My Billy Joel Top 15
A lot of my earlier musical memories revolve around Billy Joel. I was born in the mid 80s and at that time my parents listened to most of their music on cassette tape in the car. Due to the times my parents were mostly listening to adult contemporary acts (or Yuppie rock) such as Bruce Hornsby, John Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, Richard Marx, Huey Lewis & the News, Sammy Hagar Van Halen, solo Steve Winwood and 80s Moody Blues. Yet, the artist they loved the most and listened to the most was Billy Joel and as a pre-schooler he was my favorite as well. Most of the other acts they listened to I would recognize the songs since I heard them so much but at 3 and 4 years old I couldn't really put a name or face to any of them. Billy Joel on the other hand I could.
Billy Joel was the first musician I truly loved and the first musician I could recognize immediately. As soon as I heard his voice, I knew it was Billy Joel and I even knew what he looked like more or less from the album artwork. The only other music I listened to at that age was Disney from either the original animated films, sing along tapes, or the soundtracks on cassette tape. Most of the people who sang in Disney songs were faceless to me, I figured that was simply Ariel or Belle. I didn't even know who Robin Williams was when I first saw Aladdin in theaters in 1992. Yet, I remember seeing previews for Oliver & Company and while I didn't recognize Bette Middler or Cheech Marin I recognized Billy Joel's voice immediately. As a young child celebrity stunt casting in animated films went over my head except for Billy Joel in Oliver & Company.
My favorite song by Billy Joel at that time was We Didn't Start the Fire. The historical nature of that song went over my head as a wee tot, but I found it catchy and engaging. Trying to keep up with Billy Joel as he spit out all the lyrics during the verses was fun even if I had no real context for these lyrics. That was basically my favorite song for years. Yet, the album that really made its mark was Billy Joel's 1993 album The River of Dreams. By that point I was 7 years old and a little more cognizant even if I was not listening to pop music on my own just yet. While I had enjoyed songs off Storm Front and The Bridge, The River of Dreams was the first album I truly processed as an album from start to finish. I knew every song, what order they came in, all the lyrics and what each song even meant My parents started explaining to me that Great Wall of China was about how Billy Joel's accountant/Brother-in-law screwed him out of millions, how Lullaby was about his daughter and what the term No Man's Land even meant.
My favorite song off The River of Dreams was the title cut due to it being the poppiest. The imagery of the song also sparked my imagination too even though it would take me a few more years to realize it was all a metaphor about having a mid-life crisis. The River of Dreams represented a lot of firsts for me with music, outside of digesting it as a full album, the ensuing tour would be my first rock concert I ever attended at age 7. My mom actually found the tickets recently and they were only 25 dollars each! Different times man.
The first thing I remember about the concert was the traffic! We were stuck in some brutal rush hour traffic. It felt like it took forever to get to the concert, especially since I was only 7 years old at the time. Eventually we got to the concert and being only 7 at the time I remember the arena just felt overwhelmingly huge! I don't remember every song he played, but I definitely remember all the songs off River of Dreams, including Lullaby, All About Soul and the title track as well as We Didn't Start the Fire. The moment I most remember though was at the very end of the show when he performed Piano Man. While I recognized the song, I didn't know it like I knew the songs off Storm Front and The River of Dreams. What struck me though during that song was the audience. I remember looking out onto a sea of people and everyone was standing and singing each and every word to Piano Man. Outside of singing hymns in Church, this was the first time I had experienced everyone singing along to the same song except unlike Church they knew all the words off the top of their head. This was a very formative moment for me as it was the first time I experienced the power music could truly have over people. The way music could connect and bring together a bunch of strangers and how powerful that feeling of unison and escapism could truly be. This was my first taste of how music can mean so much more to people then just background noise.
Once I eventually got into pop music thanks to The Spice Girls, Billy Joel was no longer my favorite artist but I ended up getting back into his music later when I started getting into classic rock and Alternative Rock. Eventually for Christmas one year I got Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volumes 1, 2 & 3. I was able to appreciate the depth & scope of his music more by that point. Yet, I couldn't deny it Greatest Hits volume 3 was still my favorite of the 3 volumes even though everybody else will say 1 & 2 are much better.
Part of that was due to nostalgia because the songs on volume 3 are the ones I had grown up with. Yet, at the same time I found I was able to appreciate the songs more by that point. By now I was struggling with my homosexuality and dealing with a lot of feelings of depression and isolation as well as worrying about the future and if there was a place for me in the world. Billy Joel's later day songs deal with a lot of his own personal struggles such as his depression and bi-polar and how isolated that made him feel from other people. There is also more worries about aging and his place in the world and pop music as a whole in volume 3 and I found myself drawn to that material as a result.
I never saw Billy Joel again in concert, but my parents have seen him on multiple occasions. Billy Joel kind of represents the last stand for a lot of Baby Boomers, who basically gave up on music by the 90s. My parents had kind of fallen into that as well until I got into music in the late 90s. Slowly but surely I got my parents into post Billy Joel music to the point that they have seen bands like The Foo Fighters, Green Day, Collective Soul, The Goo Goo Dolls and the Gin Blossoms live. Many Baby Boomers though never made it past the 80s and they continue to hold on to Billy Joel who sells out shows at his Madison Square Garden residency consistently and with ease despite not having put out any new pop music since 1993. Billy Joel kind of represents the last time Baby Boomers ruled music before giving way to Hip-Hop and Alternative Rock for Gen X and the hyper produced pop and more rap of Gen Y & Z and as a result there's a lot of nostalgia attached to his music for an entire generation. I was able to drag my Baby Boomer parents into Alternative Rock eventually, but it took some convincing and a lot of patience and they are the exception not the norm among most Baby Boomers.
For myself Billy Joel is not my favorite artist of all time, but he has made a deep impact on me as a music fan and I have listened to his music in some capacity pretty consistently since the day I was born. My Billy Joel list only has one deep cut, the rest of the songs can be found on Greatest Hits Volumes 1,2 & 3 since besides The River of Dreams I've mostly listened to his music on those compilations. Still many of my favorite songs are not the ones most critics and fans would pick, especially since most critics write off all the material that makes up Volume 3 and that's arguably my favorite era of his for the reasons I stated above. So yeah this is far from a definitive list, but these are the 15 songs that have made the most impact on me over the years and what I turn to first when I want to listen to Billy Joel.
15. Piano Man
Along with Hey Jude and Wonderwall, Piano Man is the sing along song to end all other sing along songs. For years Billy Joel has said how he was dissatisfied with Piano Man musically, but he knows he has to keep performing it until he dies because it's what the people want. It’s true that musically Piano Man might not be the most complex song Billy Joel ever did, but that's not the point either. The point is the lyrics, which tell the story of a dive bar filled with folks who are all pretty much past their prime. With just a few lyrics here and there Billy is able to bring the people who populate this bar to life so vividly that they feel like real people with real history to them. At its core Piano Man is actually a pretty sad song about how life doesn't quite work out the way most people want it to, but Piano Man is also about how through the magic of music people can forget about their pain and their worries if only for a few minutes. There's something reassuring about that message, which is why Piano Man has connected with millions of people around the world and continues to do so today. Despite his protests, Piano Man is the song for which Billy Joel will be most remembered for and honestly there's nothing wrong with that.
14. It's Still Rock & Roll To Me
Music was going through a huge sea change at the turn of the 70s into the 80s thanks to Disco, Punk and New Wave. Plus, the popularity of the music video was about to take off as well. For many music listeners these changes didn't quite connect and therefore they looked to Billy Joel to make sense of it all. For Billy new genres and trends are just repackaging old things for the next generation and that it's sometimes more about the marketing than the music itself. Many critics and people I know actually hate this song and think it's uncool and shows how lame Billy Joel actually is. That said, for the millions of uncool Baby Boomers across the country they liked it enough to make it Billy's first # 1 song and they sent the accompanying album Glass Houses to # 1 as well for 6 weeks. I feel like this was the moment Billy Joel truly became the musical voice for millions of baby boomers and he would remain that way for the rest of his career. Oh, before we move on this song has a great sax solo and we all know how I love that! It's probably why I like this song so much.
13. Only the Good Die Young
Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger is arguably his definitive album. It's the album that broke him into the mainstream in a big way and even critics conceded it was a good album as well. Only the Good Die Young is a perfect pop song with great hooks and sharp lyrics that tell a detailed yet relatable story of young star-crossed love. This song is also my Mom's favorite song by Billy Joel so there's that too. She always turns this one up and sings along every time it comes on the radio. Only the Good Die Young also has a short but sweet sax solo too. Yes, sax solos are guaranteed to make me like a song just a little bit more than I would otherwise.
12. The River of Dreams
This song takes me back to a specific time and place in my childhood when I was 7 years old living in Virginia and my parents played this album in the car non-stop. This was my favorite song off the album due to its poppy and layered production. It's a song that has a lot of vivid imagery that I found very alluring. It would take me a while to realize that all this imagery is really just a metaphor for aging and having a mid-life crisis. This is something that was kind of beyond my grasp at 7 years old, but now I totally get what Billy is singing about here. So yeah this is one of those Billy Joel songs that fills me with a lot of childhood nostalgia while also speaking to me on a different level now as an adult.
11. The Downeaster Alexa
Billy's later day albums sport a lot of dark atmospheric production and I'm always a sucker for that. This song in particular is about a fisherman from Long Island whose job has become tougher and tougher due to over fishing. Billy Joel, like Bruce Springsteen, was very good at telling stories about the struggles of the people in the working class, which is what helped his music connect deeply to millions of Baby Boomers. I love how the song's production makes it sound like you are out to sea, especially during the bridge where it sounds like seagulls are flying around.
10. Scenes from An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man is Billy's signature song, but Scenes from An Italian Restaurant is his tour-de-force. The way the song changes gears and switches time signatures, while telling the life story of Brenda & Eddie succinctly but with depth makes this song feel pretty epic. Billy has stated that the medley on the second side of The Beatles Abbey Road was a big inspiration for Scenes from An Italian Restaurant and I can honestly hear that. This song feels very Paul McCartney both musically and lyrically. Billy's piano playing here reminds me of McCartney's piano playing as well and the part right after the 6 minute mark reminds me a bit of Carry the Weight for a few seconds. In a lot of way this is Billy's masterpiece and probably the song he would most like to be remembered for instead of Piano Man.
09. No Man's Land
As the opener to River of Dreams this song once again takes me right back to that time in my life and gives me childhood nostalgia as a result. This song has also been a huge favorite of my Dad's as well. This is one of his favorite songs by Billy period and he always loves cranking this one up. There's no denying that No Man's Land does rock in a way few Billy songs do. As a young kid I enjoyed the rocking energy of this song but as an adult I now understand that No man's Land is an indictment against the commercialism and materialism that had taken over The United States by that point. The fact that everything Billy sings against in this song only became more rampant and prevalent in the years that followed means that No Man's Land has lost none of its bite since its initial release in 1993. Apparently when my parents saw Billy a few years ago live he pulled this song out for the first time in over 2 decades and it made my Dad really happy!
08. Movin Out (Anthony's Song)
Billy Joel is first and foremost a storyteller. Like Springsteen he is able to bring to life characters (usually from the working class) with such depth and detail you can't help but be sucked into their story. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) is a prime example of Billy's storytelling ability. We feel for Anthony throughout the whole song because Billy is able to make the listener feel like they are experiencing day to day life with the various characters that populate the song in a way that only the most gift songwriters can. The song itself features a nice mix of different instrumentation, fun production and ear grabbing vocal inflections and hooks which all help make Movin’ Out a real earworm that will run laps through your brain until the day that you die. It's a song that works on a surface level for just how catchy it is but has a lot more depth underneath due to its lyrics.
07. You May Be Right
This is a good pump up song by Billy Joel. I feel like I've run a lot to this song while working out. It's also played ALL the time on the radio. Definitely one of his most played hits for sure, especially on classic rock radio. It also has a great sax solo and you know I wasn't gonna let that slip by. Overall I don't have much to say about this song other than I really like it! One of his most likable hits.
06. Why Should I Worry (Oliver & Company)
Co-Written with Dan Hartman who had a huge hit in 1984 with I Can Dream About You. If you don't recognize his name or the song title go listen to it now because you will recognize it once you hear it. Anyway as I said in the intro this was the first time in a Disney film where I actually knew who the singer behind the animated character was. I remember seeing the trailer to this film on my old Disney VHS tapes growing up all the time and I loved the song. Eventually I got the Oliver & Company sing along tape that had this song on there and I used to play this song all the time off of it. In my opinion this is one of the best Disney songs ever! Easily in the top 10 if not top 5 for me and definitely the best thing to come out of Oliver & Company, which in all honesty is a pretty average Disney animated film. Oliver & Company is still better than dreck like Home on the Range and Chicken Little mind you, but nowhere near the top 20 films the studio has produced. Still Why Should I Worry always puts a smile on my face every time I hear it and sometimes that's all you want out of pop music. Why Should I Worry intersects with my childhood nostalgia for Billy Joel and for Walt Disney Animation and it just hits the spot every time I hear it.
05. My Life
I've always really liked this song. I like the sound and production of this one a lot. I'll admit I don't always seek this song out but whenever it comes on, I'm always down to listen to it. I like the message too about how people are always going to tell you how best to live your life but at the end of the day it's you that gets to live it and you that gets to make the final decisions as to how you want to live your life. My Life was also the theme song to a sitcom starring Tom Hanks where he dressed in drag to keep a rent-controlled apartment! Those were simpler times man.
04. A Matter of Trust
A Matter of Trust is a pretty heavy rock song...for Billy Joel. Nonetheless I've always liked the hard rock crunch this song sports. True it's slightly reminiscent of Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love, but I'm willing to let that slide. The whole song celebrates the love between Billy and his then wife, model/actress Christie Brinkley. The song is about how their love is built on a much more solid foundation than most other relationships, so I guess it must have come as quit a surprise to Billy went Christie divorced him in 1994 so she could marry real estate developer Richard Taubman. My parents told me that those who have to keep saying their relationship is perfect and stronger than most other people's relationships are usually the ones who don't last. Still we got this kick ass song out of it so that's at least a win!
03. The Stranger
The title track off Billy Joel's most celebrated album is a song about duality. It's about how people wear masks in their day to day lives sometimes for other people's benefit and sometimes for their own and the older I get the more I realize how true that really is. I also really like the main guitar riff on this song too. Because he is labelled the Piano man, sometimes Billy Joel songs don't get enough credit for having some solid rock riffs and this is one of his best. Also I love the key change that occurs when he sings, " Don't be afraid to try again. Everyone goes south every now and then." This is another Billy Joel song I sometimes forget how much I like until I listen to it again. My favorite song of his from the 70s.
02. I Go to Extremes
Like a lot of Billy Joel songs this one brings me back to childhood as my parents played the Storm Front album all the time but I appreciate it more now as an adult. This song sees Billy delving into his own bi-polar depression and how it can wreck havoc on him at the drop of a dime. While I don't have bi-polar I was starting to grapple with depression and feelings of inadequacy by the time I entered high school due to my struggles in the closet and being at war with myself during that time. When I started revisiting Billy Joel's music in the early ‘00s I connected with this song's message deeply. As an adult I Go To Extremes clicked with me even more due to my husband who does have Bi-polar and I've now come to understand more clearly what a struggle living with that is and how accurately this song captures what it's like to be Bi-Polar. Song wise, unlike the critics, I like the late 80s production on Billy Joel's last few albums a lot. Plus, the song itself is a great pump up jam if you ignore the lyrics while working out. I also think Billy gives a wicked piano solo on this one as well. Overall this one gives me childhood nostalgia, reminds me of my struggles in the closet during high school and reflects my own husband's struggles with Bi-polar better than any other song I have heard while also being a catchy pump up rock song at the end of the day. As a result, I find myself listening to this song a lot! This one has been in heavy rotation for me for years now.
01. This is the Time
I'll be upfront this might be my favorite Billy Joel song because it reminds me of Don Henley's The Boys of Summer which is one of my favorite songs of all time. Like The Boys of Summer, This is the Time is a song dripping in moody atmosphere that also laments the passage of the time while also making you feel like you are walking on a cold beach in the middle of the winter. It's basically a moody but melodic ballad with atmosphere to spare and I seem to gravitate to those kinds of songs a lot. Like I said with I Go to Extremes, I really like the late 80s production on late period Billy Joel albums and it's that production that truly makes This is the Time my favorite Billy Joel song of all time. I really like the bluesy coda at the end of the song a lot too.
