I’ve never owned much Billy Joel. I had a cutout LP copy of Streetlife Seranade which I listened to fairly regularly. I bought the Greatest Hits I and II on CD back in college and I have no idea where it is now after numerous moves since college.
Amazon has most of the CDs available at 6-7 dollar price level, interestingly cheaper than the MP3 downloads.
For a casual fan, am I better off grabbing a couple of the numerous greatest hits albums or are there some individual albums worth picking up?
For a casual fan, the “essential” collection is probably all you need, especially the 3-disc version, unless there’s an inordinate number of obscure album tracks you’d like to have (the 2-disc version, though cheaper and available as MP3, inexplicably omits such hits as “Big Shot”, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, and “Angry Young Man”).
Like you, I had had one or two CD’s back in the day (52nd Street and Glass Houses in my case), but I rarely yearn for the full album experience. When decision time came for the digital necessities, I only ripped the Essential to iTunes. And of course, any particular track you feel the collection should have you can almost always buy as a single.
Sure. I would definitely pick up “The Stranger,” “52nd Street,” and “An Innocent Man,” his three best IMO. I would also pick up “Storm Front,” which is chock full of good songs such as “I Go To Extremes” and “Shameless.” Although the most famous song off that album is “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which people either love or hate and have strong opinions about. “The Bridge” has “Baby Grand,” a great duet with Ray Charles. “Glass Houses” has some interesting songs on it. And you should also check out “Kohuept,” his live album from his tour of the Soviet Union in the late 80s.
No Billy Joel library can be complete without “Songs in the Attic”, a collection of live performances of some of his more obscure early songs. It’s the only live album I’ve ever heard in which every single song is better than its original studio recording. Just buy that instead of any of his pre-“Stranger” albums.
The Stranger has more great songs than many artists can muster for a Greatest Hits album. I’d want any compilation I bought to include pretty much everything from it.
The Stranger is one of those rare, seamless albums without a single wasted cut on it. It stands out as an album you should have in its entirety.
I like what Robert Christgau said about him.
Another vote for The Stranger. Followed closely by 52nd Street.
Whatever you do, don’t get that greatest hits CD – 2 CD set, I think – which came out 10 or 15 years ago. They shortened several songs (e.g., “My Life”)!
Yeah, definitely get The Stranger. Then a greatest hits album that will be about half of a duplicate of The Stranger, and you’re good to go.
The album is actually titled “Concert”, only in Cyrillic. Took me a couple of years to realize that…
They have since replaced the shortened versions with the full-length album cuts.
Oh, and thanks, dalej42. Your OP has inspired me to get out some of my Billy Joel albums. Well, not really, they’re all on my iPhone, but it’s been awhile since I listened to anything except off a playlist. But I just clicked up The Stranger. I had forgotten what a finely crafted piece of music “Vienna” is.
Interesting, I did used to own the Greatest Hits I and II which had the edited songs. I didn’t even realize the songs were edited. However, from reading the Amazon reviews, while they’ve eliminated the edited versions, they also eliminated the live version of Say Goodbye To Hollywood which was a favorite of mine.
Second this. It’s actually one of my favorite albums.
I agree with those who said that *The Stranger *is a near-perfect thing of beauty and should be listened to intact. But I would list his *Piano Man *album as very nearly as good. Even if you are sick to death of the title song, I suggest you get it, as the rest of the album is very different. Almost has a folksy, countrified vibe to it.
I just bought Songs in the Attic for $7 from Amazon. I know it has the live version of Say Goodbye to Hollywood which I like.