52nd Street: The Music of Billy Joel at the Timber Lake Playhouse -- May 29.
Saturday, May 29, 7 p.m.
Timber Lake Playhouse, 8215 Black Oak Road, Mt. Carroll IL
Thrilling hits from a career boasting 13 studio albums, six live albums, 61 singles, and 23 Grammy Award nominations will be heard on May 29 when Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse hosts the Milwaukee-based talents of 52nd Street: The Music of Billy Joel, an eight-piece band whose outdoor concert will be chock full of classics originated by one of the best-selling and most lauded music artists of all time.
Born in the Bronx in 1949, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, The Hassles and Attila, before signing a record deal with Family Productions and kicking off a solo career in 1971 with his first release Cold Spring Harbor. The following year, Joel captured the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of the song “Captain Jack” became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company and release his second album, Piano Man, in 1973. After Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles in 1974 and 1976, respectively, Joel released his critical and commercial breakthrough in 1977's The Stranger. The album became Columbia's best-selling release, sold more than 10 million copies, and spawned numerous hit singles including "Just the Way You Are." "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Only the Good Die Young," "She's Always a Woman," and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," a number that Joel has called his personal favorite among his own songs.
Over the course of his solo career, Joel produced 33 top-40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself,and three of which – "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," "Tell Her About It," and "We Didn't Start the Fire" – peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Joel has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning five of them including Album of the Year for 52nd Street, and he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. A Broadway jukebox musical of his repertoire, Movin' Out, earned the artist and Stuart Malina 2003 Tony Awards for the show's orchestrations, and a decade later, Joel received a Kennedy Center Honors citation for influencing American culture through the arts.
Admission to the Timber Lake Playhouse's outdoor concert with 52nd Street: The Music of Billy Joel is $20-25, guests are asked to bring chairs or blankets and socially distance on the lawn or in the parking lot, and food and beverages will be sold. The May 29 event begins at 7 p.m., and more information and tickets are available by calling (815)244-2035 or visiting TimberLakePlayhouse.org.
