On Saturday, Billy Joel served as one of the performers at the Phil Ramone Music Memorial Celebration at the Salvation Army’s Centennial Memorial Temple. Billy … recalled how his career, though established with his album Piano Man, was virtually stagnating, his label submitting star producers (Jim Guercio and George Martin) who were uninterested in letting Joel record with his road-honed touring band.

Then Ramone saw a Joel concert at Carnegie Hall, and committed to getting the sound of the live band on record. The resulting The Stranger (1977) became Columbia’s biggest seller prior to Thriller, whose producer Quincy Jones also spoke in tribute to Ramone.

Ramone, said Joel, could always “cut through the bulls**t.” Submitting “Where’s The Orchestra?” after Ramone suggested that his 1982 album Nylon Curtain needed another closing cut to turn it into a cohesive work, Ramone’s response to Joel’s concern that the song didn’t rhyme, Joel said, was a simple “So what?”

Read more at Examiner.com.

More about Phil Ramone:
– Billy Joel Pays Tribute To Phil Ramone: ‘He Was the King’ – Rolling Stone
– RIP Phil Ramone