Top photo by Richard E. Aaron
Fred Schruers, author of Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography, has assembled a list of his 12 favorite Billy Joel songs in a new article at Rolling Stone. An excerpt from the piece is below. Do you agree with his picks?
It's not like he ever really went away, but Billy Joel's return to the full flush of stardom has become all the more evident with his recent honors, including an ASCAP Centennial Award and the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize. He recently announced further shows in his record-breaking residency at Madison Square Garden, with dates scheduled well into 2015. …Thus the time seems right for a scan through Joel's body of work. What follows is just an observer's opinion of what his best songs are.
…“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” (Turnstiles, 1976): The song gains all the more resonance when you add in his subsequent, committed version on 1980's Songs in the Attic, and also his live take from a Madison Square Garden tribute show just weeks after the cataclysm of 9/11 with the prophetic line, “I watched the mighty skyline fall…”
“I've Loved These Days” (Turnstiles, 1976): A Sinatra-esque ballad the New York Times called “emotionally intricate. . .with its beautiful melody and lyrics that incriminate the singer,” this is perhaps the most evocative account of the autumn (“a few more nights on satin sheets”) of Billy's first great romance (and marriage) with Elizabeth Weber: “I don't know why I even care/We get so high and get nowhere…”
Read the complete list at Rolling Stone.
Newsday calls Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography “compelling reading … the rollicking story of a Hicksville boy made good,”while The Boston Globe says it is a “funny, revealing, and poignant look at his long career.”
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