Billy Joel Celebrates 2000 Years - the Millennium Concert With First In-Store Autograph Signing in 25 Years On May 2.

Entertainment/Music Editors

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 24, 2000

Music Legend's First-Ever Online Chat May 1 On MSN.com

Pop music superstar Billy Joel will celebrate the release of his new album, 2000 Years - The Millennium Concert, with his first in-store appearance in a quarter century and his first online chat ever.

On May 2, the day 2000 Years - The Millennium Concert hits the stores, Billy will meet and greet his fans at an autograph-signing session at the Lincoln Center Tower Records (66th & Broadway, Manhattan) beginning at 7pm.

On May 1, for the very first time, Billy will chat with his fans online live at chat.msn.com/msnlive beginning at 10pm (EST).

2000 Years - The Millennium Concert contains more than two hours of music from Billy's monumental New Year's Eve 1999-2000 concert at New York's Madison Square Garden and includes: "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony," "Big Shot," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Summer Highland Falls," "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid," "Don't Ask Me Why," "New York State Of Mind," "I've Loved These Days," "My Life," "Allentown," "Prelude/Angry Young Man," "Only The Good Die Young," "I Go To Extremes," "Goodnight Saigon," "We Didn't Start The Fire," "Big Man On Mulberry Street," "2000 Years," "Auld Lang Syne," "River Of Dreams," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "Dance To The Music," "Honky Tonk Women," "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me," "You May Be Right," and "This Night."

Billy Joel's Millennium Concert capped off a banner year for the entertainer. Among 1999's highpoints: Joel was presented with the American Music Awards Award of Merit, the worldwide sales of his albums topped the 100 million unit mark and he was presented with the RIAA Diamond Award (10 million copies sold in the U.S.) for Greatest Hits Vol. I & II. On March 15, Billy Joel was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame by the legendary Ray Charles. "I'm very happy to be part of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame's Class of '99," said Joel at the time of induction. "It's an honor to be placed in the company of some of my all-time heroes and influences. Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, and the Staples singers have made some of the most meaningful and enduring music of this century."

Having sold more than 100 million records over the past quarter century, Billy Joel ranks as one of most popular recording artists and respected entertainers in the world. He has won five Grammy Awards including Record of the Year (1978: "Just The Way You Are"), Song of the Year (1978: "Just The Way You Are"), Album of the Year (1979: 52nd Street), and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male (1979: 52nd Street; 1980: Glass Houses). In 1990, Billy Joel received the Grammy Legend Award.

He has earned three Awards For Cable Excellence (ACE) for "A Television First, Billy Joel" (1984) and "Live From Leningrad" (1987) and has received numerous ASCAP and BMI awards including the ASCAP Founders Award and the BMI Career Achievement Award. Joel was a 1992 Inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and was given the 1994 Billboard Century Award. Among his many other awards and honors, Billy Joel has been given a Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991), a Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music (1993), and a Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University (1997). On March 8, 2000, Billy Joel was presented with the James Smithson Bicentennial medal for his contributions to American culture and music. He is slated to receive a Doctor of Music degree from Southampton College in May 2000.

For more information, please contact Claire Mercuri, Columbia Records, Media, New York, 212-833-5121; email: [e-mail]

Billy Joel online: http://www.billyjoel.com Columbia Records online: http://www.columbiarecords.com