“Billy Joel has never really been hip,” Nick Paumgartenobserved inThe New Yorker, in 2014. “He is widely loved but also, in many quarters, coldly dismissed.” Madison Square Garden, the Manhattan arena with almost twenty thousand seats, isn’t one of those places. Since Joel’s first concert there, in 1978, the musician has sold out the venue more times than any other artist; in 2013, he was marketed by its management as a “franchise” akin to the sports teams that play there, the Rangers and the Knicks. Tonight, CBS will air the hundredth concert in Joel’s decade-long residency at the Garden, a run that is slated to end, surely with great fanfare, this summer. A decade ago, Paumgarten followed the singer as he was embarking on the residency, riding with Joel as he commuted—via helicopter—from his Long Island home to the city. It had been more than twenty years since the singer had released a new pop album, and Paumgarten saw Joel’s next show as a “microburst of work” in what had essentially become a semi-retirement. Joel had endured enough ups and downs to earn the rest: three marriages (to women he referred to as Ex 1, Ex 2, and Ex 3); public struggles with alcohol and legal battles with his management; critical derision mixed with occasional celebration; and a fiery falling out with Elton John, a sometime touring partner. (Paumgarten quotes a blistering professional-breakup letter written by Joel.) Still, with a talent for real-estate investments and monthly Garden shows that were grossing two million dollars a pop, the Bronx-born Joel could afford his leisurely life style. Joel even argued that the lack of new music represented a form of artistic integrity. His supporters didn’t mind. Stuck in traffic after one of his concerts, Joel’s S.U.V. was mobbed by admirers; the singer cheerfully chatted with them out the window and took photos. As the road cleared, Joel and his latest girlfriend concluded that “the fans had seemed really nice,” then carried on to a celebrity birthday party. | 
