When I was five years old in 1977, my older brother brought home Billy Joel’s The Stranger LP. Something about that album got me all excited, and it is thanks to that experience that I became the music fan I am to this day. It seems a lot of people tend to deride Billy for whatever reasons, which has never really made much sense. The man has hit upon so many different styles of music in his career, that it seems nearly impossible to not like at least one of his songs.
In 2005, Joel released My Lives, a box set that concentrated mostly on album tracks instead of hit singles. Billy has often said that his own singles hardly tell the whole story about who he is as an artist and musician. Indeed, many of his best tunes are ones that were never released as singles. Therefore, coming up with a Deep Cuts by Billy Joel is pretty much a no-brainer. If nothing else, it can easily serve as a guide to those earlier albums that didn’t yield many hits, but had plenty of treasure hidden within nonetheless.
What follows then is a chronological album-by-album survey of the cream of Billy’s album cuts. Some you may be familiar with, others you may have no knowledge of whatsoever if you’re a casual fan. Hopefully, you’ll be able to explore Billy’s music further if you’re one of those folks who only owns his greatest hits collections. Those hits, great as they are, are truly only the tip of the iceberg. Billy’s best work has often been those “other” songs surrounding the hits. So without further ado, here are Billy Joel’s Deep Cuts.
All of the following were written by Billy Joel.
“Brain Invasion” – Attila
The Attila album is a hilarious, bombastic and failed exercise in the power duo genre (if such a thing exists). If you have to hear only one Attila song, then this is it. It’s a wild instrumental, showing off Billy’s knack for classical and jazz-infused themes as he blasts them out from his super-distorted organ. Drummer Jon Small bashes out the beats in a similarly-crazed fashion. It’s no wonder this band was a failure.
“You Can Make Me Free” – Cold Spring Harbor
When Billy’s botched debut was corrected and re-issued in 1983, some of the songs on the album had been changed. Some, like “Everybody Loves You Now,” had instruments added to them, while others were shortened. This song falls into the latter category (the original was over five minutes) and shows Billy giving it his best McCartney sounding style. The lyrics are all fluff, but Joel’s piano playing is powerful and his then-young voice quite soulful as well.
To see the complete list, jump here.
