Synopsis

Billy Joel and his band perform "A Matter of Trust" in the basement of a building on St. Mark's Place in New York City's East Village. As the amplified performance spills into the street, pedestrians and nearby residents gather outside the windows to watch. The spontaneous-looking crowd grows increasingly enthusiastic, while one irritated woman on a fire escape demands that the band stop. Christie Brinkley also appears with the couple's infant daughter, Alexa Ray Joel.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released in 1986, the video supported "A Matter of Trust," a single from Joel's album *The Bridge*. The song reached the Top 10 in the United States.

• The audience combines paid performers with unsuspecting passersby, helping the street scenes retain an unusually natural reaction to the performance.

• Joel is shown playing electric guitar rather than piano, a relatively unusual image in his videography. "A Matter of Trust" is one of only a small number of Joel videos to emphasize him as a guitarist.

• Christie Brinkley appears with their baby daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, connecting the clip to the couple's highly visible public profile during the mid-1980s.

• Brief appearances by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr can be spotted among the people watching from the street.

• The video was later included in *Billy Joel: Video Album Volume 1*, released in 1989.