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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 rarely comment on music posts because I’m not into music, but I love this post and this will be an exception. 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. 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.
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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. This album is also his only one with two instrument-only tracks. And if there’s one thing fans know about Billy Joel, it’s that he’s a New Yorker through and through. 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. My understanding of this album is that he returned from tour and was told to write the whole album in about three months. My opinion: I am very outspoken about the fact that I think “Streetlife Serenade” is Billy Joel’s worst album. 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. (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.Ĭritical 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. 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. 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”). Sure, the last two tracks aren’t amazing, but the rest of the album more than makes up for that.
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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. 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. 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.) 1 in three other countries: “52nd Street” (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, if you’re interested). 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 the U.S.Ĭritical opinion: As I mentioned above, four Billy Joel albums went to No. 1, since there are four albums that went to No. 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. 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. So, I opted to go with the top and bottom albums instead. Then I was going to write about just the singles, but that would have taken more time than I had to weed through. 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.