Which 1981 release was Billy Joel's first live album?

Songs in the Attic was Billy Joel’s first live album, released in 1981.

The album arrived on September 14, 1981, after being recorded during Joel’s 1980 Glass Houses tour. Instead of documenting one concert, it assembled performances from several venues, including Madison Square Garden in New York, the Bayou in Washington, D.C., and the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

Joel designed the project to introduce earlier songs to fans who had discovered him through later albums such as The Stranger and 52nd Street. The recordings presented those songs with the consistent touring band Joel had developed by the late 1970s, rather than relying primarily on the session musicians used on parts of his earliest studio work.

Songs in the Attic was also important because it gave Joel’s 1971 debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, its first widely available exposure to a larger audience. The album reached No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Its associated singles included “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” which reached No. 17, and “She’s Got a Way,” which reached No. 23.