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Best and Worst: Billy Joel Albums
I have strong opinions about Billy Joel’s music, so of course I had to take this opportunity to analyze it and determine his best and worst albums! I was going to do the top five songs and bottom five songs, but all the bottom ones would have come from the same album, so that doesn’t seem interesting. Then I was going to write about just the singles, but that would have taken more time than I had to weed through. So, I opted to go with the top and bottom albums instead. I’m going to tell you the top and bottom albums critically speaking, what I think are his best and worst albums, and then what my favorite and least favorite albums are. For the critical rankings, the criteria I am going to use are, first, peak chart position in the United States, followed (for the best album) by the number of countries in which the album was No. 1, since there are four albums that went to No. 1 in the U.S.
Here we go!
Best Billy Joel Album
Critical opinion: As I mentioned above, four Billy Joel albums went to No. 1 in the U.S.: “52nd Street,” “Glass Houses,” “Storm Front,” and “River of Dreams.” Of those four, only one also went to No. 1 in three other countries: “52nd Street” (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, if you’re interested). While I don’t think this album is the strongest, nor is it one of my favorites, it does have quite a few hits, notably “Honesty” and “My Life.” (“Stiletto” is probably my favorite track on the album, though.)
My opinion: Honestly, I think the best Billy Joel album has to be “The Stranger.” It’s such, such a strong album and has so many of his classic songs on it: “Movin’ Out,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “She’s Always a Woman” — not to mention the title track. If I were going to suggest an album for someone who has never heard Billy Joel’s music before, this is the one I’d pick. Sure, the last two tracks aren’t amazing, but the rest of the album more than makes up for that.
My favorite: The reason I am dividing this up is because what I objectively think is the best album is not my actual favorite album (although I do love “The Stranger”). It’s similar to the fact that I think “The Empire Strikes Back” is the best Star Wars movie, but “Return of the Jedi” is my favorite. (But that’s a whole other post.) Anyway, it was a difficult decision, but I suppose I would have to say that my favorite Billy Joel album is “Glass Houses.” Except for the last track (“Through the Long Night”), there’s not a song on it that I don’t love, and it’s just fun.
Worst Billy Joel Album
Critical opinion: Not surprisingly, the album that performed the worst on the charts was Billy Joel’s first album, “Cold Spring Harbor.” This is hardly fair, all things considered, but he was an unknown at the time, so it makes sense. I actually think this album is excellent, even stronger overall than his next installment, “Piano Man.” (Although, “Piano Man” does have bigger hits with its titular song and “Captain Jack.”) “Cold Spring Harbor” went to 158; the next worst-performing album (“Turnstiles”) reached 122.
My opinion: I am very outspoken about the fact that I think “Streetlife Serenade” is Billy Joel’s worst album. My understanding of this album is that he returned from tour and was told to write the whole album in about three months. The only interesting song on it is “The Entertainer.” It kind of makes sense that it would be his worst album because it was written when he lived in California and was heavily influenced by that fact. And if there’s one thing fans know about Billy Joel, it’s that he’s a New Yorker through and through. This album is also his only one with two instrument-only tracks.
My least favorite: You may not be surprised to hear this, but this time, what I consider the worst album and my least favorite are the same. I just do not like “Streetlife Serenade,” and except for “The Entertainer” and very occasionally “Streetlife Serenader,” I do not ever listen to the songs on this album. As mentioned already, I think the California influence on the album really hurt it, and it’s no surprise that his “back to New York” album (“Turnstiles”), which came next, was such a good one.
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Not a huge fan, in that I don’t know of most of these albums of which you speak. But I am a rather large fan of the guy – he seems like a total mensch.
I’ve seen him in concert a few times, a thoroughly likeable – and absurdly talented – dude.
Like I said, don’t know these albums. But The Stranger? I know every song on it. There are no songs I don’t like. I can sing along with every one of them.
So I guess my vote would be for The Stranger.
If you wanted to mix it up, I could go Elton John with you, up to around The Fox, or Jump Up – I lost interest after that. And had all those endless albums from Empty Sky through Captain Fantastic to listen to endlessly.
Elton John and Billy Joel – obviously different, but two songwriting piano players with great voices working at the same time, comparisons will happen. Both amazing.
If there was any love on Ricochet for The Flaming Lips, I would stay up all night discussing all the pre-Hit To Death stuff, the middle section (Hit-to-death/Clouds/Transmissions), the golden period (Soft Bulletin/Yoshimi/At War), and then whatever the hell it is they are doing now.
But I will watch to see what you Billy Joel scholars have to say. Love that guy.
Dredging up memories and I mean dreddgging. I had one Billy Joel album on cassette, circa way back when. This post prompted me to go looking and see if I could determine what album I had. I thought I would recognize the album cover, but oddly none really jumped off the page (though may have recognized the back cover that I found later). Then started looking through the songs of each album. You May Be Right caught my eye on Glass Houses. Glancing at the other titles, the only other one I remembered title-wise was, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me. But all the tunes were still stuck in my head, just under layers of the years. Based on it being the only one I paid to listen to, I would concur with it being an excellent choice for a favorite album.
So difficult to pick a favorite. I like most of them. It’s way easier to pick the worst – River of Dreams. I won’t speculate on the why’s, but it just didn’t work despite the popularity of the title song.
Back to the favorite. If I were forced to pick only one, I think it would be The Stranger (not to jump on the bandwagon).
However, I’d rather pick in tiers. Remember I like all of these but there is an order:
Top 3 not necessarily in order: The Stranger, Piano Man, An Innocent Man
Middling (what a middle!): Glass Houses, Turnstiles, Storm Front
Fair (heh, other musicians should be so lucky): 52nd Street, The Bridge, Nylon Curtain
Least listened-to: Cold Spring Harbor, Streetlife Serenade
Should have quit before this album: River of Dreams
Mine, too. My frat buddies and I once sang most of the album to unfortunate passers-by both in and on the way home from the Irish Lion in Bloomington, Indiana. Most of us were quite thoroughly tanked at the time, but a couple of us could still sing. Or at least approximate human singing.
I rarely comment on music posts because I’m not into music, but I love this post and this will be an exception. I’ve been to five concerts in my life, and four of them were Billy Joel, all packed into four years of my largely wasted youth.
I also would choose The Stranger as my favorite album. I discovered Billy Joel in the summer of 1979, while listening to The Stranger on a visit to New York, when I discovered it in an uncle’s record collection and listened to it over and over. I memorized the album that summer and heard Billy Joel in concert the following year — and each year thereafter through 1983.
My least favorite is probably The Nylon Curtain. I didn’t care for the Vietnam theme and urban edginess. Allentown, which did pretty well, just didn’t speak to me. Having said that, I thought Laura was brilliant, and Pressure was very good.
I understand why Cold Spring Harbor isn’t popular, but I liked it — a lot. Everybody Loves You Now is terrific, Falling of the Rain is haunting, and, in my opinion, She’s Got a Way is right up there with She’s Always a Woman to Me as a paean to the mystery of woman.
But I love all his old stuff: Piano Man, 52nd Street, Streetlife Serenade, The Stranger… and, yes, Turnstiles.
Great memories, and a great post. Thank you for that!
I’m west by mid-west and Joel is alien to me. From his class consciousness to his [redact]chy women, he comes from a land I never lived in; New York, I suppose.
I did have several of his albums growing up, but looking back, it is River of Dreams (the song) that appeals most, despite – or perhaps because – of its throwback qualities.
He’s a good writer, I just don’t feel him.
I dont think it was released on an album, but While the Night IsStill Young was a nice surprise from his greatest hits volumes.
IIRC, The Stranger earned Joel unexpected respect from rock critics, because the title track’s lyrics hinted at a Serious Depth his oeuvre had previously lacked. I think they just had to admit the guy could write a tune. But somehow it was caught up in the New Wave zeitgeist; Joel’s ability to project anger put him on the right side of the critical ledger, instead of being consigned to the slough of MOR despond.
The guy was one of those rare naturals. Like, a total mook, just a guy from the nabe, except you sit him down at the piano and suddenly he’s Mozart with the melodies already.
The problem might be the instrumentation. A tune like “Pressure,” which has a fantastic melody and modulation, is dated by the synths.
Didn’t connect with me either, because I didn’t grow up in a Rust Belt / post-industrial city. It was part of that Springsteeny lament about the loss of the old jobs, which was of course Ronald Reagan’s fault. But these lyrics hit me:
Deft summary, and I was with him: our fathers.
Sometimes I think his stuff works because he didn’t know what he shouldn’t have done. “My Life” has quite a sophisticated series of key changes, but it seems like the happy accident of someone who has very good instincts and trusts them. There’s a modulation in “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” that is absolutely wrong and absolutely right, and I am ambivalent about it every time I hear it.
I always thought there was something “off” with this album. Then in an interview with Howard Stern, Billy explained it. There was an error during mastering of this album that caused the songs to play slightly fast. This raised Joel’s voice a quarter-step. No wonder it didn’t do well.
I do love The Stranger. It’s one of those “perfect albums,” at least in my book.
Glass Houses. I played it so much the 8 track disintegrated in the player.
Thanks to my kids, the wife and I saw Billy Joel and Paul McCartney in 2019. Neither disappointed. I guess they were paying us back for dragging them to all those Jimmy Buffet concerts.
The guy is a genius with the piano. I listened to him do a whole show on The Beatles channel which consisted entirely of Billy and his piano doing riffs like “listen to how they blended this together.” And “This shouldn’t work but they did it anyway and it’s brilliant.”
I Love You Just The Way You Are is “our song”.
Thanks, Allie. Fun post.
I will forgo my usual rule and mention a spelling error in the Comments: you misspelled “whole nother”. Probably didn’t hit the “n” key quite hard eough.
[TAGS: Odd senses of humor amongst amateur economists. Please don’t make me explain me. I can’t.]
Unfortunate that COLD SPRING HARBOR was mixed incorrectly. There are some wonderful songs on it. It’s ashamed that he didn’t have any of the songs on other albums or just re-do it after he was successful. Everybody Loves You Now is on his live album SONGS IN THE ATTIC though.
No mention of Attila?
This 7 year old article is still an interesting read:
The Complete Works: Ranking All 121 Billy Joel Songs
All I’ll say is “Summer, Highland Falls” at #27 is way too low, and “Piano Man” at #15 is way, way too high.
Yeah, I’d move a few of the top 1/3 around, but it holds up overall.
I think the title song of “The Stranger” is my all time favorite Billy Joel song. I also like “Big Shot” and “Rosalinda’s Eyes” from the 52nd Street album.
If you force me to choose between Elton John and Billy Joel, that’s easy. I’ll take Elton John. Songs that never got much radio play like “Gotta Get a Meal Ticket” (from Captain Fanstastic) and “Sails” from Empty Sky are among my favorites.
It’s great we live in an era where we can enjoy so much music.
According to some people, we’ve enjoyed it for far too long.
These people are not allowed on my lawn.
As an older former New Yorker, I applaud The Longest Time, his doo-wop revival from the summer of 1984.
For Ricochet’s politically-conscious, I call your attention to a couple of verses from his lyrics to Angry Young Man, a song as relevant when he wrote it in the 1970’s as it is today.
Best not, hun.
Well I have just lost an hour and a half of work googling, listening, and looking at the music on my phone in the pleasant diversion of the songs of this latter day Gershwin.
How to pick the best of a chunk of the soundtrack of one’s life. In the sound picture category, there is “We Didn’t Start the Fire” as well as “Allentown” and “Downeaster Alexa.” Love them all.
As I tend toward the melancholy, “Leningrad,” “And So it Goes” and “Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)” often hit the spot.
The older tender ones are good: “Just the Way You Are,” “She’s Got a Way” and “Honesty.”
My favorite driving rhythm – rock song of his is “I Go to Extremes” from Storm Front.
What a talent.
I saw Billy Joel in the mid-1970s. I’d never heard of him before. It was in a small venue in the south where he opened for the Beach Boys and blew them away. He played Piano Man from cover to cover, and it will always be my favorite. I will agree to also enjoying The Stranger.
There was a time at an old job, when every Saturday I was first to show up and I would start with this song. It reminds me of a certain girl I see from time to time.
I’ve had Glass Houses sitting in the pile of cds on my desk for 6 weeks. The pile keeps getting bigger, as I’ve been on a real cd kick these last few months.
I have been lucky enough to know quite a few talented songwriters in my life, and every single one of them — at least the Boomer generation songwriters — have all said at some point in their careers that they wish they could write a song like Billy Joel. Absolutely true. Every one of them.
We had a CD of Joel’s classical piano music when I worked at KCSC (now KUCO). He wrote them, but Joo Hyung-Ki played them.
I love this post and of course, Billy Joel is in my top five songwriter/performers. So many great tunes, but “NY State of Mind” stands out to me, along with “So It Goes.” But his songs are like children; you have to love them all. What a talent. Thanks for this.
Yeah, that doo-wop album was terrific. “Angry Young Man” is good, too.
We end the month as we started, with a musical variation on the theme.
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I wasn’t a fan but I did appreciate his talent, which was better understood by seeing him live than on the goofy MTV videos I grew up with.
Still I owe him for providing my eighteen year old self a theme song:
I don’t need you to worry for me cause I’m alright. Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone.