Two years ago, Billy Joel made it clear his opinion of Glee is a bit different than, say, the Foo Fighters’. “Take it,” he told Rolling Stone, instructing the show to nab his tunes at will. “Do the material. I already told them, use my songs. I was in chorus in high school, so I know what that stuff’s all about. I love stuff like that.”
Take it they have! Last night it came down to reality, which was fine with him, ’cause he’s let it slide. Fox featured over-the-top drahhhmatic renditions of Joel’s 1976 NYC love letter “New York State of Mind” on back-to-back shows — The X Factor and Glee. Jason Brock delivered the song with soulful flair on the former (song starts at 3:20 mark of video below), and Lea Michele and newcomer Melissa Benoist belted it on the latter.
It was a lot of BJ in a two-hour block of TV, but Billy’s got bills to pay, so we’ll consider it a Public Service Announcement. Attention, youth of America: This is much, much more important than “Empire State of Mind.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EpbCcwmSf74
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ooTzpVGPhr0
