Writer: Billy Joel
Producer: Phil Ramone
Recorded: Winter-spring 1978 at CBS Studios in New York City
Released: November 1978
| Players: | Billy Joel — vocals, piano Steve Kahn — guitar Doug Stegmeyer — bass, vocals Richie Cannata — saxophone, organ, clarinet Liberty DeVitto — drums Peter Cetera, Donnie Dacus — backing vocals |
| Album: | 52nd Street (Columbia) |
The first single from Billy Joel's 52nd Street album, “My Life” reached Number Three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Joel said that after the multiplatinum breakthrough success of The Stranger in 1977, he was kind of under the gun on 52nd Street — “There was a certain amount of pressure to do an album somewhat like The Stranger. But my instinct was to not try to do an album like that and just do what I felt like doing.”
That attitude helped to inspire “My Life,” with the lyrics “I don't care what you say anymore/This is my life.”
The song features backing vocals by Chicago members Peter Cetera and Donnie Dacus, who were recording in the same studio.
Joel chose the 52nd Street title for the album partly as an acknowledgement to the Beatles and their Abbey Road set: “If you listen to that album, there is really no cohesion except for (producer) George Martin sewing everything together. I looked at my album and I thought, 'What do these songs have in common? Nothing, except they were all recorded at the 52nd Street studio.'”
52nd Street was Joel's first Number One album and has sold more than seven million copies.