Let’s start some arguments, shall we? We’re fully aware that Billy Joel’s fans are as passionate as they come. And why wouldn’t they be? The guy gave us a dozen pop rock albums in the years from 1971 to 1993, and many of them are considered absolute masterpieces of the singer-songwriter genre. For these rankings, we’re only counting studio albums, and we’re leaving off his 2001 album Fantasies & Delusions, a classical detour that would be the apple compared to the other oranges here. From worst to first, here we go!
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12. Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
Has there ever been an album from a Hall-of-Famer like Joel that was more marred by a mixing problem than Joel’s debut? The error sped Joel’s voice up a fraction, a distraction that’s hard to get past. It also didn’t help that he hadn’t yet found his solo identity, although songs like “She’s Got a Way” and “Everybody Loves You Now” were pointing in the right direction.
11. Streetlife Serenade (1974)
There’s a lack of oomph permeating this record, with the songs feeling like a collection of genre exercises rather than strong artistic statements. “The Entertainer” gets its point across pretty well, and “Souvenir” is a short but lovely ballad. But there’s also a lot of somewhat forgettable stuff here that keeps this one from rising too high.
10. The Bridge (1986)
When Joel is engaged on this record, he’s excellent. With “Baby Grand,” he was up to the task of writing the perfect duet with Ray Charles, while “Big Man on Mulberry Street” finds up sinking his teeth with gusto into a big band/Broadway hybrid. Unfortunately, there are too many songs here which lack the ambition that characterizes most of the rest of his work.
9. Piano Man (1973)
The title track was his big breakthrough, and if you can somehow listen to it again fresh (it’s one of the most overplayed songs that there is), it’s pretty special. There’s some filler here, but Joel’s strong point of view is on display for the first time on this, his second studio album. The longer songs are strong; what’s missing is the shorter, subtler stuff like “You’re My Home.”
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8. Storm Front (1989)
Foreigner’s Mick Jones co-produced this album with Joel, and there’s definitely a slickness to it that’s separate from everything else in his catalog. Some fantastic songs are peppered throughout, including the sea shanty “The Downeaster Alexa,” the underrated “Leningrad,” and the haunting album-closer “And So It Goes.” That stuff outweighs some of the bombast found on the singles from the record.
7. An Innocent Man (1983)
Joel is almost too effective at times mirroring the sounds that he loved as a kid. He gets the details right, and the fun that he’s having is infectious, but songs like “For the Longest Time” and “Tell Her About It” lack some of the trademark Joel attitude. When that comes to the fore, as on the preemptive strike against the album’s critics (“Keeping the Faith”) and the don’t-blame-me title track, the artist and his influences meet in perfect harmony.
6. 52nd Street (1978)
This record followed hot on the heels of the hitmaking streak Joel started with The Stranger. When the first three tracks on your record are “Big Shot,” “Honesty,” and “My Life,” you certainly have something. The non-singles aren’t as fine as those on some of the albums still to come on this list, although “Stiletto” features great music and “Until the Night” is a winning ballad.
5. River of Dreams (1993)
Nobody knew that this was going to be Joel’s last pop album. Looking at it now, the signs were there. And what a way to go out. The title track manages to be innovative and effortless, “No Man’s Land” showed that he could still be thrilling when his hackles were raised, only the blackest of hearts could deny “Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel)”, and “Famous Last Words” sends Joel into studio retirement with a touch of bittersweet grace. This album is way better than you remember.
4. The Nylon Curtain (1982)
We’re really splitting hairs now that we’re in the top four. Artists who set out with the specific goal of making a masterwork often fall flat, but damn if Joel didn’t pull it off here. The first side is full of heavyweights: Joel makes Hitchcockian New Wave work on “Pressure,” pulls off topical rock in “Allentown” that Springsteen would envy, and does a pitch-perfect Beatles homage in “Laura.” Don’t sleep on the closer “Where’s the Orchestra?”, which feels like one of his most personal songs.
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3. Glass Houses (1980)
Joel is at his best when he wedges his own in-your-face personality into whatever genres he’s inhabiting, and New Wave was a good fit for him. It allowed him the freedom to be literate, and he responds with some of his funniest and cleverest words here. Glass Houses is also one of the most thematically sound Joel albums, as his narrators are forever in the midst of some kind of romantic entanglement and trying to make sense of it all. There’s not a miss on the record.
2. Turnstiles (1976)
After flailing for a few years on the West Coast, Joel returned home and found his artistic wheelhouse by celebrating the Big Apple. He also produced himself and proved himself extremely adept at it. Songs like “I’ved Love These Days” and “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” wax and wane in all the right places. “Summer, Highland Falls” is on the short list of his very best songs, and “New York State of Mind” was a standard the moment he completed it. How could anything be better…
1. The Stranger (1977)
Joel hit his artistic and commercial peak on this 1977 record. Pop just doesn’t get much smarter or sassier than songs like “Only the Good Die Young” and “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”, “She’s Always a Woman” was a ballad with bite, “The Stranger” dripped with noirish angst, and “Vienna” is just perfection. And we haven’t even reached “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” in which Joel did his own Abbey Road mini-medley and soared with the ambition of it all. It’s a high bar, but, yes indeed, The Stranger is Joel’s best.
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