Billy Joel war zu Gast an der Vanderbilt University eingeladen. "An Evening of Questions and Answers and a Little Bit of Music" war das Motto und der junge Michael Pollack bemühte sich solang um die Aufmerksamkeit von Joel, bis dieser ihn wählte. Pollack sagt "New York State Of Mind" wäre sein Lieblingslied und er würde es gern mit ihm gemeinsam spielen. Joel sagt schlicht okay. Was dann passiert ist richtig gut! Nach dem Klick gibt's den Tune noch einmal aus dem Jahr 1978 von Billy Joel selbst am Piano. http://youtu.be/p04TYk4j0zQ -> “Michael Pollack: “So I decided I was gonna go see Billy Joel right when we found out he was coming, and as a childhood idol of mine, right away I knew what I wanted to do when we went there. My roommate and I decided that we would try and find a way to get a question to be asked, and see if we could get on stage. And the day came, I put together a question, and I was raising my hand, and my friends to the right of me kept pointing to me, and finally after a few questions he picked on me and I hesitantly said how “New York State of Mind” was my favorite song, and how I had performed it with his saxophonist Richie Cannata in the past and wondered if I could go up and play it with him. And then he thought for a little — he took a second — and then he just said “Okay.” Which wasn’t quite convincing, but it was good enough. I walked up, we spoke about the arrangement for about 15 seconds — he just went through what he wanted me to play — and then from there, it was just … foggy. It’s hard to remember. I just started playing. I had practiced it a little bit thinking maybe I’d get the chance to go up … I kind of lost myself playing. Then afterward he said to me … he said that I was great, where are you from … and I said, “I’m a Long Islander just like you.” He was like, “Cool.” Then I walked off, and that was it … It was probably the greatest moment of my life, up to date.”