Billy Joel Plays Discarded Piano on LI Street: Watch
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Billy Joel, Huntington, Long Island, June 2020
One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. Or so it seemed when Billy Joel was out for a ride on his motorcycle and happened upon a piano discarded on a Huntington, Long Island street. In a video posted to YouTube on June 26, 2020, Joel is seen standing in front of the small, upright piano, playing an impromptu rag. It was one of our most popular stories of 2020.
“Not bad,” says Joel to a passerby, when he finished his brief performance. “The action’s good. Just needs tuning. It’s a perfectly good piano. It’s a shame to throw it out. At least donate it to St. Vincent De Paul,” he says, referring to a local thrift shop. “They’d probably take it.”
His final assessment: “The pedals work. The action is great.”
The passerby who taped the performance and subsequent conversation with Joel was caught off guard and tries to switch his phone’s camera from vertical to horizontal. But you’ll be able to see and hear this unique moment.
Watch the Piano Man do his thing
Joel was born on May 9, 1949. He completes his record-breaking monthly residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden in July 2024, and has shows also scheduled in other markets. Tickets are available here and here. His albums have been released in recent vinyl collections here. In 2024, he released his first new single in nearly two decades, “Turn the Lights Back On,” to great acclaim.
The clip came to our attention via Long Island’s longtime classic rock radio station, WBAB, which posted the story on July 10.
Related: Joel was a surprise guest at a Long Island tribute concert
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationMet Billy at The Breakers in Bayville when was out on an evening with my wife and he was shooting the breeze with some other guys too about fishing, a real down to earth Long Island treasure and a genuine good guy who wasn’t full of himself, we’re so lucky to have him and with seeing so many concerts in my life Billy stands out as giving you every ounce of himself when he performs and makes you feel like he’s giving you a private performance and one particular show I wished I had got to see was his incredible closing concert at Shea Stadium, what an album! “Summer Highland Falls for all you manic depressives out there” LOL The man is pure genius!!!!