The Supermodel Period, Part 1

It was 1982, and Billy Joel had wrapped up a particularly difficult album named The Nylon Curtain.  He felt like treating himself to a nice vacation for the holidays at the end of the year, and his friend, fellow New Yorker and fellow musician Paul Simon recommended the Caribbean island of St. Bart’s saying, “It’s really scenic, and the food is great.”

It turned out that when Billy got there, he really did enjoy the view.  Several popular fashion models were visiting the island, too, and not for a vacation, but for a photo shoot.  Billy tells the story of sitting by the pool under the tropical sun until he was bright red, then going into the bar at the hotel to entertain himself by playing some songs on the piano.

“I was just knocking out some tunes,” Billy recalled in his biography, “and after a couple minutes I happen to look up, and there, standing on the other side of it, were Elle Macpherson and Christie Brinkley—looking directly at me.

“So,” he said, “I looked back down at the keys and [gave thanks] silently to the piano, ‘Thank you.  Thank you so much.  You did it again.  You never let me down.’”

You might think that was the start of Billy’s famous relationship with Christie Brinkley.  But that was only the moment when they first met.  Christie was already in a relationship at the time so the acquaintance didn’t go any further.  Instead, that moment was actually the beginning of Billy’s romance with Elle Macpherson.

As a scruffy rock and roll singer from New York, Billy was euphoric about dating such a striking woman.  As he put it in his biography, “Holy crap!  If my friends could see me now!”