The Big Apple’s ‘Big Shot’: Billy Joel’s Top 10 New York moments, 150 MSG shows later

nypost.com:

“the definitive Billy Joel song” on the red carpet at this year’s Grammys, the man himself told E! News that it was “And So It Goes.”“In every heart there is a room/A sanctuary safe and strong/To heal the wounds from lovers past/Until a new one comes along,” croons the Big Apple’s “Big Shot” at the beginning of the heartbreaking piano ballad that closes his 1999 album “Storm Front.”And for 10 years of Joel’s historic monthly residency at his hometown arena, Madison Square Garden has been that room, that sanctuary, that place to heal your wounds — and maybe believe again in the promise of a new love coming along.But after 104 sold-out shows, 1.9 million tickets scanned, and countless hearts and faiths restored by the power of his Piano Man magic, Joel, 75, will be movin’ out of the Garden on Thursday night with the final show of a decade-long lovefest that began on Jan.

27, 2014.Fittingly, the finale (airing on SiriusXM’s The Billy Joel Channel at a later date) will be the 150th concert of the Bronx-born, Long Island-bred legend’s career at his local spot — which had become his house as much as it was for the Knicks or the Rangers.He has been, no doubt, a one-man franchise.But as he bittersweetly sang 25 years ago, “And so it goes, and so it goes/And so will you soon, I suppose.”As Joel says goodbye to his MSG residency — a gig, an affair to remember — we look back on the top 10 New York moments from our hometown hero’s iconic career.Having moved to the Levittown section of Hicksville, New York when he was just 1, Joel named his debut LP, 1971’s “Cold Spring Harbor,” after one of his Long Island stomping grounds, and the album cover features a portrait of the young artist on Harbor Road in the hamlet.