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

We talked about doing this in the Paul Simon poll thread and then I forgot all about it.

all your life is time magazine
i read it too
what does it mean

AND THEY WERE SHARP

AS SHARP AS KNIVES-KNIVES-KNIVES-KNIVES

alternative poll titles:

It's Still Rock and POLL to me
Uptown POLL
POLLentown :D

Imma cast a controversial vote for the Innocent Man era 'Tell Her About It'. I grew up with and loved that set of self-help rock tracks. Realizing, though, that my ex's fandom (I bought her two BJ boxsets) means this is just another thing that's kinda ruined for me at the moment.

Allentown. Still hits hard as a mother.

i'm a fan of "Tell Her About It" and a number of other shameless/ful '80s hits but went with the more canonical "Movin' Out"

JTWYA, for the production and Phil Woods solo.

I have to think on this for a while. I really love Allentown, also love Goodnight Saigon, but You May Be Right is also a childhood favorite of my sister and I.
I sang "I walked to Bedford-Stuy alone" for 20 years before I found out it was a real place, lol.

This was Mom's soundtrack for baking or cleaning the house --- and I will forever associate it with sitting cross-legged on the living room playing Lego.

*living room FLOOR, grr

My Life

Is it bad that I kinda like Captain Jack?

Oh what the hell am I saying? Of course "Piano Man" is the best song on here.

Is it bad that I kinda like every song on here?

^^^^

although I just realized I really fucking hate The Entertainer

like, a LOT

most of these, if i heard them on the radio once every 10 years, that would be cool

'you're only human' is not among them, tho

yeah the synth on that kinda gives me the shits, tbh ...and it reminds me of Julian Lennon's 'Much Too Late For Goodbye'

In deferential fealty to the me that was, I feel as though I almost have to pick something from Glass Houses. I seriously no lie loved that album when I was 13-14, one of the first I ever picked and bought all on my own (through Columbia House, 12 for a penny). It seemed so smart and tough and full of hard-won grown-up wisdom, like a training wheels version of the Elvis Costello records I'd obsess over a few years later.

I dunno, though... It's awful damn hard to deny his earlier hits: "Piano Man", "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", "New York State of Mind", "Just the Way You Are", "Movin' Out", "Only the Good Die Young", "My Life". the Nylon Curtain songs are great, too, especially "Pressure", but I almost feel they're by a different guy. And I don't give a shit about anything after that.

Think I'm gonna go for "Only the Good Die Young", just for the joy of singing along with the "sinners have much more fun" bit. Such a dangerous Billy. Seems a crime that this set doesn't include "Miami 2017", "She's Always a Woman" and "Honesty", any of which might have a shot of being my favorite Billy Joel song tomorrow. He really was the Painter of Light.

snrub is probably right that "piano man" is the all-time best thing on here, but my favorite changes all time time, largely depending on which one i'm listening to/drunkenly singing along with

can't believe I'm voting for Just the Way You Are, but it's the only one I remotely like, in a really cheesy yuppie ballad kind of way. never cared for his corny badboy greaser stuff

This album (or rather, "album") is so ingrained in my childhood memories that I don't even know how to differentiate between the classics, the dross (though "Goodnight Saigon" was always skipped, and the record usually shut off before "Second Wind" could happen) and the (should be) guilty pleasures.

Voted for the joyous, ludicrous "Scenes From an Italian Restuarant."

First there's the whistling, then that brittle piano, and then the softcore guitar vamp kicks in....

Well we ALL fall in LOVE but we DISREGAHD the DANGER

baw bawbaw BAW bawbawbawbaw
baw bawbaw BAW badabadabada

looking back, i think my first purchase from the columbia record & tape club was quite formative:

Billy Joel - Glass Houses: see above
AC/DC - Back In Black: made me a man
Blue Oyster Cult - Some Enchanted Evening: due to inclusion of The Greatest Song, set me on a path I follow still
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedos: foretold my later appreciation of "Don't Come Around Here No More" and that one Traveling Wilburys song
Loverboy - Loverboy: kind of sucks, but "TURN ME LOOSE" (!)
Aerosmith - Toys In the Attic: rock

i wish i could remember what else. they sent me some random shit i didn't order.

^ think Supertramp's Breakfast In America was in there too

and yeah, "scenes from an italian restaurant", completely forgot abt that one, listening now, flashback headspins :)

i vote for all of them lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcvVPuJVKcs

Allentown vs. Don't Ask Me Why

i doubt anyone would vote for She's Always A Woman, but for some reason it's not included here

It wasn't on the tracklisting

I got it off the CD list, but the MP3 list has it

ugh stupid

apparently there's a version that replaces "Don't Ask Me Why" with "Honesty" which is kind of a bummer

this fuckin thing, there's like 5 versions!

I love "Vienna" and "She's Always A Woman."

But Virginia they didn't give you quite enough information...

YAGOTTA NICE WHITE DRESS AND A PARTY ON YOUR CONFIRMATION...

otm

No "We Didn't Start the Fire" (I guess they wouldn't have been able to use the word 'Greatest' in the title if that had been on it!)

This comp was released years before that single.
'Piano Man' has to be easily the worst song on this ("and the microphone smells like a beer" oh FUCK OFF). Voted for 'You May Be Right' because a) I thought the lyrics were so clever when I was 13, and b) the breaking glass sound at the beginning is probably the greatest example of the sound of glass breaking in a song (better even than Kate Bush's 'Babooshka' although sometimes PSB's 'Surburbia' sounds better).

always thought it was weird how there hadn't been a Greatest Hits volume 1 to start with, but instead a 1 AND 2 released at the same time on one compilation!
pretty bizzare even for the wacky late 80s CD era. clearly a neat trick though cause it sold like crazy.

Voting "Movin' Out", just for a change.

nylon curtain is a really excellent album all the way through.

had to vote for Movin' Out (my song) over the Innocent Man troika

This guy isn't quite as bad as some people claim though. There are many really good songs on this compilation. Besides "Movin' Out" there's "Piano Man", "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant", "The Stranger", "Just The Way You Are", "Honesty", "My Life", "Allentown", "Goodnight Saigon", "Uptown Girl" and "Tell Her About It". All great songs.

It'll have to be "Allentown" or one of the Innocent Man hits, although it sucks the title track ain't one of them.

it's nice, btw, to see this much concentrated joel-love in one place, especially on ILX. i've received more disdain IRL for my timidly admitted joel feelings than for any of my many other sins of taste.

Oh it's on Mr Veg's list of near-dealbreakers with me, lol (closely followed by Liza Minnelli, WWE and Project Runway)

ha – opposite experience for me. Most of the Joel hate I'll see online. All my friends - especially the ones not interested in music – adore at least a chunk of his catalog.

I've only come across a few people irl who will cop to Billy Joel love. And one of them's my sister.

i like how The Entertainer is REAL cynical yet REAL catchy.

I swear I find that track nigh on unlistenable

Xgau I think compares that one to Rick Wakeman, presumably just because of the Minimoog. I like it.

Wish this collecion was more singles-oriented than it was - several good ones missing, and I never had any use for "Captain Jack" or "Goodnight Saigon". I'm gonna vote for the McCartneyish "Don't Ask Me Why" - for all I know, Joel got the idea for the Latinish touches from "Goodnight Tonight".

OMG - "You're Only Human" - the suicide song! It was so bad it couldn't even make it on an album proper or a Danny Devito soundtrack!

Hate to say it, but about half of this album is pretty great. The other half is total and absolute, irredeemable shit.

Pretty much BJ's career in a nutshell there.

Also, "An Innocent Man" should have been on this compilation, while one of those shit songs should have been removed.

snoball otm

and I didnt even include volume III

"iiiiiin the miiiiidle of the niiiiiight"

"An Innocent Man" might have been the best song on here, even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPZ68Uc50iY

jesus, had completely forgotten that this even existed. so wretched. proof that the innocent man era should be destroyed.

Lou Reed: "I still am into doowop. When I can find it. I was amazed, we were in a restaurant the other day and they were playing this Billy Joel thing, where he does all the voices as acapella doowop, it was really good, I wish he'd do a lot more like that."

Lou otm, voted "The Longest Time"

I might end up voting for JTWYA
Because my heart is corn dipped in cheez-whiz

ohhhh Longest Time is pretty rad though

fuck you guys, I'm so confused!

god is it too late to hope for a Lou Reed/Billy Joel collab too?

Volume III is probably the least essential greatest hits album ever.

Least greatest, least essential, and most vomit inducing

xxp I think that there's a lot in common between LR and BJ, not least that people are still interested in them for reasons other than their music. Joel putting tracks on Rock Band just to spite a critic, for example.

I mean...jeez talk about pass the bucket

1 "Keeping the Faith"
2. "An Innocent Man"
3. "A Matter of Trust"
4. "Baby Grand"
5."This Is the Time"
6. "Leningrad"
7. "We Didn't Start the Fire"
8. "I Go to Extremes"
9. "And So It Goes"
10. "The Downeaster 'Alexa'"
11. "Shameless"
12. "All About Soul (Remix)"
13. "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)"
14. "The River of Dreams"
15. "To Make You Feel My Love (B. Dylan)"
16. "Hey Girl (Goffin & King)"
17. "Light as the Breeze (L. Cohen)"

that whole Stormfront period was just uggggghhh so gross. I swear half the middle-age dudes I saw in that period were all wearing ponytails and Stormfront *sweaters* blehhh

I found this while I was looking up Captain Jack and it made me lolol, I had no idea this happened

The song entered the news again in 2000 when it was mistakenly used during Hillary Clinton's announcement that she would be campaigning for U.S. Senate. According to an NPR report on worst campaign songs, a staffer notes that the playing of "Captain Jack" was a mistake. It was played from the Billy Joel compilation CD Greatest Hits Volume 1, and the song intended to be played was "New York State of Mind", which was track five on the CD.[23] The Clinton staffer inadvertently played track two, which was "Captain Jack".[23] Her presumed opponent, Rudolph Giuliani, who ended up not running for the Senate, criticized the song's use because of its alleged glorification of drugs. Giuliani even read the lyrics to the song in a live press conference.[23] Joel replied in a statement, "There are a lot of important issues facing the voters in this Senate race. Is a politician's interpretation of a song I wrote nearly 30 years ago an issue to the voters of New York state? I do not think so."[24]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t-Sw6YZGi0

Billy is the root
Billy is the table

I'd like to see Billy hit "Sister Ray," Attila-style

Here's how corny I am - on my first ever trip to New York (a mere 5 years ago) I listened to New York State of Mind at least once a day on my ipod.

(however I should note I also drove Mr Veg crazy every time we walked somewhere and he'd ask what direction to go, I'd start singing 'New york new york it's a wonderful down, broadway's up and the battery's down'. He didn't appreciate what a great memory tool it is! Maybe bc I sing like a drain)

If I ever go to New York I will definitely do that.

I don't care what anyone says about that song, it SOUNDS like new york to me.

God, I fucking hate most Billy Joel. That said, you can't really grow up on Long Island without knowing most of his hits by heart and there are a couple I really love.

Movin' out (Anthony's Song)
Only the Good Die Young
My Life
Big Shot
You May Be Right
Tell Her About It
Uptown Girl
and
The Longest Time

Wait, maybe I don't detest BJ as much as I thought. :/

http://cdn.idolator.com/assets/resources/2007/09/billyjoel.gif

I was gonna say, that's a pretty long list ENBB

ONE OF US
ONE OF US

earworms gonna GETCHOOO

And I still know every single word to We Didn't Start the Fire.

me too
also I Go To Extremes, River Of Dreams, and All About Soul

but not by choice, it's just a terrible sickness I have

Some non-singles I like a lot: All For Leyna, Zanzibar...

it's funny how automatic the "i hate billy joel!" thing is, even from people who know and love quite a bit of his music. who else from the 70s/80s is in this boat and unrehabilitated by hipster appreciation? phil collins got rescued a few years back...

I HATE I go to Extremes though lol @ Lohan's tattoo with the lyrics from it. River of Dreams makes me want to vom. I don't know the last one. Are they all off the same album? I have never owned anything by him. I know all this stuff from the radio. I'm serious about Long Island radio playing tons of BJ. It's ridiculous.

2. "An Innocent Man"
3. "A Matter of Trust"

See, they could've just done Volume III as a 7" single.

Like, I've crossed the Throgs Neck Bridge and heard one of his songs within minutes on multiple ocassions. My entire senior class broke out into a chorus of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant at my prom more than 15 years after its release for Christ's sake!

Australian radio played the hell out of him for some reason, as well as my Mum playing his greatest hits all the time.

all About soul is terrible, I won't even put a youtube up, it'll ruin your life.

Phil otm

Where is Ramzi? He could back me up on this.

However, I'm not gonna lie and try to front that I don't do a little seat dancing if I happen to come across "Only the Good Die Young" on the radio.

phil collins got rescued a few years back...

It's very easy for hipsters to be ironic about liking Phil Collins. Phil wants everyone to like him anyway, he's so eager to please. There's nothing ironic about Joel, and he doesn't care whether people like him or not. That's too real for hipsters.

that is some questionable armchair psychology right there

what the fuck are you on about, snoball?

snoball doesn't care whether we like him, don't play into his game

I don't care what anyone says about that song, it SOUNDS like new york to me.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, April 9, 2012

I've lived in NYC since 1986 (I'm sure there are ILMers who were born here, etc, etc) but the sad thing is, that song really did capture the old New York (pre-Bloomberg and Giuliani), but that New York is gone now...it's become a tourist trap/rich person playground with hardly any local color left, now populated by morons from _____ who moved here after watching "Friends". I can't even listen to that song anymore for that reason, makes me too sad.

:(

what's wrong with "Friends"? Is it the theme song?

I think its their haircuts iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRb92CDLlq0

3. "A Matter of Trust"

oh hey, had completely forgotten about that one. on second thought, don't destroy everything after the nylon curtain, just most of it. great fucking song. the phrase "some love is just a lie of the mind" gets stuck in my head big time.

if the poll had included the other greatest hits I'd include "A Matter of Trust" (is that really Joel on guitar? The Bridge credits don't say so) and, er, Garth Brooks doing "Shameless."

Matter Of Trust is pretty good

2. "An Innocent Man"

this is just ghastly though. starts out nice enough, but dives off a cliff before a minute's up.

"An Innocent Man" is basically a good Joe Jackson ballad.

vegemite grrrl OTM re New York State Of Mind. the whole Stranger album *totally* captured the place for me before i ever went there.
i'm sure if you actually *lived* there you'd hate it or whatever like me with Joy Division.

uh-onnnne
twoooooo
ah onnnnetwooothreeeeefaw

Most of these are good. Could have replaced those (then) recent singles with "An Innocent Man" though.

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

(And my sister owned the cassette)

I always forget that An Innocent Man was as much a part of the post-Thriller zeitgeist: five (!) singles, saturation play on radio and MTV, etc.

That one has the great Toots Thielman on harmonica. Xp

one thing that strikes me is BJ is he's like a cynical, judgemental McCartney. He writes a lot of good storytelling songs but he often writes from the viewpoint of a judgemental 'other' witnessing the bad behaviours/failed lives of other people.Bit of an ivory tower thing, idk.

I could be full of shit, it just occured to me this afternoon.

"Everybody Besides Me Started The Fire"

that whole Stormfront period was just uggggghhh so gross.

At least we don't have to googleproof it here.

If anything this thread has mostly convinced me that I probably should own the An Innocent Man album.

one thing that strikes me is BJ is he's like a cynical, judgemental McCartney. He writes a lot of good storytelling songs but he often writes from the viewpoint of a judgemental 'other' witnessing the bad behaviours/failed lives of other people.Bit of an ivory tower thing, idk.

Someone wrote a long and brutal takedown of Billy Joel based largely around this idea. I think it was semi-recently linked and discussed somewhere around here. It's certainly true of certain Billy Joel songs: "Big Shot", "Movin' Out", "Captain Jack", "Angry Young Man", "Piano Man", etc. But it's never been his whole artistic POV, even in his most cynical years. And I don't think he's any more condescending or bitter than say, Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello or Mark E. Smith (lol ringer).

Also, wish I'd seen Hillary announcing her run for senate as "you just stay at home and masturbate" echoed behind her.

xpost yeah I probably should have switched often for sometimes/occasionally...he writes some really wonderful sincere stuff too

I always wrestle with that becuase I love the phrasing and hooks of Captain Jack, but the tone of it kinda irritates me sometimes.

i liked Leningrad when it came out. sorry there it is.

remember when everyone had a song about Russia

hey I liked We Didn't Start The Fire when it came out - but now I'm old I can pretend I didn't know what I was doing, lol

I really love the timing changes in Moving Out, and HEART-ATTACK-ACKACKACK

WEEELL I'M OOON THE DOWNEASTER "ALEXA"

Attila still fills me with sheer glee

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

haha, back atcha

Movin' Out narrowly over Allentown

Not to stick my nose too high in the air, but I never could get into this compilation. Billy Joel's album tracks run so deep that cherry-picking "Just the Way You Are" off of The Stranger for example doesn't do his catalogue justice.

The Today Show had a full week of interviews with Billy Joel when this comp came out, with the highlight being the world premiere of HIS NEW VIDEO.

My heart dropped a little the first time I saw "You're Only Human (Second WInd)" and even though "Matter of Trust" was the jam later on, it was around this time that I started moving toward the Beatles and metal.

Does Billy Joel have worthwhile album tracks? Serious question. Elton def does.

Well, if Sometimes a Fantasy or Sleeping w/the Television On or She's Right On Time were options here, it would be a lot tougher. xp

Yes, Alfred. He's got some filler, but I'd say there's usually around four songs on each album that never gets play just as quality as the singles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaSbplT9O6c

Well, if Sometimes a Fantasy or Sleeping w/the Television On or She's Right On Time were options here, it would be a lot tougher. xp

Is this a good place to talk about my sick fascination with "Close To The Borderline?"

Everytime I walk down an alley, I hear that riff.

"The bag ladies throw their bones in my face."

xp not at all! I always loved that song just for using the phrase "a buck three-eighty," which was one my dad used to use as well. (Must be an NY thing.)

Enjoying listening to An Innocent Man

'Christie Lee' is a bit of a bung note for me. That's about the only one so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70trlkdNtLw

"moonlighting" did an opening to that too.

I think Joel despises "Modern Woman" – he says so often.

re: worthwhile album tracks, "Laura" is the jam, which I wouldn't have recalled had it not been for Chuck Klosterman's two Billy Joel profiles..

for me, a lot of his album tracks were just as ubiquitous from grammar school throughout high school.. there was a point when I was ready to kill the next kid in music class who would bust into the "Angry Young Man" piano intro.. I also used to love "Root Beer Rag" which I can no longer listen to.

a lot of the best ones appear on "Songs In The Attic" and sound better than the original versions, ie "Miami 2017" and "Los Angelenos," although "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is kinda painful.. "Travelin' Prayer" is aight... I think Dolly Parton covered it or something.

IMO any of these could have just as easily fit onto his greatest hits just as well as Goodnight Saigon.

In the old Columbia House ads, there was always a † next to Nylon Curtain because the word "fucking" is used in "Laura". Billy Joel badass.

Nobody in my class listened to Billy Joel. I'm not sure even how I got started on him. One of my fondest memories though is being in 4th grade and holding hands with a girl named Susan underneath a table in the back of the room, listening to "Honesty" while everyone else was out at recess.

yeah maybe it's the teenager in me but "feeling like a fucking fool" is my favorite part of that song

also he sounds more pissed off than usual in that one... which for Billy Joel is "really pissed off"

As album titles go, Nylon Curtain has got to be up there with some of the bad ones. Just seems kinda, ill-advised.

He had just divorced his first wife (the one "Just the Way You Are" is about) and apparently, she got her fair share of "Just the Way You Are" royalties.

It wasn't long after Nylon Curtain that he made Christie Brinkley in some piano bar in the Caribbean. He was serenading her, Elle Macpherson and WHITNEY HOUSTON.

After that night, he started dating … ELLE MACPHERSON. It wouldn't be later that he'd be all "oh, hey, what's up Christie Lee?" </player>

The Hassles album is on Youtube as one complete video.... hm.. well if you can find "Just Holding On" by The Hassles, I like that one also. (way better than Attila IMO)

I didn't know that he dated Elle McPherson. Damn.

actually it's only at 1:41 into this...
I think this was Billy Joel's first album that he appeared on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsT7aHhCHbU

Oh yeah, Songs In The Attic is definitely worth it for those curious about album-track Joel. I would add that version of "Everybody Loves You Now."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qSNcgJtqzw

Great thing too is that basically every Joel album through An Innocent Man is piled up in vinyl dollar bins nationwide so you're not out much.

I dunno if it was the AMG review impressing upon me early on that Nylon Curtain was his VERY SERIOUS album but I've somehow never been able to really go for it. Bit of a chore last time I put it on, but also I have crappy speakers right now and basically everything sounds awful so who knows.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-hasnt-told-coworkers-about-his-billy-joel,1582/

It gets its reputation for being VERY SERIOUS thanks to Side 1, but it gets loose on Side 2 with "Room of Our Own" (should be played at every wedding) and "She's Right on Time".

Another piece of trivia: Brinkley's only the second-hottest woman to appear in a Billy Joel video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4lh4Ahl46E&ob=av2n

oh god his singing on "Modern Woman" defines "prostrate operation"

and btw, wow, I have never gotten around to checking out the Hassles before, kind of amazing. Definitely more listenable than Attila, but that doesn't really take much.

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Chad/niceprice.jpg

Re: "Modern Woman," there's got to be something to be said of a Billy Joel song so horrible even Billy Joel hates it.

What's always bugged me about this dude was his bitterness, like he truly believed at heart he was better than middlebrow and hated himself for getting rich without ever shirking that albatross. He's like an inexplicably angry little Springsteen wannabe who sees himself a street fighter poet but who others see as a safe joke. Or maybe that's just what the alcohol did to him

I don't think Billy Joel has ever tried to put on airs to be a street fighter poet, at least since The Stranger. He doesn't seem to take himself that seriously.

Check this out where Joel sounds more like 1975 Bruce than Bruce does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78qF8haa3mo

and this. just this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZq5hy2RsvM

He doesn't seem to take himself that seriously anymore, but again, I think that may be the alcohol and self-loathing at work.

What's always bugged me about this dude was his bitterness, like he truly believed at heart he was better than middlebrow and hated himself for getting rich without ever shirking that albatross. He's like an inexplicably angry little Springsteen wannabe who sees himself a street fighter poet but who others see as a safe joke. Or maybe that's just what the alcohol did to him

Jonah Goldberg?

Oh there's plenty of alcohol and self-loathing. Surprised Paul Westerberg never went the supermodel route.

Didn't he date Wynona for a while?

(I know, who didn't, right?)

Thought of that around 12:53 my time.

it was Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum who dated Winona.

who also dated Winona.

Its clear Joel doesnt know the words, as hes litterally staring at the lyric monitor off screen
rypro525 9 months ago

Of course he didn't know the words, he hates rehearsing ("more edge" with less rehearsing) and this was pretty spontaneous.
Try singing Bruce song, in Bruce key/range, also in Bruce voice in perfect pitch (!!) while simultaneously playing the piano by EAR and see how you do ;.) 
Trust me, NO other talent is capable of making adsjustments like that. NO ONE else. Most under rated talent in the history of Earth.
PS "Virginia" was intentional.
4lifeserendipity in reply to rypro525 3 weeks ago

NO ONE else

oh youtube

Christ Bruce's voice is in good shape

Bruce is a force of nature. Billy is just sort of ... forced.

Dude, I don't c&p your off-board comments.

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

jesus, the post I just wrote and lost, you guys have no idea of the genius

Guys, I just listened to The Stranger in its entirety and I'll give you this: "Everybody Has A Dream" is horrid.

If I still worked in a recording studio, I'd make it a mission to collect 100 reprises from the 70s for a CD comp.

Though right now, the only mini ones I can think of are "Band on the Run" and "The Stranger".

Probably better I work at a newspaper now, I guess.

Okay so basically - - - my feeling is that up until he got old, gained weight, lost his tumbling 70s locks and started looking and acting like an entitled rich guy with contempt for his fans, he had this really convincing match-up between his own look-and-feel (tics, fashion, visual associations generally) and the material of his songs, which added up are like the ten-year story of a grouchy, alcoholic New Yorker with contempt for everyone and years in the trenches playing shitty house-pianist gigs and relentless touring to back it up. If he were a lesser songwriter that'd just leave him as a memorable grump with a predictable cult, but the thing is his songs were really really earwormy and he had a genuinely solid backing band, great producer, and somehow wedded all the baggage of his persona to something you would kind of relate to. Joel never casts himself as the sad-sack you're rooting for - he's the underdog you think of yourself being, who actually tells the boss off and skips town and rages against the phonies and hangs around in scuzzy alleyways with a saxophone because after so many Friday nights in this city, man, you get over trying to be in the coolest places at the coolest times. It just works as a package, and even if the songs had stayed as strong, the rest falls apart completely once he gets an MTV budget and a huge arena stage with a vast battleship of a piano.

So An Innocent Man is the last solid moment not just because it has his last amazing grab-bag of singles ("Uptown Girl" is in my top five for this poll), but because it completes the character arc: the boomer settles down, actually delivers on the claim way back in "Angry Young Man" that he's over it all (or the "got a new wife" narrator of "Italian Restaurant"), and nestles in with some well-delivered nostalgia. Would have been a perfect album to retire on - but of course you don't retire at age 35 with three top ten hits.

And Greatest Hits I & II is in this sense the perfect Joel album because it gets the whole sweep of that, but just jumbles up the order so it makes a consistent melange of bitterness, redeemed bitterness, righteous bitterness, bitterness hoping to be proved wrong, and trying to get into girls' pants. No wonder it's such great house-cleaning music (I was doing dishes to Joel just the other day).

<3 pplains's last two posts

Probably better I work at a newspaper now, I guess.

it's rare than anyone could use that phrase, except when they leave the one industry that's probably doing even worse

Anyone ever notice that Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" could pass as a Billy Joel song? It would probably fit a lot better in the Billy Joel catalog too.

http://www.morethings.com/music/billy_joel/billy-joel-snl-1978-15.jpg

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000DR5GcLvTbDE/s/650/650/behr-BillyJoel-10399-7.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BefCZ7DByaM/TGEO7wL5uCI/AAAAAAAAAI0/yRM65vHBGWA/s320/billy+joel+-+say+goodbye+to+hollywood.jpg

Basically, I think I should start seriously brushing up on my keyboard skills and start a Billy Joel cover band.

I nominate Doctor Casino's above post for Best Music Writing 2012.

haha awww, thanks. You should have seen the earlier, accidentally deleted version ;_;

D.C. hits it on the head. I get why folks are tired of hearing "Uptown Girl" in the supermarket, but there's a package there that you don't get just with the singles. (Which is why I don't like this comp.)

People always try to cram Joel into this weird Dylan>>>>Springsteen>>>>>Tom Petty>>>>>Bob Seger American singer/songwriter thing, but he's more akin to someone like Nick Lowe or Nilsson. His schtick isn't so much trying to save the world as it is trying to save himself.

Anyone ever notice that Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" could pass as a Billy Joel song? It would probably fit a lot better in the Billy Joel catalog too.

I could play this game too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6YMdZdD9iQ

it's rare than anyone could use that phrase, except when they leave the one industry that's probably doing even worse

Thinking my next gig will be selling ads for the Yellow Pages.

Nilsson/Joel is a great comparison - kind of feel like they reached a similar juncture of potential and Nilsson, through circumstance and also choice, decided he'd rather put on warped puppet-shows in the attic than maintain the focus needed to keep writing hit-worthy songs. I like them both a lot, mind you, but almost immediately after Schmilsson Nilsson becomes a connoisseurs-only kind of guy, whereas Joel seemed to take The Stranger as "oh, fucking FINALLY, okay, let's keep this thing going now."

Hall & Oates also very similar to the Joel career arc, and (given that ILM has previously gone out of its way to compare Darryl Hall and Billy Joel's lyrical personas), it's odd that they don't get paired more often in the conventional wisdom. Trucking along for ages, finding their particular hit sound, having an early-career hit record or two that never quite turned into a smash, then finally HAVING a smash and getting a good 3-4 albums of solid followup out of it...

Joel showing up in his coat and tie to Nilsson's apartment, getting on to him for still wearing his robe at 9 pm, both of them wondering if they should go to Elaine's or the Village Green.

Kinda was hoping for another post to have been made between when I started writing that and when I hit submit.

Nick Lowe is a terrible comparison to Billy Joel. But sure, I can see Nilsson. When I think of Joel, though, I think stubby little fingers, which is my shorthand way of suggesting he worked his ass off to get where he got, vs. someone more sui generis like Nilsson. I think a closer comparison to Joel might be, dunno, early Coug?

If this were a Defend the Indefensible thread, I would totally cite Billy Joel's awesome use of session guys. Phil Woods!

^^^

Sometimes I think of Joel as being like the John McEnroe of music, ie, never far from throwing a tantrum. Elton's the same in many ways.

Joel and Lowe both authors of bouncy little songs in the late 70s/early 80s. Both carry that self-refrential loser appeal. Both have a sense of humor. I can totally hear Billy Joel singing "What's So Funny?" or Lowe doing "Sleeping With the Television On".

I was thinking about Cougar when I was thinking of the usual pantheon of American singer/songwriters. If you think "I Need A Lover" sounds like Joel, I would respectively ask for you to make sure that you aren't thinking about Eddie Money in this thread.

It's all about Liberty DeVitto, guys.

(I'm such a fucking internet geek when it comes to this man.)

you should all be ashamed of yourselves. what's next, repping for the Eagles?

Fuck no.

I will take that bullet.

Hall & Oates also very similar to the Joel career arc, and (given that ILM has previously gone out of its way to compare Darryl Hall and Billy Joel's lyrical personas), it's odd that they don't get paired more often in the conventional wisdom. Trucking along for ages, finding their particular hit sound, having an early-career hit record or two that never quite turned into a smash, then finally HAVING a smash and getting a good 3-4 albums of solid followup out of it...

I've thought about the comparison but it crumbles when you consider how well Hall has sung his entire career -- through bad production decisions and indifferent songwriting. Whereas when Joel's bad or pedestrian, which is often, he's a cold meatball.

xxxxxp mm indeed and when he *does* throw a tantrum.. yikes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqY6mXULzpw

That keytar player!

Actually, that's pro shot. Where the hell was it from?

USSR. He didn't want the film crew turning the lights on the shy audience.

I remember hearing back in the late 80s that he flipped out and threw a piano(!) in the former USSR because the Soviets, after years of oppression, were afraid to rock out in concerts.

Dude, I don't c&p your off-board comments.

― pplains, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 3:08 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

lol

you should all be ashamed of yourselves. what's next, repping for the Eagles?

oh hell yeah. they're no billy joel, granted, but i'll stand for at least 10 songs off their vol I&II greatest hits.

and if it weren't for the eagles, there would be no "life's been good", so...

yeah the piano toss was in Russia. you forget late 80s bands *really did look like that*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIVrrof6ODA

listening to De La Soul and just heard a Billy Joel sample. Fuck you haters.

sampling it doesn't make it better

You rarely hear John Cougar being sampled unless it's Jack & Diane

Thank you thread for reminding me of that horrible Jack & Diane sampling thing by Jessica Simpson.

listening to Nylon Curtain: Laura is awesome.

NOTICE: there will be no repping for The Eagles in MY poll thread. Take it elsewhere, freaks...

:)

also Alfred otm about Joel vs Hall.

Funny that "The Long Run" was also (along with Glass Houses) one of my first record purchases. Apparently I got money *and* access to Korvettes in 1979. Oh, and without looking it up and without having heard it in a million years: "She wants to hit those bricks, 'cause the news at six got to stick to a deadline." Great song. I recall it seeming extra refreshing after the french lesson that preceded it...

It never occurred to me that BJ might have demos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oG8vobuAIg

You can kind of imagine Lou Reed doing something with this...

man yall like what you like it's all good but this guy is one of the worst lyricists of all time, and the problem's compounded by his basic meter & rhyme skills - which aren't bad, thereby throwing the paucity of his content into high relief

well yeah this is a guy whose idea of a couplet is "You can go the distance/with too much resistance," sung as if he were having heart trouble.

Crazy people. Tell me that this ain't poetry:

Me revoici
Dans ce bar enfume
Avec mes yeux ivres

It's in French, for fuck's sake...

I mean, yeah: Michelle, ma belle, you smell. Big deal:

Je recherche l'affection
Qu'une autre pourrait me donner
Mais apres tout
Je sais qu'il n'y a personne
Personne qui puisse me sauver
Tu etais la seule

It doesn't even rhyme. How cool is that! Oh, maybe I'd better just translate that on the next verse.

Dude, he's a populist. His skill as a lyricist is that he knows what emotional state he's trying to sell and how to swagger it where it needs it so that people identify with it. "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints" - Shakespeare it ain't but it's memorable and it's perfectly appropriate for the song's character and situation.

I like Billy Joel's lyrics. Not all of them, certainly, but enough to count. They're simple, and they invite easy identification. They pick out the emotions in big bold strokes, the rhymes and rhythms underlined in red so you can sing along at home. They cut a little, maybe, but never too deep. That's not such a bad thing.

I love "Miami 2017", for instance. It's a juvenile apocalypse, drunk on romantic rebellion and defeat, a blur of places and names dipped in cheap cynicism and set alight. Whatever the fuel, it roars right along, the verses always ending on an open 'oh', 'ah' or 'ee' so he (we) can wantonly belt the Big Note to the stars. It's a fun song, engagingly clever without being terribly insightful, subtle or even particularly honest. It's a fantasy of youthful war against vast powers, of survival in the bombed-out remains. But what of it? Sometimes a megaphone and a match do the job just fine.

It reminds me of two other, more generally well-respected songs that I like in a similar way: Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan" and Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime". I guess I'm a sucker for doomy, paranoid and slightly hysterical rebel fantasies. The edge on Joel's satirical knife might be a little dull, relatively speaking, but the general gist and tone aren't too far off. And Billy beat them guys to the punch by a matter of years.

Richly OTM.

Yeah, except the Leonard Cohen and Talking Heads song have menacing music that matches the lyrical mode. They're not some hoaky serenade set to some ersatz Elton boilerplate. Maybe if you're totally immersed in Joel's lyrics I'd theoretically concede your point, but the Leonard Cohen and Heads songs are both funnier and scarier. They sound like the world is ending as you're listening, and they're singing as the ship goes down. Miami 2017 sounds like some "we can do it!" celebration crossed with a nightly entertainment news theme.

It's the death blow of the middle of the road. Even when you win, you lose.

Dude, he's a populist. His skill as a lyricist is that he knows what emotional state he's trying to sell and how to swagger it where it needs it so that people identify with it. "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints" - Shakespeare it ain't but it's memorable and it's perfectly appropriate for the song's character and situation.

Shakespeare is a populist FYI. You don't have to be terrible to be a populist.

I don't give a shit about lyrics. Dude writes irresistable tunes, just like Elton.

[/geir]

"Irresistible"

http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Lugosi,%20Bela/Annex/Annex%20-%20Lugosi,%20Bela%20(Mark%20of%20the%20Vampire)_02.jpg

you just sit and home and masturbaaaate

They both play the piano, but I don't hear many similarities between Elton John and Billy Joel.

they're both kinda ugly

yeah i mean the comparison between them is purely that they were the two big piano-playing solo stars of the same era, nothing more nothing less, right? that said, i'd enjoy catching one of those tours they've done together.

I saw one. Sucked.

Their careers form an hourglass too: Joel started selling records during Elton's late seventies slump, then both enjoyed an MTV resurgence.

billy joel or elton john. Who really sucks the most?

It's weird because the most prominent time where I put them is in the mid-90s, having to collate advertising brochures in a warehouse while listening to Top 40 radio play "River of Dreams" interchanged with "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" every hour.

There's not really any solo artist that can touch Elton's early 70's period. Billy Joel beats Elton when comparing their late 70's/early 80's periods. Mid 90's BJ craps all over EJ's mid 90's from a mile up.

I do want to amend my previous comments about later Joel - - I actually quite like "River of Dreams" (though it overstays its welcome) and I am a rare defender of "We Didn't Start The Fire" just for being REALLY REALLY REALLY fun to sing although objectively not a good song on many levels. I just think neither of them helps Billy Joel, and both would be better as weird one-hit wonder songs by bands you never heard of. He should have gone the Chris Gaines route and put out singles as... Jilly Boel or something.

There's not really any solo artist that can touch Elton's early 70's period.

gtfo

http://www.bigozine2.com/MP308/JMparis/JMparisBk.jpg

not to mention:

Paul Simon
Al Green
Bill Withers
Cohen

I prefer Elton's mid seventies to the early seventies.

Rod Stewart came close to Elton John's early '70s chart domination, didn't he?

Discussion was about the supposed hourglass career thing right, so yeah, I think Elton probably beats all of those for consistent single and album sales in that period (though not sure about Al Green?).

I think I may actually be swinging "Uptown Girl," god is it hook-laden and boy is it the perfect conclusion to my hastily sketched Billy Joel metanarrative above - - not only does he finally get the girl, he finally LIKES the girl, even though she is an uptown big-shot kind of girl, like he seems to have maybe gotten over his bullshit a little.

And I mean, Frankie Valli is awesome, why not make some more Four Seasons songs?

I don't hear many similarities between Elton John and Billy Joel.

both have some of the worst, cringe-inducing, painful-to-listen to lyrics ever

Ehhhh, lotta days I'll take a good hack over a great poet.

hey give Elton John some credit...he didn't write those lyrics

well sure, but it's sort of unbelievable that anyone would pay someone else to write such shitty lyrics. Bernie Taupin's appeal eludes me

I can totally get with Elton's melodicism, but when I listen to what he's singing it makes me want to smash my stereo

kinda the same with Joel altho I think he's much weaker in the melodies dept. I find his proto-doo wop stuff the catchiest.

lol Taupin's best known non-EJ lyric is "We Built This City"

starship really had to go get outside help for that one huh.

fuckin lyrics
how do they work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnrSqZwT2pg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqg2rClfLIc&feature=related

Now you're posting Weird Al videos. Billy Joel wins again, my friend.

You'd better cool it off before you burn it out. You've got so much to do and only so many hours in a day.

lol Taupin's best known non-EJ lyric is "We Built This City"

and "These Dreams"!

hm, news to me!

good weird al vids

the deal with Bernie Taupin is he's kind of like what if language poetry met popular song. the only matter of import is whether the syllables sound awesome together when delivered by a good frontman, which they do. I don't doubt that if he put his mind to it, he could write a lyric consisting only of nonsense syllables that sounded good to him, and it'd still sound terrific once Elton John got hold of it.

He did, and that song was called "Nikita." It was terrible.

"Solar Prestige a Gammon"!

Taupin could write good lyrics when it suited him ("Hard Luck Stories," "Someone Saved...") but Elton didn't demand them.

so Bernie Taupin is like proto-Elizabeth Fraser

Yeah, except the Leonard Cohen and Talking Heads song have menacing music that matches the lyrical mode. They're not some hoaky serenade set to some ersatz Elton boilerplate.

i know, i was defending joel's lyrics against aero's "worst lyricist of all time" slam. personally, i like his tunes too. "menacing" can be great, but i can't imagine that "miami 2017" would be any more appealing if they were less cheesily anthemic.

i have no real problem with taupin as a lyricist, either. a lot of his stuff is cringe-inducingly schmaltzy, sure, but sometimes the shmaltz just plain works. i've always found "daniel" quite moving, and that's a product of the lyrics as much as of the music and performance.

^ not to say that i really admire taupin as a lyricist...

nor billy neither

In Praise Of... Billy Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Down On Broadway)"

Even though it's not on the greatest hits, "Summer Highland Falls" is my POO. I don't think he ever did something that good again--almost a one-off sadly. Songs in the Attic and Turnstiles (as well as The Stranger) are my go-to Billy.

Yeah "Songs In the Attic" is like an alternate "greatest hits."

IMO "Stranger" -> "52nd street" -> "songs in the attic" -> "glass houses" -> "nylon curtain" was a decent run, even though they all contain songs I hate, but I'd rather listen to a mix of my favorite 20 songs from those 5 albums than the greatest hits collections.

The thing is that Summer Highland Falls is basically a Ben Folds song with all of the smugness and immaturity taken out, and since I love Ben Folds but hate that side of him just like everybody else, that song is basically an ideal for me when it comes to piano-led pop.

Voted Allentown in this one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

crap, never did vote in this - - - agggh!

Got it down to these:

Stranger
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Movin' out (Anthony's Song)
Only the Good Die Young
Uptown Girl

Still feel like in a way "Uptown Girl" is my straight favorite out of those but it feels weird not to pick one from the "classic" string of albums. Ahhhhh jeez.

btw,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3ogFWISPuw

never knew this had a video. Don't think I've even listened to the song in close to ten years except maybe if I let the record keep playing and wasn't paying attention. Not as bad as I remember.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow...only 3 zeroes

Can I say I'm shocked by the result? I never knew "Allentown" really had a base of support anywhere. It sent a chill down my spine as a kid but it seems a little bit...heavyhanded and obvious? But I guess like I said above, dude's a populist and sometimes an unsubtle one, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Pretty great turnout!

Also - listening to Streetlife Serenade right now and really can't fathom having "The Entertainer" on this greatest hits. Don't think that's just being familiarity with the tracklist that we had growing up...I mean, I like the song a lot, it's just that it's so sonically removed from the other stuff. Really different vibe on the Los Angeles records.

Allentown and Movin' Out both the lead-off hitters on their respective albums.

Yeah, I don't think "Easy Money" really stood a shot.

Didn't see this poll at the time; the best song is clearly Movin Out.

This album, Graceland and the West Side Story soundtrack were the trifecta of childhood holiday car albums for me.

Ooh yay what great results! And I absolutley will concur to the 3 zeros. The Entertainer alone irritates the HELL out of me

she's got a way is incredibly lovely, no? must have been a poll malfunction.

veg, if you're out there, the listening thread needs your reaction to the "you're only human" video