Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com
The "Piano Man" himself, Billy Joel, is performing July 9, 2016, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Joel has already performed "Allentown" on previous tour stops, so chances are it's going to be on the set list.
Check out our list of stories about what led to a song about the Queen City.
'Well we're living here in Allentown'
Billy Joel grew up on Long Island and originally wrote the song as "Levittown," which was near Joel's hometown of Hicksville, New York.
In an interview with James Lipton on "Inside the Actors Studio," Joel compared Allentown's troubles in the late 1970s and early 1980s with what he saw growing up in Hicksville.
When the song was released in 1982, it was criticized for referencing coal and steel mills in the Queen City when there were none. They were in neighboring Bethlehem.
We're living here in Levittown
Joel released four albums before his first Billboard top 10 hit -- "Just the Way You Are" from "The Stranger."A later album, "The Nylon Curtain," featured the song "Allentown."
But before he hit it big, Joel was already known in the Lehigh Valley and repeatedly toured the area.
Stops included a $2-per-ticket show in November 1973 at The Roxy in Northampton borough, as well as concerts at Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College and Lehigh University.
John Munson | The Star-Ledger
No 'Stranger' to the Lehigh Valley
Joel reportedly worked on the song for years.
In 1981, before he planned to record "The Nylon Curtain", Joel came to the Lehigh Valley and stayed at The Hotel Bethlehem.
While Bethlehem Steel is what influenced the song, Joel has said he thought "Allentown" sounded better and was easier to rhyme.
"Allentown is a metaphor for America," Joel told "People" magazine in 1983. "It sounds like Jimmytown, Bobbyburgh, Anytown. It just sounds real American. It's a symbol of a town that's having financial difficulties."
Hotel Bethlehem
The Hotel Bethlehem on Main Street in Bethlehem. File lehighvalleylive.com photo.
Library of Congress Photo
Quitting time whistle
The whistle recording at the beginning of the song was a matter of location.
Producer Phil Ramone and engineer Jim Boyer listened to stock sound effects of steam whistles, but ended up recording a steam shovel working on a construction site near the recording studio, Ramone said in "Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music."
For more "industrial" sound effects in the song, they shook up a box of percussion instruments that had cowbells, maracas, etc, according to "Making Records." Afterward, when they opened the box, the instruments were "smashed to bits."
Video killed the radio star
Russell Mulcahy directed the music video for "Allentown."
Mulcahy had already directed the first music video played on MTV -- The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" -- as well as several Duran Duran music videos.
In 2014, Mulcahy told Billboard magazine that Billy Joel wasn't comfortable acting in music videos and wanted to be doing something familiar. Mulcahy's idea was to have Joel be a troubadour in the video, telling the song's story while the cast acted around him.
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Let's get down, let's all go to Allentown
Robert Pearce, a retired Allen Organ employee, and his daughter Joanne Pearce Martin, a pianist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, wrote the song "We Love Allentown" as a rebuttal to Joel's hit. "We Love Allentown" has been performed in the city over the years.
In 2012, the city asked residents to submit new lyrics for "Allentown" as part of the 250th Celebration.
Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com
Key to the city
When the song came out, Allentown's then-Mayor Joseph Daddona went on the offensive.
Daddona wrote a letter to Joel inviting him to do a concert in Allentown, and asking Joel to donate a portion of his royalties toward scholarships for city students.
In 1982, when Joel performed at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Daddona gave him the key to Allentown before the concert.
After all the furor over the song, Joel performed for 6,300 people at Lehigh University's Stabler Arena on Dec. 27, 1982.
The third and final encore of the night was "Allentown" and Joel ended the concert by saying "Don't take any s*** from anybody."
The song is still a part of Joel's tour repertoire. In the video, he's performing it July 2, 2016 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
Performing in Bethlehem
Garth Brooks performed a part of "Allentown" in 2013 when Joel was part of the Kennedy Center Honors class that year.
The following year, John Mellencamp performed an acoustic version of the song when Joel received the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Other performers take on 'Allentown'
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