Showing posts with label She's Got a Way. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Billy Joel: His Top 100 Songs

Billy Joel

Top 100 Songs

William Martin Joel, better known as Billy Joel, was born in Long Island, New York on May 9, 1949. While he spent a good chunk of the ‘60s in various bands including The Lost Souls, The Hassles, and Attila, he made his name as a solo singer, songwriter and pianist who was adept at pop and rock.

For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry.

Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Awards:

Top 100 Songs

Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.

DMDB Top 1%:

1. Piano Man (1973)
2. Just the Way You Are (1977)

DMDB Top 2%:

3. Uptown Girl (1983)
4. It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me (1980)
5. We Didn’t Start the Fire (1989)

DMDB Top 5%:

6. My Life (1978)
7. Tell Her About It (1983)
8. The River of Dreams (1993)
9. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) (1977)
10. She’s Always a Woman (1977)

11. The Longest Time (1983)
12. You May Be Right (1980)

DMDB Top 10%:

13. Only the Good Die Young (1977)
14. Goodnight Saigon (1982)
15. She’s Got a Way (1971)
16. An Innocent Man (1983)
17. This is the Time (1986)
18. Honesty (1978)
19. Say Goodbye to Hollywood (1976)
20. A Matter of Trust (1986)

21. Leave a Tender Moment Alone (1983)
22. You’re Only Human (Second Wind) (1985)
23. Allentown (1982)
24. Big Shot (1978)
25. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (1977)
26. Baby Grand (with Ray Charles, 1986)
27. Modern Woman (1986)
28. Pressure (1982)
29. Don’t Ask Me Why (1980)
30. New York State of Mind (1976)
31. The Entertainer (1974)

DMDB Top 20%:

32. Keeping the Faith (1983)
33. And So It Goes (1989)
34. All About Soul (1993)
35. The Downeaster Alexa (1989)
36. The Night Is Still Young (1985)
37. I Go to Extremes (1989)
38. All Shook Up (1992)
39. The Stranger (1977)
40. Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) (1993)

41. Sometimes a Fantasy (1980)
42. The Star-Spangled Banner (live, 2000)
43. When You Wish Upon a Star (1991)
44. A Hard Day’s Night (1994)
45. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (live, 1994)
46. Vienna (1977)
47. To Make You Feel My Love (1997)
48. That’s Not Her Style (1989)
49. Heartbreak Hotel (1992)

Beyond the DMDB Top 20%:

50. Why Should I Worry? (1988)
51. Travelin’ Prayer (1973)
52. Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) (1976)
53. Back in the U.S.S.R. (live, 1987)
54. No Man’s Land (1993)
55. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (live, 1987)
56. Live and Let Die (2014)
57. The Ballad of Billy the Kid (1973)
58. Big Man on Mulberry Street (1986)
59. Until the Night (1978)
60. Leningrad (1989)

61. Worse Comes to Worst (1973)
62. All for Leyna (1980)
63. Captain Jack (1973)
64. Hey Girl (1997)
65. Shameless (1989)
66. Temptation (1986)
67. Prelude/Angry Young Man (1976)
68. Code of Silence (with Cyndi Lauper, 1986)
69. She’s Right on Time (1982)
70. Light As the Breeze (1995)

71. You’re My Home (1973)
72. Getting Closer (1986)
73. Two Thousand Years (1993)
74. A Room of Our Own (1982)
75. James (1976)
76. Careless Talk (1983)
77. All My Life (2007)
78. Christie Lee (1983)
79. Laura (1982)
80. This Night (1983)

81. Everybody Loves You Now (1971)
82. Running on Ice (1986)
83. Easy Money (1983)
84. Stiletto (1978)
85. Close to the Borderline (1980)
86. Shout (live, 1990)
87. I’ll Cry Instead (1983)
88. Scandinavian Skies (1982)
89. Famous Last Words (1993)
90. Summer, Highland Falls (1976)

91. I’ve Loved These Days (1976)
92. Nocturne (1971)
93. Why Judy Why (1971)
94. You Can Make Me Free (1971)
95. You Look So Good to Me (1971)
96. Zanzibar (1978)
97. Elvis Street Blvd. (1982)
98. Stop in Nevada (1973)
99. Ain’t No Crime (1973)
100. Tomorrow Is Today (1971)

Resources and Related Links:

DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Billy Joel
Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists”

First posted 5/9/2012; last updated 10/12/2023.

Monday, November 1, 1971

Billy Joel’s Cold Spring Harbor released

Cold Spring Harbor

Billy Joel

Released: November 1, 1971

Peak: 158 US, 95 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK)

Genre: pop/rock singer-songwriter

Tracks:

Click on a song title for more details.

Total Running Time: 32:54

Rating:

3.259 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings)

About the Album

Cold Spring Harbor was Billy Joel’s first solo endeavor after albums with the groups the Hassles and Attila flopped. Unfortunately, this one still “bombed so badly that he fled the East Coast for California (and, as Bill Martin, hit the piano-lounge circuit, inspiring ‘Piano Man’).” ^DB

On the album, Joel “reinvented himself as a sensitive singer/songwriter.” ^AM Joel “may have been in his formative stages as a craftsman, but his talents are apparent, and he never made an album as intimate and vulnerable ever again.” ^AM

“The record was uneven but very charming, boasting two of his finest songs” ^AM –She’s Got a Way and Everybody Loves You Now. ^AM Overall, though, the album was weighed down by “an overabundance of simpy ballads in which his pugnacious appeal was buried in lyrics about ‘misty satin dreams’ and too many references to crying.” ^DB

The album “didn’t sound right upon its original release. Through a bizarre mastering error, the tapes were sped up – legend has it that upon hearing the completed album, he ripped it off the turntable, ran out of the house, and threw it down the street. It wasn't until 1983 that Columbia released a corrected reissue.” ^AM

The Songs

Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

She’s Got a Way

Billy Joel

Writer(s): Billy Joel

Released: November 1971 (single), Cold Spring Harbor (1971), Greatest Hits Volume I & II (1985), The Ultimate Collection (2000), The Essential (2001), Piano Man: The Very Best of (2004)

B-Side: “Everybody Loves You Now”

First Charted: 11/21/1981 (live version)

Peak: 23 BB, 25 CB, 28 HR, 17 RR, 4 AC, 16 CL, 46 CN, 5 DF Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 50.57 streaming

About the Song:

Joel’s Cold Spring Harbor album “was uneven but very charming, boasting two of his finest songs” ^AM one of which was “the lovely She's Got a Way.” ^AM It was the only song from the album with any legs, eventually becoming a top-20 hit when it was released as a single in support of the 1981 live album Songs in the Attic.

You Can Make Me Free

Billy Joel

Writer(s): Billy Joel

Released: Cold Spring Harbor (1971)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.94 streaming

About the Song:

Cold Spring Harbor featured some drastically edited songs. “You Can Make Me Free, one of the standouts, was chopped by nearly five minutes and instruments and backing vocals were stripped away from numerous tracks. It may be a bastardization of the original release, but it's an acceptable one, since these changes only accentuate the intimacy and vulnerability of the recording.” ^AM

Everybody Loves You Now

Billy Joel

Writer(s): Billy Joel

Cold Spring Harbor featured some “flawed but nicely crafted songs that illustrated Joel’s gift for melody, as well as his pretensions” ^AM such as “the mock-gospel in Tomorrow Is Today [and] a classical stab entitled Nocturne.” ^AM

Nocturne

Billy Joel

Writer(s): Billy Joel

Released: Cold Spring Harbor (1971)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.75 streaming

About the Song:

Got to Begin Again

Billy Joel

Writer(s): Billy Joel

Released: Cold Spring Harbor (1971)

Peak: -- Click for codes to charts.

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.44 streaming

Resources/References:

^AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
^DB David Browne (6/07). Blender magazine. Pages 114-5.

Related DMDB Pages:

First posted 5/9/2011; last updated 2/9/2026.