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Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vols. 1 & 2, 1973-1985 (Remastered)
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Fardreamer's Review
This two-disc set is truly great for Billy Joel fans!
a fan of good music, Billy Joel fan, a music lover
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JUN
1
2008
Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vols. 1 & 2, 1973-1985 (Remastered) —
When I was still a college freshman back in 1986, a friend of mine gave me the cassette version of Billy Joel - Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II for my birthday. She knew I was becoming a fan of the Piano Man but only possessed a tape of his 1983 album An Innocent Man, so she guessed (rightly) that a copy of the then-bestsellling compilation would make a perfect birthday gift.Sure enough, that first cassette, which contained the 21 songs from the original two-record set which were arranged in roughly chronological order, eventually became one of my favorites; I played that cassette over and over till it wore out -- literally -- and it served as a morale booster when romances soured, campus newspaper deadlines loomed (I was a student journalist at the time) or went overseas in the fall of 1988 to study Spanish in Seville, Spain.
It shouldn't be surprising that when I was given my first CD-capable boom box in 1990, one of my first purchases was the original CD from the late '80s. This early digitalized edition not only had the LP/cassette's content - which included abridged versions of ""Say Goodbye to Hollywood" , "Just the Way You Are", "Pressure", "My Life", and "Big Shot." - but also had four additional songs: "Captain Jack,""The Entertainer," "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", and a live version of "She's Got a Way."
And for eight years or so, this was the two-disc set that was in my audio library until I got my hands on the Complete Collection box set which contains all three Volumes plus a fourth disc with anecdotes and live performances by Billy Joel. In that 1998-era box set were the two discs which, with only a few cosmetic differences on the discs themselves, contain the remastered editions of the less expensive re-release of Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vols. I & II, 1973-1985 (Remastered).
Although I didn't exactly need to, I purchased this two-disc set so I wouldn't wear out the more expensive "Limited Edition" set's CDs, figuring that it was a safer bet to listen to the more easily-replaced "regular edition" of Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vols. I & II, 1973-1985 and the single-disk 1997 Volume III sequel and listen to the box set sparigly.
Volume I: The 11 songs on the first disc cover the early period of Billy Joel's recording career (1973-1977) and starts out with the autobiographical ballad from which the singer-songwriter's nickname "Piano Man" is derived. Based on Joel's brief stint as a piano player/singer in a Los Angeles bar (he used the pseudonym Bill Martin), this beautifully crafted song is a collection of character sketches based on the bar's employees and customers, including John the bartender, Davy the career Navy man, Paul the "real estate novelist," and the waitress, who was based on Joel's first wife.
Disc One also features "Captain Jack" (a morbidly ironic ode to the decadence of the rich, spoiled and unhappy young men of Long Island's ritzier neighborhoods) and "The Entertainer" (a very upbeat yet ironic song about the lifestyle of a rock singer). I was also pleasantly surprised by the song-within-a-song of "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," with its reflective prologue and epilogue serving as musical bookends for what Joel calls "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie."
Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies
And the king and the queen of the prom
Riding around with the car top down and the radio on
Nobody looked any finer
Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner
We never knew we could want more than that out of life
Surely Brenda and Eddie would always know how to survive.
My favorite addition, though, is the live version of his tender love song "She's Got a Way," which features Billy's skills with the piano as well as lyrics along the lines of
She's got a light around her
And ev'rywhere she goes
A million dreams of love surround her ev'rywhere
She comes to me when I'm feelin' down
Inspires me without a sound
She touches me and I get turned around
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
I still belong, don't get me wrong
And you can speak you mind
But not on my time
Of the songs which I had not heard before I'd owned any version of this Greatest Hits album, I particularly paid attention to "Goodnight Saigon", a haunting tribute to some of Joel's friends who served in Vietnam as Marines.
We had no home front
We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ
With all of our might
But if you were to ask me which song I like best of this CD, I'd have to say it's a three-way tie between "You May Be Right," which is an energetic ditty that describes how crazy we guys get sometimes, particularly when we're young and in love:
Friday night I crashed your party
Saturday I said I'm sorry
Sunday came and trashed me out again
I was only having fun
Wasn't hurting anyone
And we all enjoyed the weekend for a change
I've been stranded in the combat zone
I walked through Bedford Stuy alone
Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I'm insane
and "Pressure", which was my "theme song" when I was a page editor at my college campus newspaper:
You used to call me paranoid
Pressure
But even you cannot avoid
Pressure
You turned the tap dance into your crusade
Now here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle
Pressure
and "The Longest Time", which is a 1983 song written and performed in the style known as "doo-wop", which was popular in the late 1950s:
Oh, oh, ohFor the longest time
Oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
I'm that voice you're hearing in the hall
And the greatest miracle of all
Is how I need you
And how you needed me too
That hasn't happened for the longest time
People who are far more familiar with the genre have told me that here and in "Uptown Girl" Billy is doing an homage to Frankie Valli, especially in the latter song, where the singer uses his voice in a good imitation of Valli's falsetto stylings, particularly in the chorus:
And when she knows what
She wants from her time
And when she wakes up
And makes up her mind
Final Thought: Over the past two decades, the compact disc version of the bestselling album has been re-released, tweaked and repackaged a few times. Not only have the two discs been included in the 4-CD Greatest Hits Limited Edition box set, but also they have been digitally remastered and placed in a "Slimline" jewel box (which I hate because of its flimsiness). This 1998 re-issue boasts not only 24-bit digital remastering but also CD Extra videos designed to work with personal computers using Windows 95/98 or better operating systems.
If you are a dedicated Joel fan, you probably either own this or need no urging from me to purchase this album. But for new listeners who have yet to discover the many styles and moods of one of America's best pop/rock songwriter/performers, this set is definitely worth listening to. If the 4-disc box set is out of stock (as it sometimes is) or too expensive, buy this along with his 1997 Greatest Hits Volume III 1-disc album.
All lyrics quoted here are (c) 2008 by Billy Joel
Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II - Track List
Disc One1. "Piano Man"
2. "Captain Jack"
3. "The Entertainer"
4. "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"
5. "New York State of Mind"
6. "The Stranger"
7. "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"
8. "Just the Way You Are"
9. "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"
10. "Only the Good Die Young"
11. "She's Always a Woman"
Disc Two
1. "My Life"
2. "Big Shot"
3. "You May Be Right"
4. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
5. "Don't Ask Me Why"
6. "She's Got a Way"
7. "Pressure"
8. "Allentown"
9. "Goodnight Saigon"
10. "Tell Her About It"
11. "Uptown Girl"
12. "The Longest Time"
13. "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"
14. "The Night Is Still Young"
Last edited on Jun 01, 2008
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