The 25 best Billy Joel songs of all time

Although “She’s Got a Way” didn’t really catch on until Billy Joel’s 1981 live album “Songs in the Attic,” it was actually the very first song off his very first record, 1971’s “Cold Spring Harbor.” Regardless of when “She’s Got a Way” first received recognition for being one of his best songs, the love ballad — consisting of only Billy and his piano — is still played regularly at his concerts today.

Ask your average person to name the most famous Billy Joel song, and they’ll probably say “Piano Man.” After all, not only was it his first official single, but it also epitomizes the man himself. "Piano Man" was written as a fictionalized version of Joel’s experiences as a piano/lounge singer in Los Angeles in the early ‘70s. Released on the 1973 album of the same name, “Piano Man” is also one of the most divisive songs of Joel’s: fans either detest it for being overplayed, or they can’t help but sing along every time.

“Captain Jack” is one of Joel’s most inappropriate songs, but it’s also the song credited for jumpstarting his career. If it wasn’t for a live performance of “Captain Jack” at a Philadelphia radio station in 1972, and the enormous amount of requests that followed, Columbia Records might have never signed the young artist. Although Billy doesn’t perform it too often nowadays, he almost always includes it as part of his set when visiting Philly — as both a tribute and thank you to the city.

The first and only single from Joel’s third album, “Streetlife Serenade,” “The Entertainer” is an upbeat but cynical view of fame and public opinion. Notable lyrics include, “Today I am your champion / I may have won your hearts / But I know the game, you'll forget my name / And I won't be here in another year / If I don't stay on the charts.” It also pokes fun at the fact that “Piano Man” was cut short for radio play. Sung by a young Joel in 1974, it’s easy to see how he might be concerned about the fleeting nature of fame; little did Billy know, he’d hold onto the spotlight for another 44 years and counting.

The 1976 album “Turnstiles” was written as an ode to Billy’s hometown of New York City. It didn’t see airplay as a single, but “New York State of Mind” is easily the most notable song on the record. Written by Joel while he was actually “takin' a Greyhound on the Hudson River line” when moving back to the East Coast from Southern California, the song has since become a staple at almost every one of his concerts — and we’re not just talking about his Madison Square Garden residency.

Also from “Turnstiles,” “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” is a sci-fi tale about the destruction of New York City, which was written in 1975 when the city was on the verge of default. Despite being a bit of a bummer, “Miami 2017” is a clear fan-favorite. Joel has played it at most live shows as well as benefits like the Concert for New York City in 2001, Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together for Hurricane Sandy Victims and 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief in 2012.

Billy Joel owns five Grammys, and two of them (Record of the Year and Song of the Year) were for “Just the Way You Are,” the first single from his 1977 magnum opus, “The Stranger.” Written for Joel’s first wife, the saxophone-laced serenade was his first Top 10 hit in the U.S. and first Top 20 in the U.K. He used to play it regularly live, but it fell out of favor after he and now-ex-wife Elizabeth Weber divorced in 1982. 

The second single from “The Stranger,” “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” was so popular that it inspired an entire Broadway musical of the same name, which played more than 1,300 performances between 2002 and 2005. The song — about blue collar workers busting their humps just to be able to display a bit of wealth and success — is also notable for including the sound of a car driving away at the end. This was not any old studio sound effect, but actually a recording of bass player Doug Stegmeyer’s 1960s Corvette.

A young man’s attempt to seduce a straight-laced Catholic gal was chronicled in “Only the Good Die Young,” a controversial song at the time of its 1977 release. Catholic groups saw it as an attack on their religion and rallied radio stations to stop playing it, which of course only made the track more popular and in greater demand, with “Only the Good Die Young” eventually peaking at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. Interestingly, the name Virginia wasn’t random; the subject of the song was named after Billy’s former high school crush.

Billy Joel has repeatedly said that “Vienna” is one of his favorite songs, and many fans agree. At his concerts, when given the choice between “Vienna” and numerous other options, fans usually cheer louder for “Vienna,” Joel reports. The song was never released as a single, but instead as the B-side to “She’s Always a Woman” (which deserves an honorable mention, too).

In a 2017 interview with Stephen Colbert, Billy Joel was asked about his favorite song of his own, and replied “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” We couldn’t agree more. Clocking in at seven minutes and 37 seconds, this epic track was inspired by the second side of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” in that it is actually three songs blended as one. It opens simply with Joel and his piano (and the famous lyrics “A bottle of white / bottle of red / perhaps a bottle of rosé instead”) before launching into an upbeat jazz-inspired ditty, followed by a straight rock 'n' roll tune. The song becomes a piano ballad again before eventually ending, in our opinion, much too soon.

The first single from 1978’s “52nd Street” was also the album’s most popular song — soaring as high as No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s hard not to fall for the self-righteous tune, which is basically an anthem that tells haters to mind their own damn business. The song became even more likable a couple years later when it was used as the original opening theme for “Bosom Buddies.” Let’s face it, what’s more likable than a combination of Billy Joel and Tom Hanks?

Like “My Life,” “Big Shot” also shot up the charts, gave Joel two Top 20 songs in the same year and contributed to the success of “52nd Street” at the 1979 Grammys — where it won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Although Billy initially denied that the song was about the intoxicated escapades of Mick Jagger’s first wife, Bianca, Joel later admitted that he wrote the song after having dinner with the couple. He actually imagined Mick singing it to Bianca while penning the lyrics.

Most rock 'n' roll fans can identify Billy Joel’s hit “You May Be Right” from the sound of broken glass at the very beginning, which is a fitting way to start an album called “Glass Houses” (1980). The album features an image of Joel on the cover ready to hurl a rock through the two-story window of his actual glass house in Cove Neck, New York. It might sound like one of the musician’s angrier tunes, but “You May Be Right” is still a love song as Joel is convincing the subject that his crazy personality might be just what she needs in a partner.

Similar to “The Entertainer,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” explores the reasons behind an artist’s declining fame and the evolution of the general public’s musical tastes over time. The difference between the two songs is that “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” was even more successful — becoming a No. 1 hit that stayed atop the charts for two weeks in the summer of 1980, and eventually reaching Platinum status as a single. Although the song itself was something of a satire, Weird Al Yankovic actually parodied it in an unreleased demo that poked fun at the similar sound of many Billy Joel songs.

Although it appears on the rock-oriented “Glass Houses,” “Don’t Ask Me Why” sounds more like it belongs on one of Joel’s earlier albums. It has a Latin or Cuban vibe, is completely acoustic, and the most notable instruments — other than the ever-present piano — are maracas, claves, castanets and a ratchet. Despite being a fish out of water, “Don’t Ask Me Why” easily ascended to No. 19 on the charts.

In the final single from “Glass Houses,” "Sometimes a Fantasy,” Billy Joel and his band sound like they’re doing their best impressions of Ric Ocasek and the Cars — complete with ample use of a synthesizer. The sound is a bit out of character for the group, but it totally works for this uptempo number about a man calling his long-distance girlfriend for some raunchy fun over the phone.

Written about the decline of the steel industry in Pennsylvania, “Allentown” has since become something of an anthem for blue collar America. Perhaps helped by the average Joe/Jane, “Allentown” peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for an impressive six consecutive weeks. Joel spent 12 years writing the song, which eventually appeared on 1982’s “The Nylon Curtain,” but the wait was worth it; less than two months after the song’s release, the mayor of the real Allentown gave the Piano Man a key to the city.

It might not be as catchy or upbeat as much of Joel’s previous work, but “Goodnight Saigon” is still a certified lyrical masterpiece, one of the musician’s best songs and regularly played during his live performances. Although it centers on the war in Vietnam, “Goodnight Saigon” refrains from taking a side, instead concentrating on the traumatic and tragic experiences of the soldiers themselves.

The songs on 1983’s “An Innocent Man” feature several different musical styles as tributes to the genres Billy listened to as a kid. The album’s first single, “Tell Her About It,” was meant to be an ode to Motown (complete with a ‘60s-style music video), but Joel later admitted it sounded more like something by Tony Orlando. Fans didn’t seem to mind, as they bought up more than 500,000 copies of the single and propelled “Tell Her About It” to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

As an homage to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, “An Innocent Man” featured the upbeat “Uptown Girl” — a song in which the narrator, a working class guy, tries to court a wealthy, more sophisticated woman. The song eventually hit No. 3 on the charts and spawned a music video starring Joel and model Christie Brinkley, whom the singer married two years later.

Appearing on “An Innocent Man” in the spirit of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the doo-wop hit “The Longest Time” sounds like it was recorded by a group, but every part — from the lead and numerous backing vocals to the hand-clapping and finger-snapping — was just Joel. The result was a musical marvel that became a No. 1 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and a No. 14 hit on the Hot 100.

“Modern Woman” was actually the highest-charting song on Billy Joel’s 10th studio album, “The Bridge,” but the musician has said he doesn’t really care for the tune. We’d agree that it’s not the strongest single on the 1986 record. Instead, that distinction should go to “A Matter of Trust,” a four-minute ditty that cracked Billboard’s Top 10 and is notable for not being based on piano, but electric guitar — giving it more of a hard rock feel. Joel has said that the video, which was filmed on St. Mark’s Street in Manhattan, is his favorite of all time.

Billy Joel has had three No. 1 hits in his career, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is one of them. The song is instantly recognizable to even the most casual of music fans because it's basically a laundry list of important figures, events and other historically notable items from around the globe spanning from just after World War II (when Joel was born) until 1989, the year “Storm Front” was released. It didn’t win, but “We Didn’t Start the Fire” earned Grammy nominations for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1990, as well as album nods for Best Pop Vocal Performance and Producer of the Year (for Joel and Mick Jones) in 1991.

“River of Dreams” (1993) is the most recent studio album of Billy Joel (not including 2001’s “Fantasies & Delusions, which was only written by Joel) and No. 12 overall. Its best song was easily the title track, a gospel-like tune inspired by a dream Billy had. The gospel genre was new to Joel, but he managed to pull if off with ease — a pretty big accomplishment considering he’s actually an atheist. The song reached No. 3 on the charts, and together it and the album earned four Grammy nominations.