Maps of Music

Fantasies & Delusions (2001)

Where the lyrics of Fantasies & Delusions take you, and where it was really made.

Billy Joel wrote every piece on this album but does not play any of them. The pianist is Richard Hyung-ki Joo.

Key places

Final recording at the Vienna Konzerthaus (2001)

Recording site Vienna Konzerthaus (Mozart-Saal) — The album was re-recorded in Vienna for final release. Discogs notes list the recording at the Konzerthaus Mozart-Saal in June 2001. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

First recording in Glen Cove, New York (2001)

Recording site Cove City Sound — The album was first recorded at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York, before the Vienna re-recording. The point is placed at city-centre level. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Fantasies & Delusions is the thirteenth and final studio album by Billy Joel, released in 2001
• It is Joel's only studio album containing classical compositions
• Joel wrote all the pieces; they are performed by pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo
• Joel himself does not perform on the album
• Released 28 September 2001
• It was Joel's 19th album to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 83 in October 2001

Background

• Joel and Joo were longtime friends
• According to Discogs notes, this was Joel's first classical album; all his previous releases were pop or rock albums
• Joel said he could play the pieces disjointedly while composing them
• Joel found it extremely difficult to perform the finished pieces with the finesse required

Recording

• The album was originally recorded at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York
• Veteran production coordinator Bill Zampino and Richie Cannata helped with the recording
• The album was later re-recorded in Vienna, Austria, for final release
• The Discogs release notes give the recording as Vienna Konzerthaus, Mozartsaal, June 2001
• Engineer on the editing was Todd Whitelock; Richard King handled recording and mastering
• Steve Epstein is credited as a mastering engineer; mastering was done at Sony Studios
• Two of the pieces, Opus 1 Soliloquy and Opus 3 Reverie, were first heard in public on 4 October 1997 at Seiji Ozawa Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts

Cover

• The cover design is based on the covers of the Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics sheet music books
• The cover replicates the G. Schirmer template with the company's permission, but carries no publishing credit to Schirmer

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born May 9, 1949 in the Bronx, New York City; raised in Hicksville on Long Island.
• Began piano lessons at age four at his mother's insistence.
• Saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and decided to pursue a music career.
• Played in the Echoes, the Hassles, and Attila before going solo.

Career

• Debut solo album Cold Spring Harbor (1971); signed with Columbia Records in 1972 after a Philadelphia radio broadcast of "Captain Jack".
• Breakthrough with The Stranger (1977), Columbia's best-selling release at that time.
• 52nd Street (1978) won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Released 12 self-written studio albums from 1971 to 1993; over 160 million records sold worldwide.
• Performed a long Madison Square Garden residency from 2014 to 2024.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Gramophone UK, January 2002: described it as a pleasing, undemanding sequence of classical pieces from one of pop's giants
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine: called it a nice collection of pleasingly modest, melodic solo piano pieces
• Erlewine: Joel succeeds because he kept his ambitions reasonable and was smart about presentation
• Erlewine: the pieces keep the recognizable melodic flair of Joel's pop work
• Erlewine: the tracks are not pieces listeners will end up humming, yet they count among the best in recent memory

Records

• 19th Joel album to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 83 in October 2001
• Debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Classical Albums chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Discogs notes list this as Joel's first classical album; every earlier release was pop or rock
• The cover reproduces the G. Schirmer template with the company's permission, but gives Schirmer no publishing credit
• In 2003 pianist Jeffrey Biegel asked Joel about a piano concerto; Joel suggested using pieces from this album, and the resulting Symphonic Fantasies for Piano and Orchestra premiered on 24 June 2006 in Greensboro, North Carolina

Sources: www.discogs.com · www.discogs.com · en.wikipedia.org

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