More Music (Billy Joel)

So as we move further into the B's we come across another famous piano man. The artist known as Billy Joel. He was born in 1949 and joined his first band The Echoes in 1963. But he did not achieve real success until he signed a solo recording contract in 1971 and put out his first album "Cold Spring Harbor". As of 2011 he has put out 13 studio albums with the last one coming in 2001 called "Fantasies and Delusions". He has released 4 live albums with the last one coming out in 2011 called "Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert". But that isn't all there have also been 12 compilation albums released. I think that even if you do not care for him. That is a pretty impressive amount of releases. When I was younger I owned "An Innocent Man" on vinyl but now the only thing I own is "The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997" which is a three disc compilation. I think I am going to highlight 2 songs from each of the discs. That is if Youtube allows me to. So cross your fingers folks and lets get started.

Here is a live version of "Captain Jack" from 1972. This has fast become one of my favorite early Billy Joel songs.



This is a live version of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)". It gets bonus points because of the sweet live sax. Play it Sax man. Play it groovy!!



Okay the next two are going to be from the second disc and that disc tends to concentrate more on his stuff from the 80's. I think "Innocent Man" was his best selling album but I could be wrong so no quoting.

I do love that I can find live versions of these songs. This is a live version of "Allentown". It really is a good song and says a lot about how the recession in the 80's affected the steel industry in Pennsylvania.



This won't be a live version. But "Tell Her About It" came out in 1983 and I can remember listening to this over and over again as I tried to pump myself up to ask a girl I liked out. Well...it didn't work and I locked up and mumbled. But the video is pretty fun and really from an era when videos were king.



Okay so on to the third disc and this era of Billy Joel is not one that I am all that familiar with but there are some good songs on it.

Here is a live version from 2006 of "We didn't start the fire". This was a pretty big song for him.



This next song is "The Downeaster Alexa" which was just put to great use in the film The Hangover II. It is really one of my favorite of his songs. I could find no good live versions of this one so you get the original video from 1989. It is just a great, great song.



Thanks for reading and listening folks and I hope you have a good weekend. I will see you on Monday as we continue to work our way through the B's.