Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II (2LP) [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II is certified double diamond in the US, one of the best-selling albums of all time. Twenty-one hits from 1973 to 1985, from "Piano Man" to "The Longest Time."

This edition

• 2LP set, 21 tracks
• Columbia pressing
• Includes "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young"

About the album

You could spend a lifetime collecting Billy Joel's albums (and many people have), or you could get this. Put together in 1985, it runs chronologically from the barroom confessional "Piano Man" through the Stranger-era classics ("Movin' Out," "Only the Good Die Young," "Just the Way You Are") and the new-wave-ish rock of "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" and "You May Be Right."

Side three goes darker with "Pressure," "Allentown" and the stunning "Goodnight Saigon," and side four is pure doo-wop joy from An Innocent Man: "Tell Her About It," "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time." Two then-new songs round it out. It's one of the best-selling albums ever in the US, and every New Yorker's dad has a copy.

Also at Kops: more Billy Joel on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia, a reissue of the 1985 compilation.