The Essential Billy Joel (2CD)
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Free Music Notes for The Essential Billy Joel (2CD)
Free Music Review: Outstanding Collection!!
Hit: 4 Stars
I received this CD for Christmas, and I just love it! I know some people are disppointed that it doesn't include "...Italian Restaurant," but I was never I huge fan of that song, so I don't mind it's exclusion. This set does include "Honesty," one of my favorites which was not included on the other Greatest Hits packages I've seen. Great songs from one of the ultimate entertainers today!Free Music Review: Most up-to-date career overview, BUT...
Hit: 3 Stars
Hmm. An interesting animal we have here. Ostensibly this is an abbreviated version of Joel's greatest hits box set compressed by one disc, but there are just enough omissions and semi-obscure album cuts to throw that description off just a hair. Most of the album cuts come at the very beginning and the very end of his career. "You're My Home" and "Miami 2017" pop up early on to the bewilderment of most casual listeners, and disc two ends with a pair of Joel's classical numbers. In both cases these songs sound out of place on a collection otherwise chock full of recognizable classics. Since most people purchasing "The Essential Billy Joel" are going to be those looking for the hits, it's worth taking a look into what's available here in that regard.
With three volumes of Greatest Hits collections already under his belt (the first two only available on a 2CD set, like this one), there's certainly room for confusion in the Billy Joel discography. To simplify things, since "Essential" is more or less a condensed version of those previous collections we need only concern ourselves with what's missing. The following songs from the first two volumes of "Greatest Hits" are omitted from "Essential":
The Stranger
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Big Shot
Pressure
*You're Only Human (Second Wind)
*The Night Is Still Young
* These latter two songs are not available on other Billy Joel studio albums as they were recorded specially as an incentive to buy the original "Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2". For this very reason these are serious omissions as both songs should be familiar even to casual fans. Unless you can live without them you'll inevitably find yourself backtracking and picking up the previous collection anyway, so buyer be warned. Moving on to "Greatest Hits Vol. 3", these tracks from that collection are omitted from "Essential":
Keeping the Faith (why???)
This Is the Time
Shameless
*To Make You Feel My Love
*Hey Girl
*Light as the Breeze
* These last three were also recorded specifically for this collection, so as before, buyer beware. Even if you plan on fleshing out your Billy Joel collection with his studio albums later on, you still won't find these songs on those albums. Now, on the other hand, the only songs on "Essential" that aren't available on the "Hits" albums are those listed in the first paragraph, NONE of which were big hits and ALL of which are available on other albums. For this reason it's hard to recommend "Essential" for anything other than the price, which won't matter much unless everything you want is already right there.
Free Music Review: No Scenes From An Italian Restaraunt=No 5 Stars
Hit: 4 Stars
Otherwise this collection is great for a starting-out Joel fan. But the main reason I am doing this review is to say to the previous reviewer who put the following:
"Along with Duran Duran, Billy Idol was one the first pop/rock artists to achieve massive success in the early '80s due to a then brand-new U.S. television network, MTV. Mixing his bad-boy good looks with an appealing blend of pop hooks, punk attitude, and a dance beats, Idol quickly rocketed to stardom. What a guy!
This album didn't sound at all like what I remember from the his stuff in the 80's! Maybe he's evolved a little bit, but I think that they at least could have included some of Idol's old stuff. I've only really been to a couple Billy Idol concerts, so I can't say exactly that I'm an "expert" or a "number one fan". I mean I only know the lyrics to "Dancing With Myself", which I like to listen to while cooking.
A poor representation of a brilliant career in music. "
READ!!! it says Billy JOEL!!! not IDOL!!!
Free Music Review: Great Music
Hit: 5 Stars
I wanted to get "We Didn't Start The Fire" on CD, and I came across this collection. For under twenty bucks, it was a great deal.
The first CD is early Billy Joel, which I think is okay, but I don't to this CD that much. People might hate me for not thinking Piano Man is the greatest song ever, but oh well. With this CD, I tend to stick with listening to "Only The Good Die Young" (awesome) and "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me."
I like the second CD a lot better, mostly because it has "We Didn't Start The Fire" on it. It has "River of Dreams" as well, which I never heard until I got this collection. I found out I was really missing out. It's a great, great song. The second CD also has some strictly piano tunes at the end, which are nice easy-going things to listen to, and really let you know what Billy Joel is all about.
"Big Shot" isn't on this CD, but that doesn't take away from how great the CD is.
If you don't already have Billy Joel's hits, you can't go wrong with this CD. Come on, if you buy it you can listen to "Uptown Girl" whenever you want. Sounds good doesn't it? Huh? Huh?
Free Music Review: An "essential" collection that lives up to its title
Hit: 5 Stars
Some reviewers are complaining about the fact that this CD only contains previously issued material.
Eh, you guys? It's a compilation. It's not intended for people who already own all of Billy Joel's original albums, it's meant for casual listeners who just want all the stuff they've heard on the radio.
And it delivers, too. "The Essential Billy Joel" is actually one of the best entries into Columbia Records' "Essential" series.
It perfectly captures every facet of Billy Joel's thirty-year career, from grand, musical-like songs like "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "Piano Man", to the soulful doo-wop of "The Longest Time" and straight-ahead rock n' rollers like "You May Be Right".
Billy Joel was always quite a versatile composer, moving easily between rock n' roll, pop, soul, grand operatic ballads, and even updated Irish folk ("The Entertainer").
Almost all of Billy Joel's best songs are here, and even though a lot of hardcore fans will probably find the omission of some or other personal favorite worth carping about, this is just about as good as any two-disc distillation of William Martin Joel's back catalogue could be, and even though not all of these songs are equally good, or particularly original, I think the undeniable quality of this compilation makes it worthy of all five stars.
And besides, it's chronological, which (to me at least) gives it the edge over the previous double-disc compilation "The Ultimate Collection".