Billy Joel — All For Leyna

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

Billy Joel — All For Leyna (1980) Director: Steve Cohen Era: Pre-MTV Promotional Video Era (1980) - Shot one year before MTV's launch, this studio performance clip represents the transitional moment when rock artists were beginning to invest in visual promotion without yet having a dedicated broadcast outlet for music videos. This video holds high curatorial value as a rare pre-MTV studio performance document from a major artist at a pivotal career and cultural moment. It captures Joel and his original band lineup performing with period-correct instrumentation on the Glass Houses tour cycle, and the video-exclusive vocal take makes it a unique artifact distinct from the album version. Its later inclusion in Billy Joel: Video Album Volume 1 (1989) confirms its canonical status within the official Joel archive. As one of the earliest examples of Cohen's long collaborative visual partnership with Joel, it also serves as a baseline document for that decades-spanning creative relationship. Context: Released in 1980 as the lead single from Glass Houses — a full year before MTV launched in August 1981 — this video exists in a rare transitional corridor of music video history when promotional clips were produced for television variety shows and retail in-store play rather than dedicated video channels. Glass Houses represented Billy Joel's deliberate pivot toward a harder-edged rock sound in response to the punk and new wave movements sweeping the UK and US charts. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained there for six consecutive weeks. All for Leyna was released as a single only in the UK, where it reached No. 40 on the UK Singles Chart, making this video more significant as a cultural document than a commercial driver in the US market. Director notes: Cohen directed this studio performance clip in 1980, one year before the launch of MTV, as a promotional vehicle for the Glass Houses album single. The video was later edited into the Billy Joel: Video Album Volume 1 (1989) home video compilation. The performance features Joel at a Yamaha CP-80 electric grand piano and an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. The video uses a unique vocal take — while the instrumental track matches the album, a new vocal was recorded specifically for the video version. IMDb lists the runtime at 4 minutes and confirms a 1980 United States release date.