TORONTO - The Piano Man made his long-awaited return to Toronto last night at the Air Canada Centre

Billy Joel, who was supposed to play in T.O. with Elton John in 2003 but cancelled because of the SARS outbreak, hasn't actually performed in our city in eight long years.

Suffice to say, the crowd at the ACC was pretty excited about seeing the 57-year-old New Yorker again.

Seated in front of a black piano -- which later turned out to have a built-in teleprompter and be on a rotating platform -- "You've pretty much seen the special effects," he deadpanned -- Joel opened his two-hour-and-20-minute show with Angry Young Man, a song that immediately became ironic.

"Good evening Toronto -- I'm Billy's dad," joked Joel, swigging from a coffee mug atop his piano after his second tune, My Life. "Billy wanted to come. He got to the lake, and he saw some dead birds, and he got his ass back to New York. I know I was suppose to come here with Elton in 2003. I was ready to come. It was your health people who said, 'Don't come.' So it's four years later, which is why I look more like Billy's dad."

"I'm not losing my hair. I gaining more head, "he explained. "Hey, I need your money. I've got some ridiculous car insurance."

Joel was referring to crashing his car three times in two years, most recently in 2004, which eventually led to him going to rehab in 2005.

The singer-songwriter-pianist -- whose career stretches all the way back to the early '70s -- hasn't actually released an album of original material since 1993's River Of Dreams so his set list leaned towards early material, and not always hits.

He dredged up Everybody Loves You Now from his very first album, 1971's Cold Spring Harbour.

At one point, he even gave the audience the choice of three tunes and they overwhelmingly chose Vienna from 1977's The Stranger.

That was followed by such crowd-pleasers as Allentown, Zanzibar, New York State Of Mind, Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) -- this one caused fans to rush the stage where they remained for the rest of the show -- Don't Ask Me Why, She's Always A Woman, Keeping The Faith, The River Of Dreams, We Didn't Start The Fire, You May Be Right, Only The Good Die Young, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, and finally The Piano Man, complete with harmonica.

Joel even payed homage to Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, comically attempting the openings of both Helpless and Southern Man.

"We like Neil a lot," said Joel, who was backed by a seven-piece-band, including a two-man horn section that sometimes expanded to three with the addition of a female percussionist-sax player.

Joel even let a veteran roadie named "Chainsaw" take over on vocals for a spirited cover of AC/DC's Highway To Hell, while he played electric guitar.

More seriously, Joel recalled meeting one of his idols, Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson, after a Maple Leaf Gardens show one night and dedicated a song to him.

Less successful was his attempt to perform away from his piano as he awkwardly stood in front of a microphone to do a cover of Stand By Me before launching into his own An Innocent Man.

Joel redeemed himself towards the end with piano-less, but vital, performances of Big Shot and It's Still Rock And Roll To Me.