Billy Joel - All For Leyna

What this video is

Released in 1980 as the lead single from Glass Houses — a full year before MTV launched in August 1981 — this video exists in a rare transitional corridor of music video history when promotional clips were produced for television variety shows and retail in-store play rather than dedicated video channels. Glass Houses represented Billy Joel's deliberate pivot toward a harder-edged rock sound in response to the punk…

Why it matters

All for Leyna occupies a notable position at the intersection of piano rock, arena rock, and new wave-adjacent pop. The Glass Houses album, from which it was drawn, was critically framed as Joel's response to punk and new wave, featuring a harder-edged sound than his prior work. This performance…

The director

Steve Cohen is a longtime creative collaborator of Billy Joel, confirmed as director of multiple 1980 Glass Houses-era music videos including All for Leyna, You May Be Right, It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, and Say Goodbye to Hollywood (1981). He expanded…