The 40th anniversary of Billy Joel’s first solo album, the often maligned, sometimes forgotten and supposedly terribly mixed Cold Spring Harbor comes around 2011. For now, the wonderfully stripped down “Everybody Loves You Now” from that album opens a retrospective of Billy Joel tunes called The Hits.
If you are a Bill Joel fan, you probably already have most of this stuff. But hearing these 19 tunes together, from the singer’s debut through his 12 album, 1983’s River Of Dreams, one is reminded of how many great songs the man has put together. And these are just the hits! An early album like 1974’s Streetlight Serenade is represented with the jaunty “The Entertainer.” From 1977’s The Stranger, Joel’s breakthrough album, you get “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and “Only The Good Die Young,” while “My Life” and the always wonderful ands snarky “Big Shot” made the cut from 1978’s 52nd Street.
The CD also features “Allentown,” originally written with the title of “Levitown,” and “Pressure” from 1982’s The Nylon Curtain. There’s also the doo-woppish “The Longest Time” and “Tell Her About It” from 1983’s An Innocent Man, along with “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and “I Go To Extremes” from 1989’s Storm Front. The CD ends with the exquisite “River Of Dreams,” the title track from the last album represented. It’s easy to forget it’s been a good decade since we’ve heard any new pop music from Mr. Joel, but The Hits does a good job keeping us nicely fueled with all the great songs the man has written so far.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
