“Say Goodbye To Hollywood” by Billy Joel

"Say Goodbye to Hollywood" raises the curtain on Turnstiles, Billy Joel's 1976 album, and the title reads like a sign-off from a man who had just come home. Joel had decamped to Los Angeles in 1972 to get clear of a punishing record deal, and he wrote this after returning to New York in 1975; on the album cover, the song's character is the guy in sunglasses and a leather jacket, suitcase in hand.

Joel produced it himself and plays piano and keyboards, arranging it with drummer Liberty DeVitto and bassist Doug Stegmeyer; Richie Cannata plays sax, and Howard Emerson, Russell Javors and James Smith handle guitars. In America it first went out as the flip of "I've Loved These Days"; the live take from Songs in the Attic, a US single in 1981, finally won it wider notice.

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