This was influenced by Ray Charles, who like Joel was a singer, songwriter and piano player. Joel did a duet with Charles in 1986 on his song "Baby Grand."
Joel grew up in Long Island, near New York City. He had just returned to New York after living in Los Angeles for four years. He wrote this song about his love for New York, which he missed while he was away.
When Joel appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2010, he said that he wrote the song on the day he moved back from California to New York. He really was taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line - he was on his way home to Highland Falls, New York when he started writing the song in a notebook. As soon as he got home, he went to the piano and finished the words and lyrics in about an hour.
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