Billy Joel - The Stranger and Glass Houses
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour and Reggatta de Blanc
Was in St. Louis this weekend to see my daughter who has always loved Billy Joel since childhood. I had seen Joel three times in 1980s and really never had the drive, despite my enjoyment of him, to see him in his later years. But she enjoys him so much, I really felt bad for not taking her to see him all these years (not much opportunity in Louisiana). She's now in St. Louis so wife surprised her and her husband with tix to Billy Joel who was playing this particular night with Sting (who I haven't seen since 1986 Amnesty International concert at Giants Stadium with a little band called the Police).
Well I was a bit surprised but these two old timers put on a HELL of a good show - Sting played for 70 min (with a lot of Police songs in the setlist) then after a 30 min break, Billy came out and played for over 2 hours. Band was tight - he covered all the great hits plus some interesting choices ("Sometimes a Fantasy", "Downeaster Alexa", "Me and Bobby McGee" as a tribute to Kris Kristofferson, "Nessum Dorma" (Billy played while his guitarist with a fantastic voice sung). Fun show. My daughter was delighted. So glad I decided to see him after all these years.
You assume correctly. I recall Connie's album cut getting some airplay on country radio at the time but Perry Como's single went all the way to #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
RCA Victor turned their stable of popular artists loose on the Gershwin canon, giving us vocals old and new from the likes of Dinah Shore, Eartha Kitt, Jaye P. Morgan and Eddie Fisher. Blended in for variety are swinging instrumentals by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Hugo Winterhalter, Henry Rene and even Glenn Miller. Over the 28 songs here, the many different styles included showcase the joyous musicality of Gershwin's compositions.