Billy Joel top 25 Countdown! (#s 3-1 revealed!!)

[Stadler]

Concerts in general aren't a great date, but given that, Billy Joel is about as good as it gets.  It's sort of a tradition that there are frequently "proposals" at his shows.

[wolfking]

oh......this is a serious thread.

[KevShmev]

oh......this is a serious thread.

*smack*

[KevShmev]

With a week and a half to go, we are stuck on six submitters so far.  Who else plans to submit one?

[DTwwbwMP]

With a week and a half to go, we are stuck on six submitters so far. 

 

[DragonAttack]

Add me to the list

[DTwwbwMP]

Add me to the list

  Queen fans rock!

[twosuitsluke]

[Zydar]

Nice reference

[Stadler]

With a week and a half to go, we are stuck on six submitters so far.  Who else plans to submit one?

I'm 100% in.  It might not be until next week.

[KevShmev]

DragonAttack and Stadler will get us to 8. Where are all the other Billy Joel fans?  I know there are more here, damn it. 

[jammindude]

Ok Kev. I’m game.

I only had about 30 songs I really knew well enough to plug into the ranker, but it was enough.

I don’t even believe people who claim they’ve never heard a Billy Joel song. That’s just ludicrous.

Just put on the greatest hits disc and you’ll go, “Oh, THAT’S who does that song” 10 or 15 times.

[jammindude]

I probably need to do a deeper dive into Billy Joel.

I just now realized that with the exception of Turnstiles (which I have on vinyl) I’ve never actually heard a Billy Joel album front to back. Not even The Stranger. It’s just that there’s about 25 songs of his that you would have to be actively working to avoid because they are EVERYWHERE and then it’s mostly just a matter of ranking those.

Even though I’ve never heard The Stranger all the way through, I’ve heard most of it just because those songs are everywhere. And then my sister owned Glass Houses and I played side 1 to death, but I never flipped the album over.  So…ya. I should probably at least pick up The Stranger and 52nd Street and see where things go from there.

[Samsara]

With a week and a half to go, we are stuck on six submitters so far.  Who else plans to submit one?

[coz]

List sent.  I consider myself a moderate fan of Joel.  And 25 was pretty much all I needed to rank what I've heard in my 47 years.
Hopefully I discover some new favorites after the lists are compiled.

[DragonAttack]

List sent.

I was initially around 35-40 songs in no time.  First round of cutting down to 30 was fairly easy, .....the next cut was difficult.

[Stadler]

I'm doing my list; anyone else love the Jack Black homage in "Tomorrow Is Today"? 

[bosk1]

Sorry, slipped through the cracks.  I will definitely get mine in.

Fair warning:  Glass Houses is far and away my favorite Billy album, followed by An Innocent Man, and I am VERY partial to the hits from '73 to '85.  So my list is very much going to resemble a shuffling around of most of the tracks from Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 & Volume 2, substituting in some deep tracks from Glass Houses and AIM. 

[Stadler]

Sorry, slipped through the cracks.  I will definitely get mine in.

Fair warning:  Glass Houses is far and away my favorite Billy album, followed by An Innocent Man, and I am VERY partial to the hits from '73 to '85.  So my list is very much going to resemble a shuffling around of most of the tracks from Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 & Volume 2, substituting in some deep tracks from Glass Houses and AIM.

I'm not that different; The Nylon Curtain is going to figure HEAVILY in my list.

[KevShmev]

Alright! At least two more still to come!

There won't be a lot of lists on this one, but I am still looking forward to it.

[Samsara]

Alright! At least two more still to come!

There won't be a lot of lists on this one, but I am still looking forward to it.

Thanks for running it!

[bosk1]

Submitted mine.  I've never really ranked Billy Joel's songs before, so it was interesting to see how mine shook out once I was done with the ranker.  But I didn't feel I needed to tweak it at all once it was done.  Honestly, I feel like my top 20 is pretty solid, and then I was scraping the bottom to find songs I didn't mind including to round out the list. 

[hefdaddy42]

Submitted.

[KevShmev]

Alright, up to 12 lists now, and at least one more (Stadler) still to come!

[Stadler]

In.   Surprised to sort of have it sink in how thematic and "of a kind" each of his albums are.  I don't think he's necessarily put out a "bad" album, but certainly it's clear I like some more than others.


Cold Spring Harbor          1
Piano Man                       2
Streetlife Serenade.         0
Turnstiles                        3
The Stranger                   7
52nd Street                     3
Glass Houses                   0
The Nylon Curtain            4
An Innocent Man             1
The Bridge                      0
Storm Front                    3
River of Dreams.             0
Fantasies & Delusions.     0 (But I love this album; nothing made the top 25 though)
Greatest Hits                  1

[Kram]

In.   Surprised to sort of have it sink in how thematic and "of a kind" each of his albums are.  I don't think he's necessarily put out a "bad" album, but certainly it's clear I like some more than others.


Cold Spring Harbor          1
Piano Man                       2
Streetlife Serenade.         0
Turnstiles                        3
The Stranger                   7
52nd Street                     3
Glass Houses                   0
The Nylon Curtain            4
An Innocent Man             1
The Bridge                      0
Storm Front                    3
River of Dreams.             0
Fantasies & Delusions.     0 (But I love this album; nothing made the top 25 though)
Greatest Hits                  1

I had 0 from Glass Houses as well, but there's a lot of good songs on that album.

[KevShmev]

Don't Ask Me Why is a big favorite of mine, always has been.  I cannot recall where I ranked it, as my list is at home, but I know it wasn't near the bottom.  Nothing else from that album made the cut for me.

[bosk1]

Don't Ask Me Why always sounded like it could have been a Paul Simon song to me.

[hefdaddy42]

Don't Ask Me Why always sounded like it could have been a Paul Simon song to me.

You typed Paul Simon, and my eyes saw Paul Simon, but my brain interpreted as Paul Stanley, and I got really confused for a second there.

[bosk1]

  That's kinda how I felt the first time trying to read through your post.  Don't ask me why.

[hefdaddy42]

  That's kinda how I felt the first time trying to read through your post.  Don't ask me why.

[KevShmev]

13 lists now!  And I think we'll get a 14th once Joe sends his.

I can't complain about this turnout.  I was worried about even getting to 10 there for a while. 

[TheSoylentMan]

I'm doing one! Billy Joel is an all-time favorite artist of mine. Quick story - my mom is a pianist and mostly listened to classical, but I introduced her to Billy Joel's music sometime in my teens and she became a fan. It's something we've bonded over for a long time. His Greatest Hits 1&2 was one of the first CDs I owned, and I have distinct memories of playing a dubbed cassette of it on my Walkman while sitting in the back seat on road trips through NY to New England. Wonderful. I started writing my own songs around that time as well, and he was a major inspiration. I eventually got all his albums and I know most of them quite well. I don't listen to him too often anymore, but he will always be a favorite.

The ranking engine thing was fun. I started with about 35 songs from your list and plugged them in. It came out mostly right; I'm trying to decide if I'm tweaking anything before submitting or keeping it as-is (I'm second-guessing one or two placements, and I forgot a song that might rank). I'll get something in though.

[Samsara]

Years ago, I met Billy on the street in...I want to say it was Southampton. A friend of mine managed a liquor store. I used to head down there on Saturdays to hang out and help him with deliveries. Anyway, we make this one delivery, start walking back to his SUV, and there was Billy Joel and his daughter, Alexa, getting ice cream. We said hello as we passed, as he did. Just casual. I am sure the Island is probably pretty different now (I grew up there, but I haven't lived there in 20 years), but that was one thing I loved. It was no big deal to see and say hello to local celebs. You just said hey, they said hi, no pictures or any of that. Just shoot the breeze and wish you well. I miss those times.

My mom, back in the early-70s, before I was born, hung out with Billy with various friends at parties in Huntington, she said. Just a regular dude...

[KevShmev]

I'm doing one! Billy Joel is an all-time favorite artist of mine. Quick story - my mom is a pianist and mostly listened to classical, but I introduced her to Billy Joel's music sometime in my teens and she became a fan. It's something we've bonded over for a long time. His Greatest Hits 1&2 was one of the first CDs I owned, and I have distinct memories of playing a dubbed cassette of it on my Walkman while sitting in the back seat on road trips through NY to New England. Wonderful. I started writing my own songs around that time as well, and he was a major inspiration. I eventually got all his albums and I know most of them quite well. I don't listen to him too often anymore, but he will always be a favorite.

The ranking engine thing was fun. I started with about 35 songs from your list and plugged them in. It came out mostly right; I'm trying to decide if I'm tweaking anything before submitting or keeping it as-is (I'm second-guessing one or two placements, and I forgot a song that might rank). I'll get something in though.

Today is the last day to submit, so be sure to submit your list in the next 17+ hours!