We have another stunning top 10 list for you this time around – The Top 10 Billy Joel songs! Now I know some of you might say, “how can you limit it to just 10”, or, “How do you arrive at that at being at a certain number?” Well, first we have a list of honorable mentions, which you can find on our sister site. And second, we do our best to find out what we like, and then place them into that number. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell us your list, and how its differs from our list! The man is a pure genius when it comes to music, so “you may be wrong, but you may be right.” And “life goes on no matter who is wrong or right.” With that said, here is our Top 10 Billy Joel List! And if you’re interested, we actually talk about this list on our podcast. Got to podcastunlimited.com and look for episode #88.
Keith – My Life
“My Life” is a song by Billy Joel that first appeared on his 1978 album 52nd Street. A single version was released in the fall of 1978 and reached #2 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart. Early the next year it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song begins with drums and electric bass, followed by a keyboard riff. The riff is also used as a fill between verse and chorus sections and is also played at the end. The section order is intro-verse-fill-chorus-bridge-v-f-c-b-solo-c-outro.
Chicago members Peter Cetera and Donnie Dacus performed the backing vocals and sang along with Billy Joel during the bridge and in the outro (“Keep it to yourself, it’s my life”)
“My Life” was used as the theme song for the ABC television series Bosom Buddies (1980–82), albeit in a re-recorded version with a different vocalist. However, due to licensing issues it does not appear on the VHS and DVD releases of the series, nor is it used in the show’s syndicated airings; in both cases, it is replaced by a vocal version of the show’s closing instrumental theme, “Shake Me Loose”, sung by Stephanie Mills, who, like Joel, also originated from New York City.
David – Piano Man
“Piano Man” is the first single released by Billy Joel. It was released on November 2, 1973, and has been included on several subsequent albums. Joel’s first major hit and his signature song, the song peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1974. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected “Piano Man” for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance.”
“Piano Man” is a fictionalized retelling of Joel’s experience as a piano-lounge singer for six months in 1972 at the now defunct Executive Room bar in Los Angeles. Joel has stated that all of the characters depicted in the song were based on real people. “John at the bar” was really the bartender who worked during Joel’s shift at the piano bar. “Paul is a real estate novelist” refers to a real estate agent named Paul who would sit at the bar each night working on what he believed would be the next great American novel. “The waitress is practicing politics” refers to Joel’s first wife Elizabeth Weber, with whom he moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1972 and who worked at The Executive Room as a waitress while Joel played the piano. Joel had moved from New York to L.A. to record his first album, Cold Spring Harbor which was marred by a mastering error by the album’s producers at Family Productions, the first label that signed Joel. After this bad experience, Joel wanted to leave his contract with Family Productions for Columbia Records, but the contract that he had signed made this very difficult. So Joel stated that he was “hiding out” at the bar, performing under the name Bill Martin, while lawyers at Columbia Records tried to get him out of his first record deal
Keith – Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
“Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” is a song written and recorded by Billy Joel. The track details the singer’s disgust with the upwardly-mobile bourgeois aspirations of working- and lower-middle-class New Yorkers who take pride in working long hours to afford the outward signs of having “made it”.Characters have stereotypically ethnic names (Anthony, Mama Leone, Sergeant O’Leary, Mr. Cacciatore) and blue-collar jobs. Joel considers their rejection of their working-class roots (trading a Chevy for a Cadillac and buying a house in Hackensack, New Jersey) ultimately futile; in the end, the rewards are a “heart attack” or “a broken back”. Near the end of the recording is the sound of a car starting up and driving away; the bass player Doug Stegmeyer’s 1960s Corvette was used. In the single mix the engine sound was removed.
According to Joel, Anthony isn’t a real person, but rather “every Irish, Polish, and Italian kid trying to make a living in the U.S.”
“Movin’ Out” originally appeared on Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger. A live performance of it can be heard on 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert.
David – My Life
“My Life” is a song by Billy Joel that first appeared on his 1978 album 52nd Street. A single version was released in the fall of 1978 and reached #2 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart. Early the next year it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song begins with drums and electric bass, followed by a keyboard riff. The riff is also used as a fill between verse and chorus sections and is also played at the end. The section order is intro-verse-fill-chorus-bridge-v-f-c-b-solo-c-outro.
Chicago members Peter Cetera and Donnie Dacus performed the backing vocals and sang along with Billy Joel during the bridge and in the outro (“Keep it to yourself, it’s my life”)
“My Life” was used as the theme song for the ABC television series Bosom Buddies (1980–82), albeit in a re-recorded version with a different vocalist. However, due to licensing issues it does not appear on the VHS and DVD releases of the series, nor is it used in the show’s syndicated airings; in both cases, it is replaced by a vocal version of the show’s closing instrumental theme, “Shake Me Loose”, sung by Stephanie Mills, who, like Joel, also originated from New York City.
Keith – Goodnight Saigon
“Goodnight Saigon” is a song written by Billy Joel, originally appearing on his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, about the Vietnam War. It depicts the situation and attitude of United States Marines beginning with their military training on Parris Island and then into different aspects of Vietnam combat.
The theme of “Goodnight Saigon” is the poor treatment Vietnam War veterans received.The lyrics are about Marines in battle bonding together, fighting their fears and trying to figure out how to survive. The singer, a United States Marine, sings of “we” rather than “I,” emphasizing that the Marines are all in the situation together.In the bridge Joel sings of the darkness and the fear it induced in the Marines . This leads into the refrain, which has multiple voices coming together to sing that the Marines will “all go down together”, emphasizing their camaraderie. Images from the war captured in the song include reading Playboy Magazine, seeing Bob Hope, listening to The Doors, smoking from a hash pipe, praying to Jesus, remembering Charlie and John F. Baker and those who died in the fighting. Joel has said that he “wasn’t trying to make a comment on the war, but writing about the soldier as a person.” According to Rolling Stone Magazine critic Stephen Holden, “As the song unfolds, Joel’s “we” becomes every American soldier, living and dead, who fought in Southeast Asia.
The song begins with the sound of crickets chirping, providing the feeling of evening coming. This leads into the sound of helicopters, which conjures up images of helicopters fighting in the Vietnam War or picking up wounded Marines. Then Joel plays a figure on the piano before beginning to sing. The opening is reversed at the end of the song, as the piano figure returns, followed by the sound of helicopters, and finally the crickets, before the song comes to an end
David – I Go to Extremes
“I Go to Extremes” is the fourth track on Billy Joel’s 1989 album, Storm Front. It was released as the second single from the album in 1990. It peaked at the number six position on the Billboard Hot 100, and at #70 on the UK chart. The song was also a top ten hit on both the Adult Contemporary chart, as well as the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was also a top 40 hit in Germany, peaking at #36 on the German charts.
At one point considered a song about a manic-depressive, the song was originally written as an apology to Joel’s wife at the time, Christie Brinkley. The B-side to the single was another song that appeared on the same album, “When in Rome”. The music video consists of Joel and his backing band playing the song in a room. The song received a mostly positive response, and a live version appears on the album 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert. During live performances, Joel would often jokingly change the lyrics to the chorus, as well as to various lines in the song.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press believes that the song chronicles the highs and lows of a “manic-depressive”. However, according to Joel, the song is an apology that is directed to his then wife, Christie Brinkley. Joel was apologizing for his erratic personality. In live concerts, Joel would often jokingly create new lyrics for the chorus, such as “I go for ice cream”, and “I got a new wife on the cover of Life.” The song is believed to be about Joel’s own lifestyle. The b-side to the single release was another song from the album, “When in Rome”. The music video consists of Joel playing with musicians in a room.
Keith – It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” is a hit 1980 song performed by Billy Joel, from the hit album Glass Houses. The song was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks, from July 19 through August 1, 1980. The song spent 11 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980 according to American Top 40. The song is an examination of the themes of a musician’s degrading fame and public tastes that were expressed in his 1975 hit “The Entertainer”.
The single eventually reached Platinum status from the RIAA for sales of over 2 million copies in the United States.
The song is a cynical look at the music industry as a publicist/manager begs the protagonist to remain hip for the younger crowd (“What’s the matter with the car I’m driving?” / “Can’t you tell that it’s out of style?”), and the protagonist’s refusal to change, claiming his music will remain relevant regardless of his appearance. The song was a reaction by Joel at the new music genres that were around in the late 1970s (punk, funk, new wave). It was inspired by Joel reading a review about a particular (unnamed) band, and realizing that he had no idea what their music sounded like.
David – New York State of Mind
“New York State of Mind” is a song written by Billy Joel which initially appeared on the album Turnstiles in 1976. Although it was never a hit song and was never released as a single, it has become a fan favorite and a song that Joel plays regularly in concert. Joel famously played the song at The Concert for New York City, the October 2001 benefit concert for the New York City Fire and Police Departments and the loved ones of families of first responders lost during the terrorist attack on New York City on 9/11. He reprised that theme, playing it during his set at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 12, 2012, where he changed lyrics to include the likes of “Breezy Point.”
In 2004, it was announced that Joel had agreed to write two children’s books for Scholastic, the U.S. publisher. The first book was entitled Goodnight, My Angel (A Lullabye). The second book was entitled New York State of Mind and is illustrated by the artist Izak. The large picture book comes with a CD of the song, the disc is illustrated with a picture of the Empire State Building by Izak.
Joel wrote the song after returning to the East Coast from Los Angeles, where he had spent the previous three years. In fact, most of Turnstiles deals with Joel’s cross-country relocation, including “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”, “I’ve Loved These Days”, “Summer, Highland Falls”, and “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway).”
The inspiration for the song came from his pride in returning home to New York. Joel was literally “takin’ a Greyhound [bus] on the Hudson River Line [route]” when the idea for the song came to him, and the song was written as soon as Joel arrived home.
Keith – We Didn’t Start the Fire
“We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a song by Billy Joel. Its lyrics include brief, rapid-fire allusions to more than 100 headline events between 1949, the year of Joel’s birth, and 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front. The tune was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song was also a No. 1 hit in the US.
Joel got the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a friend of Sean Lennon who had just turned 21 who said “It’s a terrible time to be 21!” Joel replied to him, “Yeah, I remember when I was 21 — I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y’know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful.” The friend replied, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it’s different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties”. Joel retorted, “Wait a minute, didn’t you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?” Joel later said those headlines formed the basic framework for the song.
Joel has said, “I’m a history nut. I devour books. At one time I wanted to be a history teacher”. According to his mother, he was a bookworm by the age of seven. Unlike most of Joel’s songs, the lyrics were written before the melody, owing to the somewhat unusual style of the song. The song was a huge commercial success and was Joel’s third Billboard No. 1 hit. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
David – Pressure
“Pressure” is a synthesizer-driven song from 1982 by Billy Joel about the pressure of creating and the pressure of being a provider. The song was a single from the album The Nylon Curtain.
In Night School, a show airing on MTV in 1982 that ran roughly a half-hour long, in which he answers questions posed by audience members, Billy Joel reveals that the pressure he was talking about in the song was something along the lines of writing pressure and pressure to provide.
When I was starting out and trying to get things going, the pressure was if you don’t get things going, they’re going to throw you out of this apartment. There was that kind of pressure. “I’m hungry,” my stomach was going, “pressure, food.” I think that’s pretty intense pressure. The pressure I was writing about in this song wasn’t necessarily music business pressure, it was writing pressure. … At the time, I was saying, “Well, I gotta write some more stuff for the album”; I was about halfway through, and I said, “Well, what am I gonna do? I don’t have any ideas, it’s gone, it’s dead, I have nothing, nothing, nothing. There’s nothing.” And then the woman who is my secretary came into the house at that point and said, “Wow, you look like you’re under a lot of pressure. I bet you that’d be a good idea for a song.” And I went, “Thank you!” The PBS children’s TV series Sesame Street and New York PBS affiliate WNET (“channel 13”) are also mentioned in the first bridge.
Keith/David – Uptown Girl
“Uptown Girl” is a song written and performed by American musician Billy Joel. It was released on September 29, 1983, on his ninth studio album An Innocent Man (1983). The lyrics describe a working-class “downtown man” attempting to woo a wealthy “uptown girl.”
The 12″ EP featured the tracks “My Life”, “Just the Way You Are” and “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (catalogue number TA3775). Whereas some 7″ single versions featured ‘Careless Talk’ as a B-side (TBC).
According to an interview with Howard Stern, Joel had originally titled the song “Uptown Girls” and it was conceived on an occasion when he was surrounded by Christie Brinkley, Whitney Houston and his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson. According to numerous interviews with Joel, the song was initially written about his relationship with Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife, Brinkley (both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980s). Joel also has said that the song was inspired by the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Keith – A Matter of Trust
“A Matter of Trust” is a song by Billy Joel released as the second single from his album The Bridge.
The song was the second top 10 single from the album, after the previous single “Modern Woman.” The song’s music video features Joel and his band performing in the basement of a building on St. Mark’s Place in New York City’s East Village and also features shots of various people in the city who eventually gather round the building’s windows to see Joel perform. Most appear to be enjoying the concert except one woman on a fire escape who yells at them to “Shut Up!”, however she is ignored and even members of the NYPD don’t mind. His then-wife Christie Brinkley appears in the video holding their baby daughter, Alexa. The song differs from most Joel songs in that it is based on electric guitar rather than piano, which gives it a hard rock edge compared to his usual soft rock balladry. The song gained major traction in the Soviet Union as part of a state-sponsored television promotion of Joel’s songs in preparation for his 1987 USSR concerts, recorded on Kontsert.
David – She’s Always a Woman
“She’s Always a Woman” is a song from Billy Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger. It is a love song about a modern woman, with whom he falls in love for her quirks as well as her flaws. The single peaked at #17 in the U.S. in 1977, and at #53 in the UK in 1986, when it was released as a double A-side with “Just the Way You Are”. It re-entered the UK chart in 2010, reaching #29. A Muzak version of the track is known to be one of the last songs played over the former World Trade Center complex before its collapse. The song is played in the compound time signature of 6/8.
The song was released in 1977, following several other hits from The Stranger including “Just the Way You Are”, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and “Only the Good Die Young”. Musically, Joel has said that he was influenced by Gordon Lightfoot and his mellow acoustic guitar ballads. It is a love song that Joel wrote for his then wife, Elizabeth Weber. Elizabeth had taken over management of Joel’s career, and was able to put his financial affairs in order after Joel had signed some bad deals and contracts. She was a tough and savvy negotiator who could “wound with her eyes” or “steal like a thief”, but would “never give in”. Because of her tough-as-nails negotiating style, many business adversaries thought she was “unfeminine,” but to Joel, she was always a woman. The two eventually divorced in 1982.
Keith – The Downeaster ‘Alexa’
“The Downeaster ‘Alexa'” is a song originally written, produced, and performed by Billy Joel for his eleventh studio album Storm Front. The album itself went to number one while the fourth single “The Downeaster ‘Alexa'” placed at #57 in the Billboard Hot 100. The song was included on Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol. 3 album in 1997.
“The Downeaster Alexa” is performed in the key of A minor, with Billy Joel’s vocal ranging F4 to B?5. It plays in common time at a tempo of 88 beats per minute. The violin solo is played by virtuoso Itzhak Perlman.
The song is sung in the persona of an impoverished fisherman off Long Island and the surrounding waters who, like many of his fellow men, is finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet and keep ownership of his boat The fisherman sings about the depletion of the fish stocks (“I know there’s fish out there, but where God only knows”) and the environmental regulations (“Since they told me I can’t sell no stripers”) which make it hard for men like him to survive, especially with the conversion of his home island into an expensive summer colony for the affluent (“There ain’t no Island left for Islanders like me”). The lyrics reference Block Island Sound, Montauk, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Gardiners Bay, amongst other locations.
While the song is about a fictional person, it decries the plight of the Long Island Baymen (known locally as Bubbies). The Baymen represent a dying breed of people who, like farmers, work the environment to provide for their families, honorable men and women forced out of their livelihoods as much by the creep of urban society and government regulation as the decline of fish stocks. Joel was always sympathetic to the hard working men who worked the sea, even getting arrested during a protest supporting the Baymen. At one point Joel had underwritten a plan by his young boat captain to use his boat (Alexa Ray, a 46’ custom downeaster) as a commercial fishing and charter fishing operation. As the two developed the plan, it became increasingly clear that the challenges facing a small commercial operation were greater than he had imagined. The idea was scrapped. It was not long after that this song came together.
David – Prelude/Angry Young Man
“Prelude/Angry Young Man” is a song written by Billy Joel which appeared as the sixth song on the album Turnstiles in 1976. Live versions have been released as the second track of KOH?EPT, the 11th track of the first disc of 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert, and the opening track on the first disc of 12 Gardens Live and Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert. It is also included in the Broadway show Movin’ Out.
The instrumental “Prelude” lasts approximately a minute and 45 seconds, starting with a rapid-fire hammered piano riff on the middle-C piano key, joined by various instruments, swinging through styles such an Aaron Copland-styled ballad to funk to a Southwestern beat. When performing live, Joel plays the fast-paced prelude himself, but performs the song early in setlist, largely because the prelude section was easiest to manage during the adrenaline moments of starting a show, as opposed to being attempted after he had already expended much of his energy for other songs.
It is then followed by “Angry Young Man”, which paints a slightly sardonic picture of youthful, militant rebellion that is unflagging, trying to fight life’s ills despite constant failure (“He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl / And he’s always at home with his back to the wall / And he’s proud of his scars and the battles he’s lost / And he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross / And he likes to be known as the angry young man”). The song contrasts the angry youth’s feelings with the maturity of the narrator, who could be interpreted as either the same angry youth at a later age, or somebody who once felt as the angry young man currently does (“I believe I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage / I found that just surviving was a noble fight / I once believed in causes too / I had my pointless point of view / And life went on no matter who was wrong or right”.)
Despite never having been released as a single, “Prelude/Angry Young Man” has become a popular song among fans as well as a staple of live shows. “Prelude” was used as an opening theme for the German television talk show Live (1988-1996); and also used as theme song for Grampian Television’s summertime news magazine programme “Summer at Six” in the early 1980s. It has also been frequently used during stoppages of play at New York Knicks home games in Madison Square Garden.
Keith – River of dreams
“The River of Dreams” is a song by Billy Joel. It is the title track and first single from his 1993 album River of Dreams. The song was a hit, peaking at #3 on the United States and UK charts, making it his highest charting of the 1990s; indeed, it was the only album he released during the 1990s. It also hit the top spot in Australia and on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song was produced by Joe Nicolo and Danny Korchmar.
In the video, the filming was shot on the Providence & Worcester railroad bridge spanning the Connecticut River in the city of Middletown, Connecticut. Other locations that were filmed in the music video are near Portland, East Haddam, and Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The scenes inside the tobacco barn with Joel on the piano were filmed inside a still used tobacco barn in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. Joel and three backup singers appear throughout the video standing on the western span of the bridge, with the open center section of the bridge behind them. Joel’s then-wife Christie Brinkley can be seen painting the artwork that features on the front cover of the album River of Dreams. She is the illustrator who painted the actual album artwork, and each single released from the album featured one part of the large painting as cover art. Their 7 year old daughter Alexa Ray Joel appears to be the young girl who is briefly shown before the scene with her mother. At 3 minutes 45 seconds into the song, you can hear Joel singing The Cadillacs version of “Gloria” as the song fades out.
At least four versions of the song have been recorded and released. Two versions (released years later) include a bridge section containing a piano interlude paralleling Joel’s melody from his song “Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel),” which is from the same album. These versions can be found on the boxed sets My Lives and Complete Hits Collection: 1973-1999 – but even these versions differ from each other, both in length and in arrangement: one, for instance, has more percussion. A fourth mix appears as a bonus cut on the UK CD single of “River of Dreams” — the “percapella mix” done by Nicolo.
“The River of Dreams” was nominated for the 1993 Grammy Record of the Year award, but it lost out to “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.
In his performance of the song during the 1994 Grammy Awards telecast, Joel left a long pause in the middle of the song to protest the decision to cut off Frank Sinatra’s acceptance speech after Sinatra received that year’s Grammy Legend Award. During the pause, Joel noted he was wasting “valuable advertising time.”
David – It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” is a hit 1980 song performed by Billy Joel, from the hit album Glass Houses. The song was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks, from July 19 through August 1, 1980. The song spent 11 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980 according to American Top 40. The song is an examination of the themes of a musician’s degrading fame and public tastes that were expressed in his 1975 hit “The Entertainer”. The single eventually reached Platinum status from the RIAA for sales of over 2 million copies in the United States.
The song is a cynical look at the music industry as a publicist/manager begs the protagonist to remain hip for the younger crowd (“What’s the matter with the car I’m driving?” / “Can’t you tell that it’s out of style?”), and the protagonist’s refusal to change, claiming his music will remain relevant regardless of his appearance. The song was a reaction by Joel at the new music genres that were around in the late 1970s (punk, funk, new wave). It was inspired by Joel reading a review about a particular (unnamed) band, and realizing that he had no idea what their music sounded like.
Keith – Only the Good Die Young
“Only the Good Die Young” is a song from Billy Joel’s 1977 pop rock album, The Stranger. It was the third of four singles released from the album. The song was controversial for its time, with the lyrics written from the perspective of a young man determined to deflower a Catholic girl.
The song was inspired by a high school crush of Joel’s, Virginia Callahan. The boy/narrator believes that the girl is refusing him because she comes from a religious Catholic family and that she believes premarital sex is sinful He sings,
You Catholic girls start much too late,?but sooner or later it comes down to fate.?I might as well be the one.
Attempts to censor the song only made it more popular, after religious groups considered it anti-Catholic, and pressured radio stations to remove it from their playlists.”When I wrote ‘Only the Good Die Young’, the point of the song wasn’t so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust,” Joel told Performing Songwriter magazine. “The minute they banned it, the album started shooting up the charts.” In a 2008 interview, Joel also pointed out one part of the lyrics that virtually all the song’s critics missed – the boy in the song failed to get anywhere with the girl, and she kept her chastity.
David – She’s Got a Way
“She’s Got a Way” is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, originally released on his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor (1971) and as a single from that album in some countries. It was also featured as a single from the 1981 live album Songs in the Attic, peaking at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1982.
“She’s Got a Way” is a love ballad. The lyrics to “She’s Got a Way” have the singer describing how various characteristics of a particular woman, such as her laugh, make him love her, even though he can’t understand why. To music critic Mark Bego it a song about a woman who has “mesmerized” him. Joel biographer Fred Schruers describes the lyrics as a “plainspoken, never-quite-corny adoration of a loved one.” According to a friend of the couple, Bruce Gentile, the song was written about Joel’s first wife Elizabeth.
Schruers describes the song’s melody as alternating between “surging” and “relenting.” The original studio version has minimal instrumentation. The most prominent instruments are Joel’s piano and some cymbal crashes. Schruers describes Joel’s piano playing as “stately. On the 1983 reissue of Cold Spring Harbor, “She’s Got a Way” also incorporated strings, which may have been inspired by a live performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City at which strings were included in the instrumentation. Schruers attributes some of the poignance of the song to the way Joel sings the final word of the final phrase “I don’t know what it is/But there doesn’t have to be a reason anyway.” Schruers describes the last word “anyway” as hanging in the air, “trailing off” and “disrupting the tempo” and thus “seemingly giving in to the emotion” of love.
In a 1981 interview, Joel expressed mixed feelings about the song: “I thought it was cornball for years. I had trouble singing it at first. Then I got into it and decided everybody has a corny side, I suppose”
Joel originally included “She’s Got a Way” on a five song demo tape that also included other songs that would appear on Cold Spring Harbor such as “Everybody Loves You Now” and “Tomorrow Is Today” which Joel made in an unsuccessful attempt to secure his first solo recording contract with Paramount Records.
This brings back a lot of memories! Those are some really great songs! Were some of our songs on your list? Did we miss any of your songs in our rankings? We want to hear your comments, and where you put your songs on this list. Go comment below! For more on this subject and to hear the whole section on this topic go to our podcast! Go to podcastunlimited.com and go to our archive section and look for episode 88. For more insight into our insights, as well as our honorable mentions, go to our sister blog. See you all soon!
Only the good die young – Billy Joel
The Engineer!
“Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes,
I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.” – Billy Joel – “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”
The Editor