Billy Joel plays at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem on Dec. 27, 1982, a few months after "Allentown" was released on the album "The Nylon Curtain." The Bethlehem Globe-Times reported the Lehigh Valley ...

The city of Allentown, Pa., became a symbol of the Rust Belt and economic hardship. And yet a lot of the people who live there say Billy Joel's song did not exactly help.

ABRAHAM: Even Billy Joel agreed when the song came out back in 1982 it's not about Allentown specifically but a state of mind. We're not moving out or giving up, he said. We're going to try.

The city of Allentown, Pa., became a symbol of the Rust Belt and economic hardship. And yet a lot of the people who live there say Billy Joel's song did not exactly help.

ABRAHAM: Even Billy Joel agreed when the song came out back in 1982 it's not about Allentown specifically but a state of mind. We're not moving out or giving up, he said. We're going to try.

The city of Allentown, Pa., became a symbol of the Rust Belt and economic hardship. And yet a lot of the people who live there say Billy Joel's song did not exactly help.

Billy Joel had a hit with "Allentown" in 1982 and helped put the city on the map for music fans. But more than 40 years later, the mayor of the eastern Pennsylvania city said he could do without ...

Billy Joel's 1982 hit marked Allentown as a symbol of the American rust belt. Some people who live in Allentown say it's not fair and not true.

The city of Allentown, Pa., became a symbol of the Rust Belt and economic hardship. And yet a lot of the people who live there say Billy Joel's song did not exactly help.

The city of Allentown, Pa., became a symbol of the Rust Belt and economic hardship. And yet a lot of the people who live there say Billy Joel's song did not exactly help. Julian Abraham reports.

Billy Joel, who famously sang about Allentown when he needed a city representative of the dying American dream, and whose breakthrough concert at Northampton’s Roxy Theatre marked its 45 th ...