For Billy Joel's 75th birthday, here are his 75 best songs: Where does your favorite rank?
How does a six-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 160 million albums and played more than 100 shows at Madison Square Garden celebrate his 75th birthday?
“I’ll be working,” says Billy Joel, who will indeed be on stage at the Garden on the big day, May 9. “I mean, I think I’ve kind of proved to myself, well, this is what I do.”
To mark the occasion, we’ve compiled a list of Joel’s 75 best songs, from “Allentown” to “Zanzibar.” Readers might argue with our ranking — and Joel might, too — but one thing’s for sure: With 122 songs, including the recent “Turn the Lights Back On,” the man’s catalog is a treasure-trove of pop hits, cult favorites and deep cuts. One fan’s skippable track might be another’s personal anthem. As Jerry Seinfeld, one of Joel’s recent onstage guests, put it: “His music is our best friend for our whole life.”
1. SCENES FROM AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT
Billy Joel in his Los Angeles home in 1984. Credit: Redferns/Richard E. Aaron
Inspired by The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” suite, Joel pieced together several unfinished songs into this mini-rock opera from 1977. Bookended by nostalgic reveries and centered on a poignant tale of two high school sweethearts, Brenda and Eddie, it packs all of suburban life into just under eight minutes. It’s arguably Joel’s masterpiece; any live show would feel incomplete without it.
2. PIANO MAN
Joel’s first major hit, from 1973, is a boozy ballad inspired by an early stint at a now-defunct lounge in Los Angeles. Joel has been critical of the waltzing tune and its limerick-style lyrics, but fans have grown to love its tale of a young musician embraced by a bar full of down-and-outers. It’s Joel’s pre-encore closer at every Madison Square Garden show.
3. MY LIFE
Joel’s talent for making explosive rage sound like upbeat pop is on full display in this 1978 gem. Trading his traditional piano for a sparkly-sounding Yamaha electric, Joel tells somebody — a woman, perhaps — exactly where to go. It’s one of the smoothest and catchiest up-yours anthems you’ll ever hear. (That’s Chicago’s Peter Cetera on backing vocals, by the way.)
4. MOVIN’ OUT (ANTHONY’S SONG)
Billy Joel poses for a portrait circa 1974. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Several years before Talking Heads’ angst-in-suburbia classic “Once in a Lifetime,” Joel crafted this 1977 gem about working-class strivers souring on the American dream. Its punchy, propulsive and more than a little profound, with a clever slap-back vocal (“ack-ack-ack!”) that’ll never leave your brain.
5. UPTOWN GIRL
Blissful doo-wop harmonies, Phil Ramone’s foot-stomping production and Joel’s timeless lyrics about class-crossed lovers make this 1983 single irresistible. The Four Seasons-inspired song is one of Joel’s highest-charting hits and his most consistently listenable, as fresh today as it was 40 years ago.
6. IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME
Let’s unpack this one. In 1980, as punk and New Wave threaten to kill classic rock, Joel releases this dismissive response. Its retro-'50s sound and sarcastic lyrics (“Welcome back to the age of jive”) seem to say: ‘Twas ever thus. And guess what? Not only does it become a No. 1 hit — accompanied by a raw-and-rowdy video — it still ranks as Joel’s coolest, snottiest song. Take that, punks!
7. JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
With this soft and sultry ballad, Joel earned his chair on the Yacht Rock deck. Yes, it’s cheesy, but the lovely chords and ultra-sincere lyrics (“I just want someone / That I can talk to”) will melt the hardest heart. Admit it, you’re humming that Phil Woods sax solo right now.
8. NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
Billy Joel performs his song "Only the Good Die Young" during the 14th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York March, 15, 1999. Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS/KATHY WILLENS
Channeling Ray Charles, Joel plays a smoky, bluesy piano while serenading his hometown like an old lover: “I know what I’m needing / And I don’t need to waste more time.” It’s become something of a standard, covered by Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, but Joel delivered its most moving rendition at the Concert for New York City in the aftermath of 9/11.
9. ALLENTOWN
Of Joel’s several city-songs (from “Goodnight Saigon” to “Leningrad”), this one feels the most authentic. Originally titled “Levittown,” Joel turned it into a Pennsylvania rust-belt anthem that rivals anything from Springsteen (“Well, our fathers fought the Second World War / Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore”). With just the slightest touch of industrial rock, the song hit an early-‘80s sweet spot and became a Top 20 hit.
10. THE LONGEST TIME
Another terrific '50s throwback with pristine harmonies all sung by Joel, who also does the accompanying finger-snaps. (The only actual “instrument” is a bass guitar.) Modeled on Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the song captures the beauty of doo-wop so perfectly that it might be better than some of the classics that inspired it.
11. SHE’S ALWAYS A WOMAN
Joel’s other big '70s ballad is an ode to his first wife (and manager), Elizabeth Weber. They divorced in 1982 but left behind this achy song about a simple man and a complicated woman. A 2010 cover by Fyfe Dangerfield reawakened interest in the original, which entered the British charts at No. 29.
12. DON’T ASK ME WHY
Joel is in a whimsical mood here, singing a lilting ballad to a sexy but maddening siren. Lyrically, it’s one of his pithiest and the acoustic Latin arrangement demonstrates Joel’s ability to absorb and personalize just about any genre.
13. PRESSURE
This 1982 single began as a lament about writer’s block. But thanks to its frenetic pace and a pounding synth-riff (perhaps a nod to Beethoven, Joel’s favorite composer), “Pressure” seems to address everything from personal breakdown to societal collapse. The video, which borrows from the paranoid thriller “The Parallax View,” finds Joel going full-on thespian.
14. BIG SHOT
Written after a dinner with Mick and Bianca Jagger, this vaguely Stonesy rocker (check out Joel’s brief chicken-strut in the video) is a classic tale of '70s excess and the pride that goeth before a fall. It’s also one of Joel’s hardest-pounding tracks, thanks in no small part to Liberty DeVitto’s drumming.
15. ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Billy Joel in 1979. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Here, Joel plays a street kid trying to coax a virginal girl out for the evening. It’s about the closest Joel has gotten to an R rating (“I might as well be the one,” he boldly suggests). It doesn’t sound as if our hero gets very far, which gives the song a sweet tinge of teenage longing.
16. WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE
Billy Joel in concert at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Dec. 21, 1989. Credit: Newsday/John Keating
Joel’s apocalyptic laundry list of 20th century figures and events felt a little overwrought in 1989. Was anyone really fretting about “Rock and roll and cola wars?” Today, however, the song works amazingly well as a nostalgia piece; for those of a certain age, it’s a fast-paced flip through a cultural yearbook.
17. ANGRY YOUNG MAN
A jaunty rhythm and bright chords help paint a sardonic portrait of a rebel without a cause. (Sample lyric: “But his honor is pure and his courage as well / And he's fair and he's true and he's boring as hell.”) This is the kind of thing the Brits usually do better — see Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, The Who — but Joel puts his own American stamp on it.
18. MIAMI 2017 (SEEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT ON BROADWAY)
Despite its slightly confusing title and framing device (it’s told from the P.O.V. of a Florida retiree), this is one of Joel’s finest salutes to his hometown. It’s a poetic summing-up of his decision to move back during the grim 1970s, of which he once said: “If New York’s going down the tubes, I’m going back to New York!”
19. YOU MAY BE RIGHT
Billy Joel performs in concert at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Aug. 9, 1994. Credit: AP/James A. Finley
The role of the unpredictable party animal isn’t one Joel plays often, but he’s pretty convincing here. You can practically see his eyebrows wiggling as he stretches out the line, “It just may be a looonatic you're looking for!” It’s all in good fun, of course — the kind of thing you might croon to your spouse after the kids are in bed.
20. THE STRANGER
Joel channels his inner German Expressionist in this dark, slinky track about faces, masks and doppelgängers. Whiffs of perversity — “Some are silk and some are leather” — mix with startling insights: “But he isn't always evil / And he is not always wrong.” Joel’s haunting whistling solo feels like the closing scene of a great film noir.
21. VIENNA
The European capital might seem like an odd subject for a Long Island songwriter. But Joel has said it’s a metaphor for old age: always there, and not such a bad place to go. Though never a hit, the song has become a fan favorite at concerts.
22. TELL HER ABOUT IT
Singer/musician Billy Joel performs onstage at the Honda Center on March 30, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Credit: Getty Images/Kevin Winter
This is one of Joel’s three No. 1 hits, but he hasn’t played it live since 1987, according to the concert database setlist.fm. Maybe even Joel has tired of its hopped-up rhythm and relentlessly upbeat lyrics (“Let her know you need her / Let her know how much she means”). Still, it’s canny pop songwriting, impossible to forget after even a single hearing.
23. BIG MAN ON MULBERRY STREET
Joel’s attempt at a bona fide jazz tune is a pastiche, but a savvy one; bassist Ron Carter and sax man Michael Brecker add authenticity. A searing character study of a puffed-up city slicker, it ends with one of Joel’s most penetrating couplets: “Sometimes I panic / What if nobody finds out who I am?”
24. THE DOWNEASTER “ALEXA”
This explicitly Long Island-themed track has an almost literary quality: a song of desperation and determination, sung from the perspective of a struggling bayman on the Block Island Sound. Its vaguely Celtic feel is unusual in the Joel catalog; the violinist is Itzhak Perlman.
25. LULLABYE (GOODNIGHT, MY ANGEL)
Written for Joel’s then-8-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray, this McCartney-esque composition (think “Golden Slumbers”) is full of love, tenderness and the kind of ineffable sorrow that perhaps only parents can know. The last single to be released from Joel’s last rock album (1993’s “River of Dreams”), it feels like a fitting finale to Joel’s remarkable 13-album run.
26. SAY GOODBYE TO HOLLYWOOD
27. SLEEPING WITH THE TELEVISION ON
28. HONESTY
29. AN INNOCENT MAN
30. I GO TO EXTREMES
31. THE ENTERTAINER
32. KEEPING THE FAITH
33. GOODNIGHT SAIGON
34. I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE
35. HARMONY
36. SUMMER, HIGHLAND FALLS
37. ALL FOR LEYNA
38. SOMETIMES A FANTASY
39. EASY MONEY
40. LEAVE A TENDER MOMENT ALONE
Billy Joel performs during a concert that celebrated his 70th birthday at Madison Square Garden on May 9, 2019. Credit: Craig Ruttle
41. THIS NIGHT
42. EVERYBODY LOVES YOU NOW
43. AND SO IT GOES
44. THE NIGHT IS STILL YOUNG
45. A MATTER OF TRUST
46. STORM FRONT
47. THIS IS THE TIME
48. YOU’RE ONLY HUMAN (SECOND WIND)
49. MODERN WOMAN
50. STREETLIFE SERENADE
Billy Joel in concert at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Dec. 21, 1989. Credit: Newsday/John Keating
51. LOS ANGELENOS
52. ROBERTA
53. YOU’RE MY HOME
54. I’VE LOVED THESE DAYS
55. THAT’S NOT HER STYLE
56. ALL MY LIFE
57. GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME
58. ALL YOU WANNA DO IS DANCE
59. ROSALINDA’S EYES
60. LAURA
61. CHRISTIE LEE
62. ALL ABOUT SOUL
63. NO MAN’S LAND
64. GETTING CLOSER
65. THE BALLAD OF BILLY THE KID
66. RIVER OF DREAMS
67. LENINGRAD
68. TURN THE LIGHTS BACK ON
69. BABY GRAND
70. CAPTAIN JACK
71. ZANZIBAR
72. NOCTURNE
73. THE GREAT SUBURBAN SHOWDOWN
74. WORSE COMES TO WORST
75. ROOT BEER RAG
