Joel Greenbalt

Recording The Nylon Curtain exhausted Billy Joel, and even though it had a pair of major hits, it didn't rival its predecessors in terms of sales. Since he labored so hard at the record, he decided it was time for a break – it was time to record an album just for fun. And that's how his homage to pre-Beatles pop, An Innocent Man, was conceived: it was designed as a breezy romp through the music of his childhood. Joel's grasp on history isn't remarkably astute – the opener "Easy Money" is a slice of Stax/Volt pop-soul, via the Blues Brothers (quite possibly the inspiration for the album), and the label didn't break the pop charts until well after the British Invasion – but he's in top form as a craftsman throughout the record.

One of the world's and Japan's most beloved songwriters and melody makers, and the one and only piano man, Billy Joel. He is back with a live version of "Billy Joel Greatest Hits," which offers an overview of his half-century career with masterful performances from each decade. Based on his "Live Through the Years," which was previously released only as digital, this special Japanese edition 2-CD set features a carefully selected selection of famous performances of hit songs and representative songs from his four decade career from the 1970s to the 2000s, with a significant amount of additional songs. The 2-CD set contains 32 songs (including 13 world premiere CD releases and 6 Japan premiere CD releases). 2023 mastering.

The 40th anniversary edition of "The Stranger" from Billy Joel is out on December 26, 2018. This product features SACD Hybrid format with 5.1ch surround on SACD layer produced by Phil Ramone. 2ch voice track features 2011 digital remastering by Ted Jensen. CD layer includes five bonus tracks taken from a concert held at Nassau coliseum in 1977. Disc 2 includes live tracks taken from a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1977, which is included in "The Stranger" 30th anniversary edition, and this disc features Blu-spec CD2 format for this release.

52nd Street (1978). 52nd Street is Billy Joel's sixth studio album and the first to reach #1 in Billboard. The 1978 release contains some essential American pop songs including the three Top 40 hits, "My Life," "Big Shot," and "Honesty."
The sophisticated and somewhat jazzy album is conceptualized like a musical, a showcase of masterful writing and musicianship. Joel interjects rock, soul and Latin rhythyms along with the jazz. The music flows together smoothly, thanks to Phil Ramone's seamless production and Joel's melodic craftsmanship. The jazz influences come through most strongly on "Zanzibar" - featuring Freddie Hubbard's trumpet solos - "Stiletto," and the title track. The album's standout is the gorgeously layered love song, "Until the Night"…

As one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, perhaps it was only a matter of time before Billy Joel was subjected to a romantically themed collection, and so came She's Got a Way: Love Songs, released just in time for Valentine's Day 2013. This 18-track collection reveals an odd truth about Joel: he didn't write all that many love songs. A few of his biggest hits are love songs but only a few: the early song "She's Got a Way," which wasn't a hit until its Songs in the Attic incarnation in the early '80s; "Just the Way You Are," an unabashedly romantic soft rock staple that helped make him a star in the mid-'70s; "This Is the Time," a gently nostalgic song from The Bridge; "The Night Is Still Young," an added cut to 1986's Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2.