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Billy
Joel has been making music for over 25 years, and he's been doing it right.
Not only
have his unforgettable songs become musical landmarks through the past
decades, but they've shaped our own histories as well. They were our prom
themes and our wedding dances.
Each
album - and every one of his hits - reminds us of another place and time:
memories both joyous and bittersweet, but always deeply personal and irreplacable.
Growing
up equal parts street tough and classicaly trained musician, Joel turned
his wealth of life-experience into a catalogue of songs so diverse it's
dizzying. |
Piano
Man
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| This disc is the album that
launched Billy Joel as the megastar singer -songwriter of the '70s, and
with good reason. Both the title track and "Captain Jack" have become karaoke
bar standards, staples of FM radio rock, and cocktail lounges. Some of
the lesser-known material in this program, including the truly touching
"You're My Home," have aged no less well. The minimal production used here
puts Joel's piano and vocals at the forefront, and to good effect. This
disc prefigures Joel's fame and remains one of the highest points of his
art, and is an essential for any collection of soft rock. --Skip Heller |
The
Stranger [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
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| Billy Joel shows how fine a
song composer he is by successfully fusing together the best of jazz and
Broadway. |
Cold
Spring Harbor [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
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| The re-mastered version shows
how his genius was evident at a very young age. The album also includes
the entire lyrics, plus a rarely scomplete live performence of "Everybody
Loves You Now." |
Storm
Front [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
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| Another vintage Billy Joel
album. |
Glass
Houses
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| Billy Joel's hardest rocking
album. |
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The
Complete Hits Collection... [BOX SET]
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| The three volumes of Billy
Joel's Greatest Hits albums make up the bulk of this catch-up set; a fourth
disc features some live versions and discussion of the artist's composing
methods. |
Vol.
1 & 2-Greatest Hits [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
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| Billy Joel's Greatest Hits
Vols. 1 and 2 gives a very good synopsis of the first 15 years of his career
and shows his many sides (the balladeer in "Just the Way You Are", the
rude New Yorker in "Big Shot" and the storyteller in "Piano Man"). Billy
Joel was and is not a one-note musician who sticks to a particular style. |
Greatest
Hits Vol. 3
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| This album may not be entirely
filled of "Greatest Hits", it is still an exceptional album. |
52nd
Street [GOLD CD]
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| "My Life" remains one of Joel's
most memorable hit singles, "Half a Mile Away" is a wonderful
slice of infectiously upbeat pop, "Rosalinda's Eyes" sways to an
alluringly airy Latin feel. |
Turnstiles
[Enhanced Version]
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His ballads here mark some
of his finest work, from the Ray Charles -influenced "New York State
of Mind" to the introspective "Summer, Highland Falls" to the celebratory
"I've Loved These Days." Lyrically, "Miami 2017" owes as much to folk as
it does to rock. These eight songs seem as if they're therapeutic for Joel:
they display a new comfort and satisfaction as he digs deeper within himself
to find lyrical themes.
--Marc Greilsamer |
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