Billy Joel, The #8 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 (Continued from Part Three)

 

Every album beginning with The Stranger had achieved mass appeal status, but longtime Joel fans know that his early work was some of his best.  That prompted Joel to release the album Songs in the Attic, which included live performances of some of his early undiscovered material.  The album peaked at #8 and included this song, which Billy wrote in the style of the Ronettes.  "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" is a #17 hit from 1981.

 

The live album has now sold over three million copies.  "She's Got A Way" was originally included on his debut album Cold Spring Harbour, but the live version was released as a single from Songs in the Attic.  Billy recorded it when he was just 22 years old as a Valentine's Day gift for his wife Elizabeth.  He was too poor to buy her anything, so he wrote this song.  Only a #23 hit overall, adults knew better, and the song raced to #4 on the AC chart, one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

Joel recorded the album The Nylon Curtain, which included the powerful song "Allentown".  Joel wanted to express concerns about changes in American politics during the Reagan Administration and the disappearing of the American Dream.  As he said, those changes meant that "all of a sudden you weren't going to be able to inherit [the kind of life] your old man had."

 

The album reached #1 in the Netherlands, #2 in Japan, and 8 in the U.S. and has sold over three million copies.  Joel was more involved in the production of this album than any other, but it had to be put on hold when Billy severely injured his hands in a motorcycle accident on Long Island on April 15, 1982.  There are few songs which tell the story of the American worker betrayed by corporations more than this one.  "Allentown" inexplicably peaked at #17, easily one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

Joel toured to support the album, with one show recorded for the video Live from Long Island, originally broadcast by HBO in 1983.  "Pressure" peaked at #20, but managed to land in the Top 10 in Canada.

Another of the biting songs on the album is "Goodnight Saigon", an Inside The Rock Era Top Track*.  It is Billy's tribute to many of his friends who served in the U.S. war with Vietnam.  "A lot of them came back and really had a hard time getting over it, and still to this day I think a lot of them are having a hard time," Joel said.  "They were never really welcomed back, and whether you agreed with the war or not, these guys really took it on the chin.  They went over there and they served, and they never really got their due."

Kudos to the Netherlands for recognizing it's greatness--a #1 smash there.

To this point, the versatile Joel had featured story songs, ballads, Rock & Roll, New Wave, and music with a message.  With his next album, he paid tribute to doo wop music made popular in the 1950's and '60's.  Another of his Top 100 Albums of the Rock Era*, An Innocent Man returned Joel to the limelight, the crème de la crème of all artists of the period. 

 

This song is Billy's advice to other men after meeting Christie Brinkley, whom he married in 1985.  Billy said in his biography, The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man, that Brinkley was the first person he could ever just talk to.  At that moment, Billy realized that it was possible to have a soulmate, and Brinkley was the closest he would ever get to having that. "Tell Her About It" gave Billy another multi-format #1 and another Gold record.

 

An Innocent Man reached #2 in the U.K. as British fans finally began to discover the magic.  It also hit #1 in New Zealand, #3 in Australia and Japan and #4 in the U.S. and included an incredible six hits.  "Uptown Girl", though many thought it was about his second wife Christie Brinkley, was actually written about his girlfriend at the time, Elle MacPherson. 

 

Brinkley was asked to star in the video, and when she visited Joel to inquire about it, Billy said "I don't dance."  Christie needed to help Joel with the dance steps for the video, and this work together led to sparks between the two and eventually their marriage in 1985. 

That video was nominated for Video of the Year at the MTV Music Video Awards.  "Uptown Girl" sold over two million copies and topped charts in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland and #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #3 overall in the U.S. Love the drums in this one!

Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, Joel was "in top form as a craftsman throughout the record, effortlessly spinning out infectious, memorable melodies in a variety of styles."  The title song was a #1 smash among adults though only #10 with teens in the U.S., and landed at #8 in the U.K.

 

The style of groups such as the Four Seasons is very evident on the album, especially on this song.  Joel recorded all the vocals himself, and the only accompanying instrument is the bass guitar.  "The Longest Time", a #1 smash on the Adult Contemporary chart but only #14 overall.  Joel's 11th million-selling single, it's another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

Six hits will usually earn you a Grammy for Album of the Year, but it was released the same time as Michael Jackson's Thriller, The #2 Album of the Rock Era*.  After writing this song, Joel could not decide on the backing sound.  "I couldn't find the right instrument for that song.  A saxophone?  A keyboard?  No, I was stuck," he said in the anniversary book for Toots Thielemans.  "Until producer Phil Ramone said to me:  'I got the guy!'  And he brought Toots Thielmans to the studio.  When Toots began to play [harmonica], my mouth fell open wide.  The man was amazing!  Toots played one riff after another and every note was like honey."

 

Joel was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Male Artist and Favorite Pop (Rock) Video (for "Tell Her About It") at the American Music Awards.  "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" gave Billy another #1 AC smash, but a ridiculously underrated #27 overall.  It was Billy's third consecutive AC chart-topper and to this point, four of the five singles reached #1 with the other hitting #2.

 

So many great songs on another Joel album to top 7 million in sales.  "Keeping The Faith" (#3 Adult Contemporary) was released next, with the video again featuring Brinkley.

Joel was one of a cast of dozens of stars on the landmark USA for Africa single "We Are The World" in 1985, one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

Join us for Part Five of Billy Joel!

Billy Joel, The #8 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

Billy titled his next album after the street which served as world headquarters for CBS/Columbia--52nd Street.  

 

Although Joel has always been a consummate live performer, work in the studio was a bit of a challenge.  "To help Billy find the right voice when he was recording," Ramone told Mix Online, "I made him a control box with Echoplexes, MXR phasers and flangers.  We labeled the buttons:  "Elvis', 'Doo-wop', 'R&B', etc. and put it right on the piano so he could switch the effects around until he hit one he liked.  "My Life" rose to #3 in the U.S. and also is included in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

52nd Street has topped seven million in sales in the U.S. alone, giving Billy 17 million in sales in these amazing back-to-back albums.  This is "Big Shot".

 

Joel was recognized for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male at the Grammy Awards.  "Honesty" also stalled well short of the Top 10 at #24, making it yet another early Joel song to be included among The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.  People still didn't get how amazing this man was.

The album reached #1 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, four countries with some of the sharpest music fans in the world.  Joel performed at the Havana Jam festival in Cuba in 1979, with footage of his show featured on the documentary Havana Jam '79.  

 

This is another gem on the album, never released as a single but nevertheless got heavy FM radio airplay.  Billy used the knife and cutting imagery as a metaphor for emotional manipulation, and the great piano riff was inspired by Stevie Winwood's playing on Traffic's "Shanghai Noodle Factory".  "Stiletto" is another Top Track*.

 

Billy has said that this song should have been written by his father Howard to his mother Rosalind.  Howard lived in Cuba after leaving his native Germany to escape the evil Nazis, before emigrating to America.  Here is "Rosalinda's Eyes".

 

Joel was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Male Artist at the American Music Awards.   "Zanzibar" is a song that has been building momentum and airplay over the last few years.  It's very sound pays homage to fellow New Yorkers Steely Dan, and features a great trumpet solo from Freddie Hubbard.

Billy featured New Wave on his 1980 album Glass Houses.  That album, recorded at Ramone's A&R Studio, was the first ever released on compact disk.  We hear the sound of shattered glass at the opening of this song, which matches the cover of the album in which Billy is pictured about to throw a rock at an all-glass house.  

 

In that respect, Joel is making fun of the saying that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and this is Billy's reply to critics.  "You May Be Right" was the first single, and it jumped to #6 in Canada and #7 in the U.S., another of Billy's million-sellers.

 

Glass Houses was another #1 album in the United States and Canada and hit the Top 10 nearly everywhere else.  "In my neighborhood, somebody hits you, you hit them right back," Joel said about this song.  The former boxer landed a knockout punch with this one.  "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" gave Billy his first #1 song in both the U.S. and Canada, which was not only one of The Top 10 Songs of 1980* but also one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

The album leaped to #1 and stayed there for six weeks, and has cleared six million in sales.  That's an incredible 24 million in sales for three consecutive albums.  The Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male is mostly given for one song, but once again, Billy was recognized for the entire album.  Although this one soared to #1 on the AC chart and #4 in Canada, it mysteriously stalled at #19 on the Popular chart.  Joel said the Spanish feel to "Don't Ask Me Why" was influenced by time he spent in Madrid.  

 

Joel had made the jump to superstardom, as evidenced by his five sold-out performances at New York City's Madison Square Garden, which recognized him with the Garden's Gold Ticket Award for selling more than 100,000 tickets.  "Sometimes A Fantasy" became a Top Track*, and, although the record company was finally persuaded to release it as a single, by that time momentum had faded and it stalled at #36.

 

Billy won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop (Rock) Album and was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Male Artist for a second straight year. This is another great song from the album about two lovers not taking chances and "Sleeping With The Television On".

Another of Joel's gems is "All For Leyna", about a man's obsession with a woman after having a one-night stand with her.

Joel has given us an incredible collection of songs over the years, and Inside The Rock Era has much more--stay tuned!

Billy Joel, The #8 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

 

Joel moved back to New York City in 1975 and released the album Turnstiles, a turning point in his career as he decided to assert his control over his music.  Never released as a single, Billy wrote this the day he moved back from California in a Greyhound bus.  "It's the one I wrote in like 15 minutes," he said in a 2010 interview.  "I'm sitting on the bus (to Highland Falls)...and I started scribbling in a  notebook.  I got to the house where my wife was waiting.  I said, 'I got to write this song right now.'"  It was later brought to its current prominence after the 9/11 murders when Billy performed it on worldwide television in a benefit concert ("America: A Tribute to Heroes") for the victims (and yes, we will feature that later as well!). 

 

This is another Top Track*.  Billy said the rapid-fire riff at the beginning was meant to be an homage to the great surfing song "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris.  He could have been semi-autobiographical here, but out of that anger grew a gifted performer for the ages.  Here is "Prelude:  Angry Young Man".

 

The album is loaded with prime cuts.  One of his best ballads ever, be it largely undiscovered by the general public, is this fantastic song written about the place in upstate New York that he stayed at after moving back to the state from California.  It features one of the great piano intros of all-time that sounds like a cascading falls.  Enjoy "Summer, Highland Falls", another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

This Top Track* is another of Billy's hidden treasures; essentially a farewell to a lifestyle that was tempting but impossible to sustain--"I've Loved These Days".

"James" is about a friend of Billy's in his early days.

 

So much great music that most people don't know about.  Billy wrote this song after U.S. President Gerald Ford refused to give federal assistance to New York City, which was on the verge of default, prompting the famous Daily News headline, "Ford to City:  Drop Dead."  "As soon as I saw that headline," Billy said, "'I said, wait a minute.  If New York's going down the tubes, I'm gonna' go down with it.'"  This is the great song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway".

With his first few albums, we saw what Joel could do.  The only missing ingredient was a solid producer, and Columbia remedied that when they hooked Billy up with Phil Ramone, who would be Joel's go-to producer for the next nine years and who would produce two of The Top 100 Albums of the Rock Era*.  It was a major coup for Billy--Ramone was a superstar producer, having already worked with Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins, Astrid Gilberto and Stan Getz, John Coltrane, and many others.  Ramone was a brilliant South African prodigy who began playing violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at 10.

The first album with Joel was his breakthrough, The Stranger.  Billy wrote this song for his wife Elizabeth, and it catapulted Joel into stardom.  Although it was an important song to him personally, Billy credits Ramone with convincing him it was a great song.  Ramone brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow to hear it in the studio, and when they both loved it, that was good enough for Billy.

 

 

"Just The Way You Are" won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards.  The classic reached #2 in Canada, #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #3 overall in the United States, #6 in Australia and New Zealand and #7 in Ireland, and has sold over two million copies.  It is also one of six of Billy's tunes to make it to the book The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

 

Joel's historic album hit the Top 5 in nearly every country in the world, helped by another Top Unknown/Underrated Song*.  The screeching tires sound was achieved when bassist Doug Stegmeyer hung a microphone out the rear end of his '60's-era Corvette and started burning rubber as he raced away from his house."Movin' Out" is a million-seller that somehow stalled at #17.  The stage production of Movin' Out, featuring Billy's songs, opened on Broadway in 2002 and continued for three years.

 

 

The Stranger has sold 10 million copies in the United States alone, one of The Top 100 Albums of the Rock Era*.  "Only The Good Die Young" became Joel's third consecutive Gold record, and this one went Platinum.

All The Stranger did was reach #2 on the Album chart and become the top-seller in the history of Columbia Records, outpacing even Simon & Garfunkel's masterpiece Bridge Over Troubled Water.  This song is another about his first wife Elizabeth, who was married to drummer Jon Small at the time he met her.  Billy was so troubled by the affair that he drank furniture polish in an attempt to kill himself.  

"She's Always A Woman", another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*, #17 on the Popular chart although it did rise to #2 among adults.  Pink, a big fan of Billy's, walked down the aisle to this song at her wedding.

 

 

Here is the title song, which also got considerable airplay. 

 

This tasty track ranks high on our list of Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.  If you aren't already familiar with it, it could become one of your favorite Billy Joel songs.  The Italian restaurant Fontana di Trevi ( now closed, but once at 151 West 57th Street in New York City, across from Carnegie Hall) inspired this song.  "It was for the opera crowd," Billy told USA Today in 2008, "but the Italian food was really good.  They didn't really know who I was, which was fine with me, but sometimes you would have a hard time getting a table."  

Here is the wonderful "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant", in four movements (1--"Italian Restaurant", 2--"Things Are OK With Me These Days", 3--"The Ballad Of Brenda And Eddie" and 4--a reprise of "Italian Restaurant").  Beautifully done.

 

Billy first went to Vienna, Austria when he was 23 years old to meet his father, who had moved there.  The song, therefore, is the foundation of a very emotional relationship with the city.  "Slow down, look around you and have some gratitude for the good things in your life," Billy told Vienna Now--Forever.  "That's what Vienna represented to me," he continued.  "When I wrote 'Vienna waits for you', I meant that it is a place where you close the circle.  By going to Vienna, suddenly things started to make sense in the world for me.  Here is another amazing track--"Vienna".

The Stranger, like the fine wine Billy sings about in "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant", seems to get so much better with time.  Highly regarded at the time, it's stature has only grown through the years, to the point where it was ranked #21 for the Rock Era in 2011.  And perhaps it has grown since then.

Although he had already shown his tremendous talent to this point, as you have already heard, for most of the public they were just starting to listen to him.  Joel was on his way to being a legend.  Join us for Part Three, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!