All for Leyna

"All For Leyna" is of course written by Billy Joel, as the fifth track on his seventh album Glass Houses. This is the same album that produced the hit singles "You May Be Right," "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me," "Don't Ask Me Why," and "Sometimes A Fantasy." The other four singles scored higher. Glass Houses was produced by Phil Ramone (no relation to the band). Ramone is the technically brilliant South African prodigy who began playing the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten. Amongst his innovations, his studio - A&R Recording - was the first to release an album on compact disk (not the first to be recorded, however, just the first to get commercial release). That album? None other than Billy Joel's 52nd Street. Ramone in fact has worked closely with Billy Joel on and off in his career. Getting back to Glass Houses, this album garnered Joel a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

The album art has Billy Joel poised to throw a rock through what is actually the front of his own house, in Oyster Bay, New York. He moved there in 1977, after getting turned down for residency by the legendary Dakota apartments, traditional home to celebrity stars in New York. The Dakota's board has drawn criticism for its snobbery in recent years. Other people to be rejected by the Dakota staff include Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas, and Gene Simmons.

"I wanted to recapture the angst of a 16-year-old guy who just had his heart broken by a girl," Joel told Sirius XM of the song in 2016, "and that kind of obsession thing that happens when you can't stop thinking about this girl, you've gotta have this girl, but she doesn't want anything to do with you. You're driving your parents crazy and you're failing in school and you're losing your friends, and everybody things you're out of your mind. That teenage obsession - which was all for Leyna. Everything for this girl."