Say Goodbye To POLLywood - Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II, THE POLL

Innocent Man chart single I don't remember at all: "Leave A Tender Moment Alone"

yesterday at easter dinner with my in-laws the phrase "a tender moment alone" jokingly came into the conversation for some reason. We then had to go online to figure out where we picked it up from. Nobody remembered it was a Billy Joel song.

the context was something like "you'd like a tender moment alone with that ham, wouldn't you?"

ugh I forgot the synth helicopter on Goodnight Saigon, kinda ruins it

decided that I'm going to let my sister pick her favorite song and I'll vote for that one. Saves me the heartache, lol

well your MOTHER said that ALL THAT I could GIVE YA was a REPuTAtion

tbh I'll probably vote for "Pressure" which is the best of his synth pop stuff

Ses. Am. E. Street.
What. Does. It. Meeeean?

PRESSHHARRR

I suppose soon that somebody is going to sample the synth sequence from that song for a hit single.

The video looks for the most part like some Peter Gabriel thing, but then there are odd bizarre moments, particularly when the camera focuses on BJ's face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU

got the feeling he always fancied himself as an actor from his videos

The "homoerotic" images in the "Allentown" video reportedly amused him.

xxp In many ways it's like many early 80's Elton John videos, big budget, few ideas, and the focal point is a not particularly rock star looking figure.

<i>I always forget that An Innocent Man was as much a part of the post-Thriller zeitgeist: five (!) singles...

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn).

Six, actually. And to a different comment way upthread, releasing "Volumes 1 and 2" of a GH as part of the same package wasn't without precedent when this comp came out - check the subtitle of Donna Summer's <i>On the Radio</i> back in 1979.

My sister's ruling is in: I voted Uptown Girl. Most gleeful, funnest to singalong to, best encapsulates our childhood Lego-playing :D

got the feeling he always fancied himself as an actor from his videos

He's no Dennis DeYoung, that's for sure

hahah

omg YES vegemite thank you for starting this! i can't let myself start reading this thread yet cause i'll want to reply to everything but i am stoked

:D

a friend of mine, who lived abroad, had to show up a week early to his freshman year of university. to pass the time avoid needing a place to stay, he signed up for PROJECT WILD, a hippie-wilderness-bonding thing that the school sponsored.

part of the program involved going 'solo' for 24 hours, but my friend made the mistake of choosing a tree or whatever too near a guy who spent most of the 24 hours repeatedly playing the main riff -- the only one he knew -- of 'piano man' on a harmonica.

there was a lot of scarring

oh fuck that would ruin you for life

what's wrong with "Friends"? Is it the theme song?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 9, 2012 4:43 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think its their haircuts iirc
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl)

Too cool to diss "Friends"? OK, then!

not me :)

OK, I checked out the youtube for "Tender Moment", and I TOTALLY remembered it from the opening harmonica part! Mostly I remember the harmonica, which I always assumed was a Stevie Wonder guest spot. (Never heard of Toots Thieleman back then.)

"Allentown", "Italian Restaurant", "Just the Way You Are", "Only the Good Die Young", "My Life" (which I loved as a kid), "Big Shot", "Pressure", "Still Rock & Roll", even "The Entertainer" all worthy contenders. They must not have been able to fit some of these on the vinyl version I bought when it was new.

for some reason the only other ILM Joel Poll was Greatest Hits V1 -- I didn't know it was released as a single volume though? Was it?

I'm so google-lazy today, I swear I'll do better tomorrow

It was double disc.

I'm kind of loving how Allentown is kind of a dark horse in this, I might just vote for that. Either that or Pressure for sure.

so hmmm... will ILM vote for synthpop, given the option? hmmm...

I'm beginning to suspect that Nylon Curtain might be one of those overlooked early-80s albums that I end up loving beyond measure (see: Cultosaurus Erectus, Return of the Giant Slits)

lol xp

i kind of want to go back and relisten, too. don't think i've heard it since i was 15, 16 tops.

Joel's favorite album reportedly. Is it any good?

WEEELL I'M OOON THE DOWNEASTER "ALEXA"

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 9, 2012 5:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i'd be into that tbh

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZZ-CqtHjAnk/TPaW2-8mfkI/AAAAAAACAiA/VgWPNDdEhRE/s1600/Alexa%2BRay%2BJoel.jpg

She looks like she chewed Allentown with those teeth.

i am all about the video for uptown GYUHRRHURRLLL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E

SHE'S GOT HER TOYS!

ftr i believe ilx house band the fake accents/fake accidents/etc was once kicked up/downstairs at a gig due to said joel offspring

the only thing I have to say about Allentown is

CHHHH
OOH
HAH

I bought Innocent Man tonight :D

Bob River's had a hilarious "twisted tunes" spoof of that song when it was a hit, with spot-on vocal inflection: An Ignorant Man

I like a bunch of Billy Joel singles, but I think "Only the Good Die Young" might be his only fully defensible song.

Glass Houses is one of the first few albums I ever bought, and a sentimental favorite, but I think my vote is for Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, which kind of reminds me of Styx if they'd been from Bensonhurst.

"You're Only Human" video... at 2'08"... he's young, he's ginger, he's pasty... Adam "Mythbusters" Savage:

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/98kool.com/files/2011/04/Adam-Savage.jpg

hooray!

I owned a copy of the Stranger way back when. He was great as a 12 / 13 year old boy but by 14, he was done. Had to turn him over to the girls. Voted for Only the Good Die Young.

This poll is so impossible, VG. Seeeeeeriously.

i know right? why do you think I made my sister vote for me?

I mean even moreso than Paul Simon's back catalogue I grew up on this - with Simon it was just Graceland until I was much older, but this thing is just a massive wallop of great songs. Our version was all packed onto one cassette - although it did not have Entertainer, She's Got A Way, or Italian Restaurant! - and I knew them all inside and out, every word, even though I had many of these words wrong and did not have any idea what half of the songs were really about except for mood and attitude. "Dom Perignon in your hand and the spoon up your nose," who knows wtf that means but I understood the idea of someone who had to be a BEEG SHOT. Agreed with whoever said it all seemed very adult and grownuppy - - - but I never listened to Joel as any kind of secret forbidden fruit or consciously trying to get a window into adulthood because the stuff is SO RIDICULOUSLY HOOKY. Kid's show theme song hooky, but better.

I like Joel more than anything because I like singing along to his songs, even when his lyrical persona seems to be kind of an enormous asshole. Loved the point about Captain Jack - I'm not so into the feel of the song and the audience he seems to be playing to and the opinion he seems to have himself but what a chorus!

Could write whole pointless threads on some of these songs. (I in fact did quixotically start one for "Miami 2017"...) Like, how great of a phrase is "Say Goodbye To Hollywood"? How many moments in my life has that kind of actually seemed like just about the right description for where I was? It helps that Joel wasn't afraid to be cheesy or go for those big-impact grabs. I think this more than anything has held him off from reappraisal... goofy balding nebbish Phil Collins, much as I like him, didn't swing for the bleachers and you have less to lose liking his stuff.

The amazing thing is I don't know if he has a single record I like all the way through, though Glass Houses and The Stranger come close. I should spin 52nd Street some more. An Innocent Man has some great shit, but all of a sudden the guitar songs seem really forced and canned ("Easy Money," my god) and it's kind of hard to put it on a lot.

wow, this is getting tl;dr and I haven't really said anything!

Greatest Hits - Volume I & Volume II has been certified double diamond by the RIAA, selling over 11.5 million copies (23 million units) and is tied with Pink Floyd's The Wall and Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV for third most certified album of all time in the U.S (wiki)

hellfire!

Alec: You cannot have the Pretenders' first album! That's mine.
Leslie: I bought it.
Alec: You did not! You can have all the Billy Joels... except The Stranger.
Leslie: I'm taking Thriller and Mahler's ninth.
Alec: ..You're not taking The Police...

etc..

(from St Elmo's Fire)

see even 80's yuppie kids who hated him still liked The Stranger.

"Here put these on."
*listens* "What is this?"
"The Stranger. It'll change your life."

(Oh, and hey Doc?)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/DickSteele/Smileys/Fistbump-2.gif