Top 20 Billy Joel Songs

To his credit score, Billy Joel by no means actually stayed the place he was purported to.

As a New York-based singer-songwriter within the early ’70s, he reduce his first report, which no person heard. He then relocated to Los Angeles, rebooted, had a minor hit after which returned dwelling, the place he constructed a profession on two nice pop albums with jazz undertones, as you will see on the beneath checklist of the Top 20 Billy Joel Songs.

He then shifted gears once more … and once more, releasing a string of information – a rock ‘n’ roll one, a politically aware one, one which paid tribute to the music he grew up on – earlier than halting his recording profession following the discharge of his fourth No. 1 album.

20. “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” (From Turnstiles, 1976)

Joel was dwelling in Los Angeles when he wrote “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway),” however by the point it was launched, he was again in his hometown of New York City. It was written as type of a fable, a futuristic have a look at a metropolis inching towards complete collapse. After Sept. 11, the tune took on an entire new which means.

READ MORE: When Billy Joel Followed Up His Breakthrough With ’52nd Street’

19. (*20*) (From Piano Man, 1973)

Early in his profession, Joel wrote so much about what he knew – which was himself. He additionally penned lengthier and extra bold narratives again earlier than he started profitable Grammys. (*20*) wraps each of those in a five-and-a-half-minute epic in regards to the legendary gunslinger. The final verse brings it throughout to the current day, and despite the fact that Joel has denied that he is the child from Long Island right here, the details say in any other case.

18. “Captain Jack” (From Piano Man, 1973)

After his debut album tanked in 1971, Joel retreated whereas issues together with his report firm had been sorted out. He discovered inspiration and recent perspective throughout his break, writing a few of his most advanced and private songs – lots of which ended up on his second album. The seven-minute “Captain Jack,” which caps the Piano Man LP, was written in New York a few neighborhood drug vendor. It’s certainly one of Joel’s earliest triumphs.

17. “You May Be Right” (From Glass Houses, 1980)

One of Joel’s hardest rockers kicked off his 1980 album Glass Houses, his second No. 1 and first LP to be recorded after he reached famous person heights (he wasn’t but a confirmed star when he made 1978’s 52nd Street). The remainder of the report tries somewhat too onerous to interrupt from Joel’s singer-songwriter and jazz-inflected earlier work; “You May Be Right” is the one tune that will get it utterly proper.

16. “Only the Good Die Young” (From The Stranger, 1977)

Joel’s “pro-lust” tune is not precisely delicate (“Sooner or later it comes down to fate, I might as well be the one“), however it’s his most playful hit. Powered by hand claps, shuffling acoustic guitar and certainly one of Joel’s most profitable vocals, “Only the Good Die Young” broke down a number of the levity surrounding The Stranger. But that did not cease Catholic teams from calling for a widespread radio ban.

15. “Tell Her About It” (From An Innocent Man, 1983)

After the heaviness of 1982’s The Nylon Curtain, Joel lightened up with a set of recent songs that paid tribute to his childhood. ‘An Innocent Man’ included musical homages to doo-wop, the Four Seasons and ’60s R&B amongst its sweet-tooth nostalgia. “Tell Her About It”‘ the album’s finest tune and Joel’s second No. 1 single, nods to Motown, full with sunshine horns, in-step backing singers and a monster hook.

14. “Goodnight Saigon” (From The Nylon Curtain, 1982)

Following 1980’s back-to-rock-‘n’-roll-basics album Glass Houses, Joel took a extra purposeful activate his eighth LP, steering The Nylon Curtain into extra musically adventurous territory. He additionally went deeper together with his lyrics, tackling all the things from Reaganomics to working-class struggles to – within the album’s finest reduce, “Goodnight Saigon” – the Vietnam War.

13. “I’ve Loved These Days” (From Turnstiles, 1976)

The second single from 1976’s Turnstiles album was a string-guided ballad that pointed the way in which towards Joel’s extra profitable future. A private quantity tied to Joel’s transfer from Los Angeles to New York, “I’ve Loved These Days” is likely one of the most unsung tracks in his catalog.

12. “My Life” (From 52nd Street, 1978)

The first single from Billy Joel’s first post-breakthrough album 52nd Street gave an excellent indication of the place Joel was heading now that he lastly had a Top 10 hit. “My Life” was half playful, half defiant, and well-earned after 5 albums right into a decade-long profession. The tune reached No. 3, the identical place as “Just the Way You Are” a yr earlier.

11. “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” (From The Stranger, 1977)

The opening tune on Joel’s fifth album, The Stranger, was an extension of his earlier work: a personality examine rooted in his private life. But this time the report clicked with report consumers, who despatched the album to No. 2 (his highest-charting LP as much as that time was a No. 27 displaying for Piano Man). Bigger issues had been ready.

READ MORE: How Billy Joel Finally Hit the Big Time With ‘The Stranger”

10. “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (From Glass Houses, 1980)

Like many music veterans working on the flip of the last decade, Billy Joel was sensing a tide turning as punk gave option to new wave because the ’70s turned the ’80s. “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” was his becoming, and considerably snotty, response to rising developments in music. It was additionally his first No. 1 single.

9. “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” (From Turnstiles, 1976)

Joel wrote “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” for Ronnie Spector, going so far as replicating the well-known opening drum rhythm from “Be My Baby.” She ended up recording the tune with the E Street Band in 1977. In 1981, after a pair of No. 1 albums, Joel included the tune on his LP of unheralded reside tracks, Songs From the Attic, and launched the tune as a single.

8. “The River of Dreams” (From River of Dreams, 1993)

Following the discharge of his 1993 album River of Dreams, Joel give up recording rock and pop music full-time. He nonetheless toured and made a classical recording, however River of Dreams stays his final album of latest music. The album’s lead single and title monitor made it to No. 3, his final Top 10 hit.

7. “The Longest Time” (From An Innocent Man, 1983)

Joel’s 1983 album-length homage to oldies music ran the gamut – from Four Seasons-styled New Jersey group harmonies to Motown soul stirrers. “The Longest Time” was his nod to street-corner wop. The first three singles from An Innocent Man made it to the Top 10; “An Innocent Man” stopped at No. 14.

6. “Allentown” (From The Nylon Curtain, 1982)

Billy Joel used his business clout to make a political report for his eighth album. The Nylon Curtain scoped such Reagan-era points as Vietnam PTSD, financial downturns and the Cold War. “Allentown” took a working-class Pennsylvania city hit onerous as its topic and shifted by means of the financial fallout of producers leaving the area on its residents.

5. “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” (From The Stranger, 1977)

The most bold tune on Joel’s breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger unspools as a seven-and-a-half-minute, three-part suite patterned after the Beatles’ side-two Abbey Road medley. It additionally serves as a bridge of types between the longer story songs Joel wrote pre-fame and the extra tightly centered numbers that anchored his pop profession. Either approach, it is certainly one of his biggest musical and lyrical achievements.

4. “New York State of Mind” (From Turnstiles, 1976)

1976’s Turnstiles was a turning level for Joel, who had made 4 albums at that time that hadn’t executed a lot on the charts. While Turnstiles stalled at No. 122, it started Joel’s period of sharper songwriting that might serve him properly within the years to come back. “New York State of Mind” has solely grown in stature over time – a live performance favourite that turned a key tune through the post-9/11 period. The Stranger was proper across the nook.

3. “Uptown Girl” (From An Innocent Man, 1983)

Billy Joel laid out his intentions for his An Innocent Man album from the beginning: It was designed as a tribute to the songs of his childhood. And no tune higher captured that feeling (and period) than “Uptown Girl,” a Four Seasons tribute that was virtually higher than the true factor.

2. “Just the Way You Are” (From The Stranger, 1977)

Six years and 5 albums into his profession, Joel lastly landed a Top 10 hit with this quintessentially ’70s ballad. It instantly pegged him as a basic singer-songwriter and made him a star. It stays some of the completely constructed songs in Joel’s catalog, a valentine to his then-wife and enterprise supervisor – despite the fact that he was by no means all that keen on it (and even much less so after they divorced).

1. “Piano Man” (From Piano Man, 1973)

After Cold Spring Harbor was launched, and bombed, in 1971, Joel took consolation by taking part in piano at a lounge in Los Angeles, the place he had relocated from New York to report his debut album. Night after evening he’d see the identical characters, lots of whom would present up in his first single a pair years later. “Piano Man” reached solely No. 25, however its stature grew over time, as Joel turned a much bigger star. It’s been his signature tune ever since.