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Credit: Far Out \/ William P. Gottlieb \/ Library of Congress \/ Columbia Records<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that two heavyweights of the New York<\/a> songbook came close to a collaboration.<\/p>\n Billy Joel feels tethered to popular music\u2019s old world, no matter the chart trends around him. Burnishing his solo career in earnest via the street-level tales of urban melancholy on The Stranger, through the new wave\u2019s bristle on the spiky Glass Houses and ending the 1980s on the pop rock bluster of Storm Front, the \u2018Piano Man\u2019 always anchored his shifting guises with an evident veneration for the old masters.<\/p>\n A namecheck of one of his hometown\u2019s musical ambassadors nearly prompted some hallowed studio time between the two. In an earlier interview, Joel had likened swing legend and Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra\u2019s voice as akin to a saxophone player\u2019s phrasing, prompting a letter of gratitude thanking Joel for the kind compliment. Good enough, but then came the offer that sent Joel\u2019s nerves racing: \u201cIf you ever have 16-bars lying around, send \u2018em to me.\u201d<\/p>\n This was a bona fide call to pen a tune for the voice behind \u2018My Way\u2019<\/a>, \u2018Fly Me To The Moon\u2019, and the immortal \u2018Theme From New York, New York\u2019. Joel\u2019s lyrics had found their way on a Sinatra record before, \u2018Just the Way You Are\u2019 featured on the contemporary disc of 1980\u2019s Trilogy: Past Present Future triple LP, but never had an original been penned. While it\u2019s not entirely clear when the proposition was made, Joel managed to cross paths with \u2018Ol\u2019 Blue Eyes\u2019 in person when the two played high-profile shows in Australia.<\/p>\n There\u2019s contention between the dates, as Sinatra played Sydney Entertainment Centre in March 1991 while the multiple dates performed by Joel as part of the Storm Front Tour wrapped up in February, but in any case, a meeting was had at the city\u2019s luxury Park Hyatt hotel following the crooner\u2019s Brisbane show.<\/p>\n It was Sinatra\u2019s wife, Barbara, who invited Joel and his then partner, Christie Brinkley, to the lobby laid out with the finest Italian banquet of wine, pepperoni and all the pasta you\u2019d want.<\/p>\n It turned out, however, that Sinatra had played a bad show and carried a black cloud with him back to the Sydney hotel. Upon entering the lobby and seeing Joel and Brinkley amid the greeting company, Sinatra reportedly let out a narked \u201cWho the hell are these people?\u201d, prompting the Sinatras to argue in another room while Joel\u2019s welcome evaporated in a short time.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n Second time\u2019s a charm, right? The next night, Joel and his wife made their way to the hotel bar and spotted a rather sunnier Sinatra raising the room\u2019s spirits with a drink and a song, even adlibbing a crooning number to the name of \u201cChristine Brinkley\u201d as they introduced themselves again. While the reception was warmer and some form of rapport was had, Joel was no closer to nailing that glowing song deal.<\/p>\n It would never come to be, with Sinatra passing away in 1998, but it was clear there stood a mutual affection. When Sinatra\u2019s acceptance speech for the Grammy Legend Award in 1994 was cut short for a commercial break, Joel expressed his solidarity with the slighted swing legend by stopping short his performance of \u2018River of Dreams\u2019<\/a>, holding his watch aloft and announcing \u201cvaluable advertising time going by\u201d to the whoop and cheer of the crowd.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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