update: Elton John [ tickets ] is on the road solo through the end of the year, but he plans to kick off 2002 by again teaming with fellow piano man Billy Joel [ tickets ] for another co-headlining U.S. tour.

Stops on John and Joel's latest Face to Face tour have been confirmed for Washington, D.C.; Boston; Hartford, Conn.; and Philadelphia. Multiple nights are planned in each market.

More dates are expected soon.

Earlier this year, John teamed with Joel for the pair's fourth co-headlining tour. According to Pollstar, the outing was the No. 2 grossing tour of the first half of 2001, pulling in more than $57 million over 31 shows.

John and Joel most recently performed together at the Oct. 20 Concert for New York at Madison Square Garden, where they played John's "Your Song."

John is currently touring the Far East in support of his Oct. 2 release, "Songs from the West Coast" (Rocket/Universal), his first studio effort since 1997's "The Big Picture." He is scheduled to kick off a string of U.S. dates later this month, beginning with a two-night stand at New York City's Madison Square Garden. His itinerary includes a Dec. 13 performance at Los Angeles' Silver Lining Silver Lake benefit concert.

Joel, meanwhile, offered up two new releases on Oct. 2. The first, "Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano" (Columbia/Sony Classical), features pianist Richard Joo performing ten of Joel's original piano compositions. The second, "Essential Billy Joel [ tickets ]" (Columbia), is a two-disc set that houses 36 of the musician's previously released pop hits and two classical compositions.