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Billy Joel rocks! I love the simplicity his songs have; they are fun and honest at the same time. I think his best album is "An Innocent Man". (Click on the link and here samples of his songs!) If I had to pick one song I liked the best from his work, it would have to be "The Longest Time".

The Longest Time

An Innocent Man Released: 1983

Oh, oh, oh

For the longest time

Oh, oh, oh

For the longest time

If you said goodbye to me tonight

There would still be music left to write

What else could I do

I'm so inspired by you

That hasn't happened for the longest time

Once I thought my innocence was gone

Now I know that happiness goes on

That's where you found me

When you put your arms around me

I haven't been there for the longest time

Oh, oh, oh

For the longest time

Oh, oh, oh

For the longest time

I'm that voice you're hearing in the hall

And the greatest miracle of all

Is how I need you

And how you needed me too

That hasn't happened for the longest time

Maybe this won't last very long

But you feel so right

And I could be wrong

Maybe I've been hoping too hard

But I've gone this far

And it's more that I hoped for

Who knows how much further we'll go on

Maybe I'll be sorry when you're gone

I'll take my chances

I forgot how nice romance is

I haven't been there for the longest time

I had second thoughts at the start

I said to myself

Hold on to your heart

Now I know the woman that you are

You're wonderful so far

And it's more that I hoped for

I don't care what consequence it brings

I have been a fool for lesser things

I want you so bad

I think you ought to know that

I intend to hold you for

The longest time

Here a site with searchable lyrics.

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What are some of your favorite songs off that record?

I love them all, but my favorites would be Vienna, Only The Good Die Young, and Movin' Out.

Edited by Free Thinker
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I also like the song the album was named after, "The Stranger". The song is about the secret part in all people which is never shared, the proverbial "stranger" to everyone else. The song talks about relationships where neither shares that private part of themselves and that this is the reason relationships fail. In the end the song says that even though the "stranger" cannot make for a lasting relationship, in the end you succumb to your desire for the unknown, the dangerous, rather than the familiar. In other words the mystery of a person attracts another, but ultimately can end a relationship.

The actual singing is as always outstanding and the melody is very interesting.

Well we all have a face

That we hide away forever

And we take them out and

Show ourselves

When everyone has gone

Some are satin some are steel

Some are silk and some are leather

They’re the faces of the stranger

But we love to try them on

Well we all fall in love

But we disregard the danger

Though we share so many secrets

There are some we never tell

Why were you so surprised

That you never saw the stranger

Did you ever let your lover see

The stranger in yourself?

Don’t be afraid to try again

Everyone goes south

Every now and then

You’ve done it, why can’t

Someone else?

You should know by now

You’ve been there yourself

Once I used to believe

I was such a great romancer

Then I came home to a woman

That I could not recognize

When I pressed her for a reason

She refused to even answer

It was then I felt the stranger

Kick me right between the eyes

Well we all fall in love

But we disregard the danger

Though we share so many secrets

There are some we never tell

Why were you so surprised

That you never saw the stranger

Did you ever let your lover see

The stranger in yourself?

Don’t be afraid to try again

Everyone goes south

Every now and then

You’ve done it why can’t

Someone else?

You should know by now

You’ve been there yourself

You may never understand

How the stranger is inspired

But he isn’t always evil

And he isn’t always wrong

Though you drown in good intentions

You will never quench the fire

You’ll give in to your desire

When the stranger comes along.

"Only the Good Die Young" is also one of my favorite Billy Joel songs and is philosophically very sound.

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The great thing about Billy Joel is that he can do so many different types of music.  It's especially fun to hear him copy someone else's style.  "For the Longest Time", for instance, is straight out of 50's do-wop, and "Uptown Girl" is a perfect ripoff of the Four Seasons.

You mean as in Vivaldi?? Really?

Joel likes to tell stories in song. I have to go with Piano Man as my favorite Billy Joel song.

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Billy Joel rocks!  I love the simplicity his songs have; they are fun and honest at the same time. I think his best album is "An Innocent Man". I intend to hold you for

The longest time

Here a site with searchable lyrics.

That is one of his most interesting albums. In that album, he draws from the styles of 50's and 60's pop artists. In your favorite song, he draws from doo-wop.

I've always liked Billy Joel.

Edited by Free Thinker
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That is one of his most interesting albums.  In that album, he draws from the styles of 50's and 60's pop artists.  In your favorite song, he draws from doo-wop.

I've always liked Billy Joel.

I really like do-wop. His music videos are also really funny. I can't seem to find complete versions of them on the internet; although I know he has a DVD that features his songs on them.

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Yes!  Billy Joel is certainly one of my top favorite artists as well (although his best album, without a doubt, was The Stranger  :D  ).

I love earlier Joel like this. Also find & check out "Root Beer Rag", wonderful little instrumental! But his real strength was his vivid story telling & characters in his early work ("Piano Man, "Moving Out", "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant", "New York State of Mind", "Honesty", "She's Always a Woman", etc. geez what a list!). He is one of the few living pop writers capable of writing on the kind of timeless level of Gershwin, Porter or Berlin.

Unfortunately, after he married the model girl he decided he was a guitar player, he started making cookie cutter videos & his songwriting (in my estimation) became quite banal, at least relative to that stunning earlier work. Very much the same thing as Elton John, although he was never quite as good as Joel. & now that I am typing this it occurs to me that Stevie Wonder was also capable of brilliance in his early career but at a certain point stopped creating at that same level.

..."Uptown Girl" is a perfect ripoff of the Four Seasons.

You mean as in Vivaldi??  Really?

No :dough: as in Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons see example on TowerRecords.

Although...for an ironic twist on all of this...a few years ago Joel wrote some Romantic/Classical pieces & had them performed, recorded by a classical pianist. Joel's Classical CD on TowerRecords. I have not heard the whole thing yet but what I have heard is quite beautiful & stongly Romantic (i.e. 19th century - Chopin, Schubert, etc).

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Unfortunately, after he married the model girl

Christy Brinkley... a pure babe. She was also in Vacation with Chevy Chase.

No  :lol:  as in Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Yeah, I know that now. :thumbsup:

That's the power of the web. I did a web search and determined this after I posted. What can I say. I know almost nothing about Frankie Valli.

Although, I'd have been more impressed if it were Vivaldi!

Edited by Thales
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Who is Frankie Vallie?

Frankie Valli (note correct spelling) was the lead singer for a group called the Four Seasons, who recorded a number of hits in the 1960's (when I was a teenager listening to Top 40 radio). They had a distinctive style; probably its most distinctive feature was Valli's heavy use of falsetto.

Edited by Free Thinker
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Frankie Valli (note correct spelling) was the lead singer for a group called the Four Seasons, who recorded a number of hits in the 1960's (when I was a teenager listening to Top 40 radio).  They had a distinctive style; probably its most distinctive feature was Valli's heavy use of falsetto.

Oh. :thumbsup:

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Great thread! I also love Billy Joel, even his more recent stuff (though I agree with Christopher that his older stuff was the best). Some of his other good songs not mentioned: "Just the Way You Are", "Goodnight Saigon", "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Tell Her About It".

As for Frankie Valley, come on guys, he was pretty good. Granted nothing sophisticated, but I loved listening to his stuff in my late teen years. Some of his great songs were Dawn, Rag Doll, Working My Way Back to You Babe, and later in his career, Oh, What A Night. There's more, but they don't come to mind right now.

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I didn't particularly like this song either. Basically it lists events of the 20th century, good and bad and labels these actions as "the fire". Which is true, all human progress or destruction is the result of the "fire within" which makes us human. He then goes on about how he tried to fight it (stop human progress). In the last chorus he ends with a solipsistic remark about whether it will "be here" when we're gone. I would have like this song better if it simply mentioned the bad rather than mixing "Marilyn Monroe" with "Joseph Stalin". Lyrically he rhymed them well and the tune is catchy, but if you think about it - kind of disturbing.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron

Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev

Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

CHORUS

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball

Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia

Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy

Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

CHORUS

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania

Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex

JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

CHORUS

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again

Moonshot, Woodsto, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline

Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law

Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone

Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

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Great thread!  I also love Billy Joel, even his more recent stuff (though I agree with Christopher that his older stuff was the best).  Some of his other good songs not mentioned:  "Just the Way You Are", "Goodnight Saigon", "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Tell Her About It".

I realize this is a matter of personal taste ... but I just don't think the last 3 tunes you mention come anywhere near the beauty of "Just The Way You Are". I suppose it possible that I love the early stuff so much it's hard for me to accept or appreciate the later stuff.

As for Frankie Valley, come on guys, he was pretty good...

OK, OK. :) I don't have anything against Valli. Just to clarify though, it was in contrast to Vivaldi, which was how the issue was raised earlier in the thread. So maybe I was being too hard on Frankie :P .

"We Didn't Start the Fire"? I think that song was terrible!!

I agree; philosophically & musically.

I didn't particularly like this song either. Basically it lists events of the 20th century...

Good breakdown, Myself, though in my estimation I don't think the song is even catchy. I realize this is a personal issue, though.

I suppose the lyrics do suck....but I thought the melody of the song was annoying. I really only like BJ's earlier stuff.

I second that!

Edited by Free Thinker
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