Now at his commercial peak, Joel still had a noticeable streak of obnoxiousness which cropped up in weird places--such as on this album's very cover. Similarly, both "You...
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The back-to-back success of The Stranger and 52nd Street may have brought Billy Joel fame and fortune, even a certain amount of self-satisfaction, but it didn't bring him...
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Perhaps it was inevitable that Billy Joel's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 would pale next to its double-disc predecessor. Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 covered nine albums (it ignored...
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Billy Joel's four-disc The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997: Limited Edition reissues his three Greatest Hits collections and adds a live rarities collection previously...
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Among the major artists celebrating the end of the 20th century with a New Year's Eve blowout was Billy Joel, who set up shop at Madison Square Garden and played a marathon...
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A few short months after abandoning the heavy organ-and-drums duo Attila -- partially because their sole record flopped, partially because he stole the drummer's wife --...
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The album that most people first heard by Billy Joel sounded like--to be completely accurate here--Harry Chapin in places, which was not a good sign. Still, the title...
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Embittered by legal disputes with his label and an endless tour to support a debut that was dead in the water, Billy Joel hunkered down in his adopted hometown of Los...
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Columbia reissued two of Billy Joel's early albums, Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade, on one cassette in the late '70s. This isn't necessarily a bad way to acquire this...
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The follow-up to Piano Man, this included "The Entertainer" and showed just the smallest hint of artistic growth on Joel's part. The very smallest....
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Extending a mean streak he'd already revealed more than once, Joel looks upon the star-making machinery that broke him the year before and scorns it. But he has such a gift...
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Unpretentiously pre-fame, the material here is actually pretty good--including "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "New York State Of Mind"--though the production, by Joel ...
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There's a reason Turnstiles begins with the Spector-esque epic "Say Goodbye to Hollywood." Shortly after Streetlife Serenade, Joel ditched California -- and, by implication,...
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Just as its predecessor The Stranger had its finger on America's pop pulse, 52nd Street is chockfull of agreeable tuneage. Highlights: "Honesty," "My Life," and the...
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Once The Stranger became a hit, Billy Joel quickly re-entered the studio with producer Phil Ramone to record the follow-up, 52nd Street. Instead of breaking from the sound...
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At the height of his fame, Joel offered this packaged of re-performed, unreleased older material--much of which sounded surprisingly fine. Highlight: "Say Goodbye To...
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Praised by critics who formerly hated the man's music, The Nylon Curtain is Joel's "serious" album; though it includes "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon," there's little...
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Billy Joel hit back as hard as he could with Glass Houses, his bid to prove that he could rock as hard as any of those new wave punks. He might not have proven himself a...
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To give credit where it's due: Billy Joel's knock-offs of early '60s pop ala the Four Seasons are remarkably accurate--and here are "Uptown Girl," "The Longest Time" and...
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Recording The Nylon Curtain exhausted Billy Joel, and even though it had a pair of major hits, it didn't rival its predecessors in terms of sales. Since he labored so hard...
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Although it's missing a few important (not to mention big) hits, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 is an excellent retrospective of the first half of Billy Joel's career. Beginning...
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Schlockmeister that he might be, Joel put together the album of his life with 1977's The Stranger. The power-packed lineup includes "Just The Way You Are," "She's Always A...
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Billy Joel teamed with Phil Ramone, a famed engineer who had just scored his first producing hits with Art Garfunkel's Breakaway and Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These...
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Riding high on the blockbuster An Innocent Man and with a new jet-setting bride at his side, Billy Joel took full advantage of the high life, as is clear from The Bridge, an...
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Since Joel's concerts largely reproduce his studio recordings, and since he already has a greatest hits album out, a live record is inessential. The cachet of recording it...
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Though "We Didn't Start The Fire" indeed featured a killer example of music video excessiveness--the reminder of the tracks here were given disappointingly lackluster ...
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Joel caused a stampede for high school social science classes with the patter song "We Didn't Start The Fire," a cross between Gilbert And Sullivan and rock 'n' roll that...
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Boasting a cover painted by his soon to be ex-wife Christie Brinkley, this album spent its first three weeks on the Billboard chart sitting comfortably at the No. 1 ...
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Released in conjunction with Billy Joel's grand experiment with classical music, The Essential Billy Joel was a welcome reminder of Billy Joel's way with a pop song,...
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Combining the first two Greatest Hits albums (which were already paired on CD) with the third entry in the series, this collection takes all the radio hits Joel has ever had...
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Columbia reissued two of Billy Joel's most popular albums, An Innocent Man and The Stranger, on one cassette in the late '80s. This isn't necessarily a bad way to acquire...
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Embittered by legal disputes with his label and an endless tour to support a debut that was dead in the water, Billy Joel hunkered down in his adopted hometown of Los...
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Having scored three multi-platinum hits in a row, Billy Joel took a breather, releasing his first live album, Songs in the Attic, as he worked on his ambitious follow-up to...
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Joel has reached middle age and he is still restless and angry. Fortunately, this results in some fine, adventurous music, making River of Dreams his strongest effort since...
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It was pretty clear that Billy Joel had run out of steam by 1993's River of Dreams. He had shown signs of wearing on its predecessor, Storm Front, but his trademark melodic...
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