In Our Italian Restaurant
A Comprehensive Ranking of Billy Joel’s Finest Moments
H. R. Gluskie
IF YOU’RE MUCH LIKE ME, then you could concur with my longing for that perfected list of Top Ten Billy Joel songs, encapsulating an intrinsic conflation of niche gems and fan favourites. On my perilous journey to find such a perfected work of articulated writing (rather than studying for my upcoming assessments), I endured mini heart-attacks once spotting critics actually placing We Didn’t Start The Fire in their Top Ten, or that one pretentious critic claiming that Joel “sounded like a chipmunk” for the entirety of his debut album; Cold Spring Harbor. After multiple gruelling hours of deep contemplation, or heated discussion with fellow Billy Joel enthusiast Matthew George, I believe I have formulated the medicine to cure your Billy Joel deprived illness.
Weakest Billy Joel enthusiast
Source: Reddit
10. Allentown (The Nylon Curtain)
Edging ahead of its Nylon Curtain (1982) competitor Goodnight Saigon, Allentown dismantles the Romanticism of workers’ unions and factories instantaneously through the poignant steam whistle that opens the album. Whilst an overtly sad song, Joel juxtaposes this with a subtle hint of hope for the workers in Allentown.
9. Piano Man (Piano Man)
Whilst it’s the last song you want someone to play when they see a piano and remark, “I can play a few jingles”, this list would be incomplete without Piano Man making the Top 10. Propelling his career into action, this “limerick” about his time performing as a lounge musician in Los Angeles is welded into everyone’s memory, and complete by his iconic use of the piano and harmonica simultaneously.
8. Vienna (The Stranger)
Undoubtedly, in my opinion, Joel’s prettiest song. Being one of his most profound works of lyricism, the line, “You’ve got your passion, you’ve got your pride / But don’t you know that only fools are satisfied” remains one of my favourites in his discography. Most importantly, however, Gary Winick’s 13 Going On 30 would not be at the level it is without Vienna’s capacity for emotional catharsis.
7. Zanzibar (52nd Street)
Joel’s most jazz-infused album, Zanzibar’s solid tune adorned by tasteful elements of Eddie Hubbard’s two trumpet solos, embodies the suave, provocative tone of the chic dance clubs that emerged in New York City in the late 1970s. Driven by the pumping keyboard of Chris Mathur, Evacuate Now’s electric performance of this piece only ameliorated its standing on the Top Ten.
A happy Chris M (2023) playing Zanzibar!
6. Prelude/Angry Young Man (Turnstiles)
The older I get, the more I come to worship Prelude/Angry Young Man. And whilst I don’t count myself as very old, the fiery intro of rapid staccato piano movements and crashing cymbals has become one of my favourite Billy Joel openings. Weaving the ebb and flow of dynamics in Prelude to transition into the sympathetic, upbeat sentiment of Angry Young Man, Joel presents a pastiche of a generation stubbornly clinging onto the waning ideals and notions of the 1960s.
5. New York State of Mind (Turnstiles)
Not many songs can efficaciously capture the zeitgeist of New York as well as Billy Joel does in his seminal, New York State of Mind. A generation earlier had Sinatra’s New York, New York, and a generation later had Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind; and whilst Tony Bennet was known for his smooth jazz vocals covering Sinatra’s, he always seemed to sing Joel’s more passionately at Madison Square Garden. Amidst a city polluted by crime, drugs, and disaffection, Joel leverages the sultry saxophone in flux with the swell of piano and strings to evoke a sense of intoxicating whimsy for simpler, more grounded times; leaving the splintered city with the potential for patriotic relief as he croons, “It comes down to reality”.
4. Movin’ Out [Anthony’s Song] (The Stranger)
The opening track to The Stranger (1977), establishes the album’s quintessential Italian sound through the vibrant guitar riff and meandering bass line, accented by organ and piano flourishes. Amidst an impervious, deftly catchy tune that compelled me to break out into a groove in the silent section of the Library last Tuesday, Joel’s lyrics refer to the New York working-class immigrant masculine ethos, in which the proletariats take pride in working long hours to afford the outward signs of having achieved the ‘American Dream’.
3. Sleeping With the Television On (Glass Houses)
As an under-appreciated catchy 80s pop tune, Sleeping With the Television On strikes a natural balance between Joel’s traditional songwriting and his New Wave producer, Phil Ramone. Outwardly, Joel is just trying to score big with a girl, but he elevates the song to expose the fronts we put up to avoid further heartbreak. Through his imposition of the dichotomy between the phony “more of a fool who’s not afraid of rejection”, and later his honest internal dialogue “Your eyes are saying talk to me”, he portrays two wounded hearts that keep the song attractive, truthful, and even a little romantic.
2. Summer, Highland Falls (Turnstiles)
Joel’s ability to transcend listeners immediately through Summer, Highland Falls opening piano melody could earn it a spot on this list alone. Ostensibly about the give-and-take of life and relationships, Joel suggests this song is more appropriately suited to the undercurrent depression that entrenches itself behind the seemingly ‘ideal’ facades humans put up on display. The rolling arpeggios in his left hand construct a dark, driving bass line, whilst the right is oscillating in a bouncy, yet ‘manic’ manner. Most importantly, this duality reifies the notion that there is no liminal space in between the radicalities of humanity, advocating that life is broken down to “either sadness or euphoria”.
1. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant (The Stranger)
His seven-and-a-half minute epic triptych, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, is a careful and considerate juxtaposition of musical idioms – weaving his legacy of a storyteller and beautiful piano ballads to blossom an examination of life’s nuance and nostalgia. Regarding The Beatles’ Abbey Road, the operetta opens as a wistful romantic ballad as the simple piano accompanied by the sweeping accordion and strings transports us into Joel’s sensorial enchanting world. As the song shifts style, the rock verse titled The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie entails the story of the “popular steadies” navigating the transitional period between adolescence and the impending responsibilities of adulthood. As it is later revealed in the final verse that bookends the simple piano opening, it is the ‘steadies’ Brenda and Eddie reminiscing as divorcees on the simpler times of their unjaded past. Ultimately, Joel’s magnum opus subvertingly presents the underwhelming nostalgia that accompanies reminiscence, leaving listeners with the image of “waving goodbye” to our past lives, and compelling us to appreciate living in the present as extraordinary, ordinary humans.
Five honourable mentions that could’ve easily made the list: The Stranger (The Stranger), Miami 2017 (Turnstiles), The Longest Time (An Innocent Man), I Don’t Want to Be Alone (Glass Houses), Ballad of Billy The Kid (Piano Man)
Me when the ‘Ballad of Brenda and Eddie’ comes on