Billy Joel Piano Man-Very Best Of CD - Import

2004 single disc collection that documents the Piano Man's long career from the 1970's to the early nils. 19 great classics in all.

This international collection of highlights from the East Coast native's prolific career takes its choicest bits from Columbia's three hugely successful Greatest Hits compilations. Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel may just skim the surface of Joel's large reservoir of material, but it's hard to argue with the end results. All of the radio hits, minus some of the more obscure ones like "Allentown," "Pressure" and "Matter of Trust," are dutifully represented. From "River of Dreams" and "We Didn't Start the Fire" to "Piano Man" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," this skillfully paced compilation, which also includes a ten-track DVD, is about as good a single-disc Billy Joel primer as one is likely to find. ~ James Christopher Monger
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 Angeles, spending six months as a lounge singer at a club. He didn't abandon his dreams -- he continued to write songs, including "Piano Man," a fictionalized account of his weeks as a lounge singer. Through a combination of touring and constant hustling, he landed a contract with Columbia and recorded his second album in 1973. Clearly inspired by Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, not only musically but lyrically, as well as James Taylor, Joel expands the vision and sound of Cold Spring Harbor, abandoning introspective numbers (apart from "You're My Home," a love letter to his wife) for character sketches and epics. Even the title track, a breakthrough hit based on his weeks as a saloon singer, focuses on the colorful patrons, not the singer. If his narratives are occasionally awkward or incomplete, he compensates with music that gives the songs a sweeping sense of purpose -- they feel complete, thanks to his indelible melodies and savvy stylistic repurposing. He may have borrowed his basic blueprint from Tumbleweed Connection, particularly with its Western imagery and bluesy gospel flourishes, but he makes it his own, largely due to his melodic flair, which is in greater evidence than on Cold Spring Harbor. Piano Man is where he suggests his potential as a musical craftsman. He may have weaknesses as a lyricist -- such mishaps as the "instant pleasuredome" line in "You're My Home" illustrate that he doesn't have an ear for words -- but Piano Man makes it clear that his skills as a melodicist can dazzle. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The title track from Billy Joel's major label debut, 1973's PIANO MAN, became a smash hit, and put the singer-songwriter/piano player on the musical map for good. A story-song, the verses consist of character sketches given by the resident musician at a bar-lounge, and these build toward a sweeping, melodically infectious chorus, and a melancholic, carnivalesque refrain. The tune demonstrates Joel's flair for narrative and lyrical detail, as well as his unmistakable knack for a catchy hook--qualities that would be the bedrock of his success through the 1970s and '80s.
Joel was still developing his trademark style here, and while the rest of the album doesn't quite measure up to the strength of "Piano Man," it fits quite neatly into the rubric of the one-man folk-rock artists of the era (namely Elton John, but also acoustic guitar-wielding troubadours like Harry Chapin). Still, there is evidence of Joel's signature tendencies throughout, like the tender love ballad "You're My Home" and the closer, "Captain Jack," a character-heavy story-song on the order of the title song. On the whole, PIANO MAN is an important step in Joel's development, and contains the musical and lyrical seeds that would sprout to full flower on albums like THE STRANGER, and subsequently catapult the artist to singer-songwriter stardom.