The Stranger at 70: Billy Joel's 25 best songs

Billy Joel has always been one to play out his relationships in song form, and "I Go To Extremes," from his 1989 album, "Storm Front," is no different. The song is a kinetic apology to then-wife, Christie Brinkley, as he lays bare his own erratic personality as a source of stress in their relationship. The song is forceful and representative of a last gasp of sorts for a performer who was only a few short years away from yet another musical transition.

The title track from Joel's final pop album, "River of Dreams," might also be his most mature song. Borrowing heavily from black gospel in terms of melody, the song is Joel's effort at coming to peace with his tumultuous life at the time, which included financial disputes with his former manager and brother-in-law who took millions from Joel as part of a bizarre embezzlement scheme. As a swan song of sorts, "River of Dreams" successfully soothes the soul while also closes a chapter in Joel's career as a pop artist, segueing to his future as a composer of more classical fare.

More history lesson than song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" is light on melody, but its significance is found in the way Joel takes listeners on a hyperactive nostalgic trip down memory lane from his favorite era of the '50s all the way through to the "rock and roller cola wars" that typified the '80s and stands as a landmark depicting the path from his past to the present of the then-MTV generation.

In the year before his mega-successful "The Stranger," Joel's "Turnstiles" album was an accurate representation of his frame of mind. Not quite a rocker but more a musician in transition, the album was an example of Joel's predilection toward emotional ambiguity, and a highlight on the album, "Summer, Highland Falls," is a solid example of things to come for Joel as a singer/songwriter. The easy melody and lovely piano intro has turned the song into a favorite for both audiences and Joel himself, as he performs the song live now more than at any point in his career, making it a standard of his playlist.

A No. 1 hit on the charts from his album "Glass Houses," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" is Joel taking a swipe at genres such as punk and new wave as he offers a defense for his preference for a more traditional style that mirrors his childhood in the '50s. The song has a modernized doo-wop style mixed with a little greaser, delivering something both anachronistic and timely in a way that only Joel was ever successful at delivering.

While "The Stranger" — Joel's greatest album — spawned five hit singles, "Vienna" was not one of them. Sandwiched between more beloved songs like “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and “Only the Good Die Young,” "Vienna" took a few years to get its fair due, but it stands today as one of Joel's best. The inspiration for the song comes from Joel's trips to Vienna, the former home to his father for many years. 

Originally released in 1971 on his "Cold Spring Harbor" album, the version of "She's Got a Way" that makes our list is the better-known live one off Joel's "Songs in the Attic." Like many of his songs, "She's Got a Way" is yet another self-effacing tale of a man who adores a woman he honestly believes is better than him, fitting in line with songs like "She's Always a Woman" and "Just the Way You Are." Despite the similarities there's more than enough that makes this piano ballad unique and worth multiple listens.

Best known as the theme song for Tom Hanks' breakout sitcom, "Bosom Buddies," "My Life" is a rousing track that highlights Joel's penchant for rock piano. While certainly not among the heaviest-themed tunes, it follows his tried-and-true formula of telling a story of a defiant youth in search of true independence from the demands of friends and family up against a memorable melody that drips with influence from his favorite era: the '50s.

In "Big Shot" Joel paints a picture of a date gone south, taking shots at some of the more arrogant excesses of the late '70s disco era, something that fits right in line with the clash between rock and disco at the time. The two genres represented completely disparate lifestyles, with the kicker being that the song, as revealed years later, was mostly about Joel, as he found himself wrapped up in a lifestyle he never really liked.

Joel butches it up in fine form on this lead track from his "Glass Houses" album. "You May Be Right" is purely rock-driven with a slightly aggressive guitar lick that underlines the defiant overall tone of the song. Lyrically, Joel is in top form here, as he plays the role of a man wracked with indecision about who he is, even though his actions show he's not quite the man he'd like to be.

The album "An Innocent Man" is a concept that honors and pays homage to early '60s doo-wop, and the title track, the first of three songs from that album on our list, is heavily influenced by soul singers like Ben E. King and the Drifters. Here, Joel's sound is most notable for the rare high notes he hits throughout the song, something uncharacteristic of his usual fare, and what sets the song apart from much of his discography.

With "Tell Her About It," Joel goes all in on his '50s and '60s influences in a song that thrives as an homage to the sound of Motown, at least as much as a Jewish kid from Long Island can provide. The result is a tremendously catchy tune that highlights a nostalgic air that is wildly infectious and serves as a parallel to a Joel track from the same album that just missed our list, "For The Longest Time."

The third and final song on our list from "An Innocent Man," "Uptown Girl" is remembered as much for the music video featuring soon-to-be wife Christie Brinkley as it is for its infectious doo-wop sound. Joel's main inspiration for this song comes from boy bands of the '50s and '60s, like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and the execution is both familiar and dare we say it, hard charging. Upon first listen, it won't take long before you find yourself clapping and swaying along with the rhythm and losing yourself in the moment.

"A Matter of Trust" is one of the more eclectic tracks in Joel's pop career and one of the few in which he approaches the material with his guitar rather than his piano. The song feels both sweaty and intent, as Joel plays the role of a man pleading for common ground based on, you guessed it, trust. The melody is strictly hard rock and finds its place on our list easily due to its uptempo nature and grittier sound.

From Joel's "52nd Street," "Honesty" is a simple yet effective tune that feels like a predecessor of sorts to power ballads of the late '80s, early '90s that were more indicative of hair bands searching for legitimacy as musicians. Here Joel positions himself as a man without shame, taking responsibility for being imperfect in relationships and spinning it into a defining characteristic. The sound is broken down and sparse, perfect for a piano ballad that seeks to pull on heart strings with each note.

In "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" Joel takes the position of someone at odds with what he sees as people selling out to move up the ladder, a notion that heavily conflicts with his working class sensibilities. The result is a song that sneers at those who seem to turn their back on their roots to get ahead while losing their identities in the process.

What started as a tribute to Joel's then-wife, Elizabeth Weber, "Just the Way You Are" has its place in music history as that kind of love song that mirrors the pain and frustration of love against the idealistic notion that the love we all hope for is worth anything that happens along the way. Of course things like divorce happen, and after Joel's split from Weber was complete, it took a good number of years before Joel could perform the song live. Now, after another couple of marriages, "Just the Way You Are" is one of his staples.

A departure for Joel, "Don't Ask Me Why" leaves out Joel's '50s-style influences for a more eclectic sound, featuring Afro-Cuban melodies loosely mixed with a little ballroom just for flavor. The song feels as light and carefree as the title betrays and once again gives listeners the sort of Yacht Rock funk that served as a cornerstone of Joel's career before a shift toward more poppy material later in the decade.

The title track from Joel's magnum opus, "The Stranger" may well be the one of the best songs to describe life in 1970s New York without going into any detail about the city itself. From the gritty lyrics about the many faces we show to ourselves and others, to the lonesome melody represented by a whistle, the song feels like New York, warts and all. Unreleased as a single in the U.S., "The Stranger" found success on Japanese and Australian charts. Probably ranked higher on our list than any other list out there, the song earns its place as a near-perfect piece that expresses vulnerability in a way few songs ever have.

Today, "She's Always a Woman" is remembered as one of the last songs played over the loudspeakers at the World Trade Center on the day of its collapse. But in its heyday it was a powerful ballad depicting what it truly means to love someone flaws and all. The sound is almost lullabye-like in nature with a melody that is nearly impossible not to hum along with both during and after you hear it.

Probably the closest Joel's ever come to being edgy, "Only the Good Die Young" is the backbone of "The Stranger" and the album's biggest source of controversy, as Joel fills the shoes of a horny kid trying to get a girl to sneak out of the house for God knows what (spoiler alert: sex). The opening line, “Come out, Virginia, don’t let me wait/ You Catholic girls start much too late,” was enough to get some radio stations to ban the song outright, giving an already great album even more credibility as an instant classic.

Never meant to be a single, "Captain Jack" became a classic nonetheless. Ironically it's not one of Joel's favorite songs to perform live these days, largely due to the awkwardness of a 70-year-old man singing the story of a juvenile junkie layabout who manages to make masturbation sound like a burden. Despite the depressing narrative, "Captain Jack" is performed with a vitality that, like Joel's best songs, delivers a balance that's irresistible.

The crown jewel from "The Stranger" feels more like a fully realized musical than a song. One of Joel's longer songs, "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" is a trilogy of random stories treated as overheard conversations while given a choice of wines. The song moves along breezily as Joel weaves tales of evolution with a sadly wistful air of knowing that growing older also means growing up. 

While it may not be No. 1, "New York State of Mind," from Joel's "Turnstiles," may endure as the best love letter to the City that Never Sleeps ever recorded. Joel was based in Los Angeles, trying to embed himself as an entertainer while missing his real home. The song is a testament to those days, giving himself and the listener a longing perspective that in turn serves as a defacto anthem to the city.

Billy Joel's best song is also a monument to his legacy as a performer. It's set in some random bar where a lounge crooner embraces a less-than-glamorous gig singing to wannabe real estate novelists and career enlisted men who all share mediocre lives and are comforted by each other and their surroundings. Joel couples the maudlin with the air of festiveness highlighting the very reason they're all at the bar in the first place. It/s a classic tune that successfully bridges the melancholy and sublime in a way few other songs ever have.