Billy Joel - legend!

One of the most underrated living singer-songwriters has got to be Billy Joel. I spend far too much of my spare time playing his songs, and as a pianist I have to say that his piano writing is far superior to the likes of Elton John or even (gasp!) Freddie Mercury. I've posted a reasonably lame attempt of mine to recreate his classic 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant' which comes from his great album 'The Stranger' - and in this song we see Joel as a balladeer, showman, supreme musician, poet and composer. He has also had the services of  great saxophone players in Richie Canata, who played on the recordings of 'Scenes' and 'New York State of Mind', and, since the 1980s, Mark Rivera, whose playing on Joel's live albums such as '12 Gardens' has to be heard to be believed.

Over and above his eminently singable melodies and superb arrangements (many thanks to Phil Ramone, his producer throughout much of the 70s and 80s), Joel is a terrific lyricist and his work appeals to Americans and New Yorkers in particular because he writes from real life experiences, often mentioning people and places who are particularly close to him. His partners have inspired songs like 'Just the way you are' and 'Uptown Girl', his daughter Alexa (now a musician in her own right) gets frequent mentions and had a beautiful 'Lullabye' written for her, and even history teachers can thank Joel for 'We didn't start the fire' which contains about 40 years of historical events in its lyrics.

He writes in so many styles - the album 'An Innocent Man' is a homage to 1950s rock n roll and doo-wop, there are blues and jazz tunes, heavy rock songs, all-American anthems, protest songs (like 'Goodnight Saigon'), and of course the great piano ballads - not just the love songs, but the stories like 'The Ballad of Billy the Kid'. 

My favourite Joel songs - well, 'Scenes' is right up there, of course, along with 'Miami 2017', 'New York State of Mind' and 'And So it Goes'. Please let me know what your favourite is!

Oh, and the video of 'Scenes' is in the video bar to the right of this page. I think I took it a little too fast.....