Top Ten Songs by Billy Joel

Everyone who grew up on Long Island in the 70’s and 80’s was a Billy Joel fan, in fact I think if you were not a fan they asked you to leave. Well, I am no exception, I became a fan of his music the first time I heard my sister play The Stranger. Billy Joel released his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, in 1971 and since then recorded eleven other albums of original material. He has won 6 Grammy Awards and sold over a 100 million records and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hal of Fame. So picking his top ten songs was a difficult task for me. I could just pick ten songs from The Stranger and 52nd Street and be done with it. I have always been more partial to his earlier work, but I consider all of his work to be great. So here it goes Billy Joel’s top ten songs from a fellow Long Islander.

1) “Piano Man” from the album Piano Man. This is Billy Joel’s signature song and no list would be complete without it. This is an autobiographical song about his early career when he was struggling to make a name for himself.

2) “You’re My Home” also from Piano Man. This is not one of his biggest songs and most people who are not huge fans don’t know it. But this is nice love song about a man telling his lover that he is safe as long as he is with her no matter where life brings them.

3) “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” from The Stranger. The saga of Brenda and Eddie two high school sweethearts who thought life would always be like it was in high school. This is a great song about the trials and tribulations of young love and “How you can never go back there again.”

4) “Downeaster Alexa” from Storm Front. Very moving song about the struggles of the Long Island fisherman, as things get tougher and tougher for them to make a living. This is a subject that has always been close to Billy Joel’s heart. Just a bit of trivia, Alexa refers to his daughter with Christie Brinkley.