The release of Turnstiles followed Billy Joel's return to his hometown of New York City from a brief foray in Los Angeles which resulted in the albums Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade.
[3] In a review of Songs in the Attic for Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy White wrote, "'Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway),' from 1976's Turnstiles, is one chauvinistic New Yorker's reaction to the famous Daily News default-era headline ... and the composer's elaborate fantasy-farce about the apocalyptic destruction of the city is as take-it-or-leave-it defiant as the front page that inspired it.
"[4] When the New York radio station WNEW-FM dropped its rock music format (in favor of "hot talk") in 1998, disc jockey Carol Miller chose "Miami 2017" as one of her farewell songs (along with Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner").
On September 11, 2001, planes hijacked by terrorists were crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the city's tallest buildings, causing them to collapse with a loss of almost 3,000 lives.
[7][8] Joel played the song at multiple benefit concerts again in 2012 after the destruction wrought on the Northeastern United States by Hurricane Sandy.
On New Year's Eve 2016 at the BB&T Center, Joel performed the tune as the clock struck midnight, thus finally singing the song in Miami in 2017.