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Reelin' In The Years Productions was asked last March by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Billy Joel's Maritime Music to produce a short tribute film encapsulating Joel's career, recognizing him as one of the most significant songwriters of the last thirty years. This film was shown on June 16th to accompany his acceptance of the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award, presented to him by famed songwriters Jimmy Webb and Hal David.
Reelin' in the Years is a company primarily known for licensing music footage, and RITY President David Peck was honored to be asked to produce the tribute film. "It was very difficult to cover the diverse thirty-plus years of Billy's career in only three minutes," recounted Peck. "When an artist has sold over 100 million records, won five Grammys and received just about every accolade the music industry has to offer, it can be a daunting task to recognize it all in such a short period of time and still do the artist justice."
After Joel was presented with the Johnny Mercer Award, he thanked many of the people who had worked with him over the years, including famed producer Phil Ramone, whom he credited with shaping the sound and arrangements of many of the songs that he recorded from 1977 to 1986. He went on to talk about the art of songwriting and how difficult it is for him to write. Joel quoted a line from the movie "A League Of Their Own" in which Tom Hanks' character states that "it's the hard that makes it good."
Of course, Billy could not make a speech without bringing some sarcasm to the occasion; advising contemporary singers like Christina Aguilera and his own 15-year-old daughter Alexa to "believe in your own music and... just sing the note." After poking fun at some of the new singers for their habit of singing all over the place. he added "just do me a favor and sit on the note for a minute so I can digest it."
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