Billy Joel - Honesty

What this video is

Released in early 1979 as the third US single from Billy Joel's sixth studio album '52nd Street' (Columbia Records, October 1978), 'Honesty' arrived at the apex of Joel's commercial breakthrough following 'The Stranger' (1977). '52nd Street' became Joel's first Billboard 200 number-one album and won Album of the Year at the 22nd Grammy Awards (producer Phil Ramone). The video was produced in the pre-MTV era, when…

Why it matters

As a proto-power-ballad piano showcase, 'Honesty' represents a pivotal bridge between 1970s singer-songwriter intimacy and the arena-ready emotional ballads of the 1980s. The video's unbroken single-take format is a document of late-1970s promotional film conventions before MTV codified the…

The director

Steve Cohen (born 1954) is a long-term creative collaborator of Billy Joel, first hired as his lighting designer in 1974. His career evolved from touring lighting director to producer, designer, and creative director for Joel's stage productions. He directed…