After spending last week chronicling The New York Times‘ selections of the ’30 Greatest Living American Songwriters,’ this week I’m turning to my own list.
Unlike The Times, I have no obligation to represent multiple genres or recognize major historic figures. My list is entirely based on my tastes and habits, which are relatively narrow given the scope of American popular music over the past 50 years or so. And, yes, I know this list is extremely white. So am I. What can you do?
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…
#2 – The Stranger – Billy Joel
I recently played today’s SOTD for my wife and she said she’d never heard it before. How could that be, I asked, when she’s a big Billy Joel fan and this is the eighth of nine tracks on The Stranger, arguably the greatest Billy Joel album?
It turns out she didn’t know the ninth song, ‘Everybody Has a Dream,’ either.
We realized that she never really listened to The Stranger as an album, despite being completely familiar with its first seven tracks.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#7 – The Bridge – Billy Joel
Billy Joel’s 10th studio album was his last truly great one. I find a lot to love on 1989’s Storm Front and 1993’s River of Dreams, but this album is special from start to finish.
OK, maybe ‘This is the Time’ is a bit of a speed bump among the album’s nine tracks, but you can’t beat up on the guy for writing a prom theme.
Throwing back to the week of December 10, 1983, we find a couple of repeats atop the Billboard Hot 100 in ‘Say Say Say‘ (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson) and ‘All Night Long (All Night)‘ (Lionel Richie).
In the #3 spot is Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl,’ the second single from his An Innocent Man album, and one of three from that record to reach the top ten. ‘Uptown Girl’ spent five weeks at #3, its peak position on the chart.
Throwing back to the week of September 17, 1983, we have Michael Sembello hanging on to the top spot with ‘Maniac’ from the Flashdance soundtrack. Right behind him at #2 is Billy Joel, whose ‘Tell Her About It’ would take over the top spot the following week.
‘Tell Her About It’ was the first of six singles from Joel’s An Innocent Man album, and the only one to hit #1. Even ‘Uptown Girl’ couldn’t make it higher than #3. In fact, this song is one of only three #1 hits in Joel’s entire career. Bonus points to anybody who can name the other two in the comments (without cheating).
Meet Me In Montauk 