 2006, Columbia released 12 Gardens Live, a double album containing 32 live recordings from a collection of the 12 different shows at Madison Square Garden during Joel's 2006 tour.
2006 also saw Billy Joel visit the United Kingdom and Ireland (as part of the European leg of his 2006 tour) for the first time in many years, playing to capacity crowds in Birmingham, Sheffield, Southampton, Manchester, Glasgow, London and Dublin. On July 31, 2006, Joel performed a free concert in Rome, Italy with the Colosseum as the backdrop, and performed classic hits for hundreds of thousands of fans. Joel performed favorites such as New York State of Mind, Honesty, and Just the Way You Are. While introducing one song, the 57-year-old singer joked in shaky Italian, This song is as old as the Colosseum. Organizers estimated 500,000 people turned out for the show. The concert was opened by Canadian pop-rocker and songwriter Bryan Adams.
Billy Joel toured South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii in late 2006, and subsequently toured the Southeastern United States in February and March 2007 before hitting the Midwest in the spring of '07.
On January 3, 2007, news was leaked to the New York Post that Billy had recorded a new song with lyrics -- this being the first new song with lyrics he'd written in almost 14 years. The song, entitled All My Life, was Joel's newest single (with second track You're My Home Live from Madison Square Garden 2006 tour) was released into stores on February 27, 2007.
On February 4, 2007, Joel sang the national anthem for Super Bowl XLI, and was the first to sing the national anthem twice at a Super Bowl.
On April 17, 2007, Joel was honored in Albany, NY, for his 9th concert at Times Union Center. He is now holding the highest box office attendance of any artist to play at the arena. With his daughter Alexa Ray Joel in attendance, a banner was raised in his honor marking this achievement.
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