Stony Brook, NY (November 3, 2023)—A new exhibit, Billy Joel: My Life—A Piano Man’s Journey, will open later this month at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook, NY, examining all parts of the famed entertainer’s career, including his creative process inside the legendary studio, A&R Recording.
A cornerstone of 1970s and 80s pop music, Joel has sold more than 160 million albums, much of it inspired by suburban Long Island outside New York City, where he has lived nearly his entire life. Now it will all be recounted in the career-spanning exhibition due to open on November 24, 2023. The result of more than a year’s planning with direct input from Joel himself, the exhibition will include rare memorabilia; behind-the-scenes videos; awards; vintage studio and stage-used instruments, including a nine-foot piano; road crew swag; one of his vintage motorcycles; and much more.
No discussion of Joel’s life and work would be complete without acknowledging his long working and personal relationship with Grammy-winning producer Phil Ramone, and as a result, the exhibition will highlight that with a partial recreation of A&R Recording. It was inside Ramone’s fabled facility at the corner of 52nd Street and 7th Avenue that the two recorded many of Joel’s biggest hits—a remarkable streak of seven multiplatinum albums and dozens of singles that began with 1977’s The Stranger and continued through 1986’s The Bridge. Even after Joel went on to work with other producers, he and Ramone stayed part of each other’s lives; indeed, Joel inducted Ramone into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2010, and later spoke and performed movingly at the Phil Ramone Music Memorial Celebration when his friend died two years later.
Other exhibits will include an interactive “record store”-themed space where visitors can listen to records that influenced Joel as a youngster; tributes to other artists who inspired Joel, such as Paul McCartney and Ray Charles; life-size album covers that visitors can pose within; and much more.
For many studio professionals, one of the most intriguing aspects of the exhibition will be the opportunity to hear an unedited vintage Billy Joel recording session. Speaking at a press conference in mid-October, LIMEHOF chairman Ernie Canadeo offered, “Although we haven’t heard it yet…we have about 60 minutes of a recording session; you’re gonna hear the band and Billy actually recording a song. I think that will be pretty incredible to listen to, so without having heard it yet, but knowing about it, I would say that’s probably my favorite [item on loan from Joel].”
Kevin O’Callaghan—LIMEHOF creative director and chair of the 3D Design Program at New York’s famed School of Visual Arts—added that how the recording session audio would be presented to the public was still up in the air. Some possibilities included presenting it on loop in the museum’s small theater or possibly using headphones or studio monitors at a listening station.
Regardless of the systems in use, the audio and video design for the installation will be handled by integrator James Feldstein, president/owner of Audio Den (Nesconset, NY), a longtime supporter of LIMEHOF. While well-known in the region for its high-end residential systems, Audio Den has handled system design for LIMEHOF since its physical location opened in 2022, often outfitting exhibits with Coastal Source’s Razor slim-profile speakers and digital amplifiers.
