INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University continues its celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Shea Center for Performing Arts on Saturday, November 22, 2025 with the Lords of 52nd Street, the band that helped Billy Joel establish his popular music career—and who played with Billy Joel during an iconic concert on the Wayne campus in 1977. The concert begins at 8:00 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus.
As seen on the HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, Billy Joel was looking for a new band in 1975. Saxophonist Richie Cannata, drummer Liberty DeVitto, and guitarist Russell Javors were selected by Joel and Phil Ramone to record and tour the albums Turnstiles and The Stranger and were coined The Lords of 52nd Street.
As part of the tour for The Stranger, Bilyl Joel and The Lords of 52nd Street performed in Shea Center at William Paterson on May 3, 1977. “A man in a blue suit and tie walked onto a stage, veiled in a rainbow of lights, to great a packed house from a piano stool last Tuesday evening at Shea Auditorium,” wrote Michael Reardon, arts editor for The Beacon, in the May 10, 1977 issue. Billy Joel then went through twenty songs and probably delivered one of the best concerts ever given at WPC.”
For more than a decade, The Lords of 52nd Street helped Billy Joel establish a popular music career and his formidable sound. The band performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and on the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test television program back in 1978. Following the tours, they returned to the studio with Joel, recording Grammy Award-winning albums including 52nd Street, Glass Houses, and The Nylon Curtain.
It wasn’t until their induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2014 that the band decided to reunite after a 30-year separation. They picked up their instruments again and began performing in front of live audiences together in 2016, and have continued to tour regularly since then.
Tickets range from $42 to $52. There is a 10 percent discount for William Paterson faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as senior citizens.
To purchase tickets, or for additional information, call the Shea Center for Performing Arts Box Office at 973-720-2371 or visit wp-presents.org
