This month, turned 75 years old. But even before that, 2024 was a momentous year for the Piano Man. In February, he released “Turn The Lights Back On,” his first original pop song in decades, and performed it as the ceremony closer at the Grammys.
In April, , and streamed it live on network television. While his profile doesn’t approach Taylor or Beyoncé — or even his own fame back in the 20th century — Billy is more back than he has been in ages. Therefore, it seems like a good excuse to revisit the man’s catalog.
Because there is a lot of relatively unexplored territory to cover! The paradox of Billy Joel is that he is one of the most famous songwriters in the world, with dozens of well-known hits that basically everybody knows. But at the same time, knowledge of his music beyond those hits — and the albums that contain that music — remains somewhat obscure in the general populace. We all know about “Piano Man” and “Uptown Girl” and “Just The Way You Are.
” But deep cuts like “Zanzibar” and “Summer, Highland Falls” and “Sometimes A Fantasy” remain obscure to most non-Joel-heads. There’s also the matter of Billy Joel’s checkered critical reputation. In the realm of singer-songwriters, he’s not put in the same class as Springsteen or Petty or Neil Young, even though he came out of the same era and has sold more records.
His lack of coolness is usually blamed for this, but it really comes down to how broad his songs are. Accessibi.
