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Jewish Conversion: The Billy Joel Experiment

Part IV: The Grand Audio Finale!

by
Adam Chandler
January 09, 2013

Last week, I wrote about the seemingly impossible task of converting my officemate Liel Leibovitz to the church of Billy Joel. It was a long, arduous, emotional journey of music and acrimony.

Picking some of Joel’s lesser-known songs, I hoped in earnest to sway Liel, but after his first dissection of the Joel song ‘Rosalinda’s Eyes,’ which Liel absolutely abhorred, I lowered my expectations and just hoped for proof that Liel had a soul.

After both ‘Los Angelenos‘ and ‘Until The Night‘ failed to warm his heart, we decided to go audio for our final round.

In our talk, I give Liel one last shot, throwing teenage love, the kitchen sink of nostalgia, and Joel’s sappiest song at him as we each make our final cases. Check it out below.

Many thanks to Julie Subrin, our executive producer for audio, who did a masterful job of putting this together on the fly, Morton Landowne for surrendering his office space, and Liel Leibovitz for submitting himself to the Billy Joel Experiment.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.