Since Billy Joel gave up writing songs after his 1993 album River of Dreams, the appearance of a new song written and performed by him 14 years later is an event, even if it appears only as a promotional single. "All My Life" is a piano-and-strings ballad in the mode of "Just the Way You Are" or "New York State of Mind," with Joel crooning a lyric about a mature man who comes to love and marriage late in life. It would be easy to imagine Frank Sinatra singing this song, if he were still around to do so, since the composition overall is well in the pre-rock tradition of the Great American Songbook. As it is, "All My Life" is likely to be taken up by cabaret singers and others, since it is worthy of becoming a late and unexpected standard from a songwriter who has been devoting himself only to instrumental compositions and concert tours for a long time now.