SHEET MUSIC
Read the article "The Art of Making Sheet Music" by Gary Schuster in Billy Joel's former official newsletter, The Root Beer Rag, from 1981, page 7.
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The Billy Joel Keyboard Book Hal Leonard Publishing
This is probably the best sheet music songbook for Billy Joel, other than the David Rosenthal books described below. It contains note-by-note transcriptions of what Billy plays on recordings (keep in mind that he accompanies himself) rather than the standard arrangements like in the old album songbooks, though the songbooks are nice to have too when you want a simple arrangement plus the photos and artwork. Click photo for paperback; click here for the Kindle version. |
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There are 16 songs in this book, namely: Allentown • And So It Goes • Captain Jack • Honesty • Just the Way You Are • Movin' Out • My Life • New York State of Mind • Piano Man • Pressure • Scenes from an Italian Restaurant • She's Always A Woman • She's Got a Way • The Stranger • Tell Her About It. They added "Tell Her About It" after 2002.
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Billy Joel Favorites Keyboard Book
Hal Leonard Publishing This is just like the Billy Joel Keyboard Book (above) containing great note-by-note transcriptions of what Billy plays, but with eighteen different songs including "Summer, Highland Falls," "Miami 2017," Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," and "Only The Good Die Young." It is essentially volume two of The Billy Joel Keyboard Book. Click photo for paperback; click here for Kindle version. |
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There are 18 songs in this book, namely: All My Life • Prelude/Angry Young Man • Baby Grand • Don't Ask Me Why • Everybody Has A Dream • 52nd Street • Goodnight Saigon • An Innocent Man • Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) • Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) • Only The Good Die Young • The River Of Dreams • Root Beer Rag • Say Goodbye To Hollywood • Somewhere Along The Line • Summer, Highland Falls • The Entertainer • Vienna.
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Billy Joel Complete, Volume 1 (1971-1978)
Hal Leonard Publishing This book contains the standard arrangements for Billy's songs through and including 1978's release of the 52nd Street album. These are less complicated than the arrangements in The Billy Joel Keyboard Book (shown above), but well worth it. These are the same as the arrangements in the old individual album songbooks from Hal Leonard Publishing. |
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This songbook is a must-have for Billy Joel keyboard enthusiasts because it has songs from Cold Spring Harbor which did not have its own individual album songbook. From Amazon.com: "Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). Over 50 songs from Joel's first 5 albums now revised to include all the songs from Cold Spring Harbor. Songs include: The Entertainer * Honesty * Just The Way You Are * Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) * Say Goodbye To Hollywood * The Stranger * Vienna * and more." Click here for the Kindle version.
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Billy Joel Complete, Volume 2 (1980-1989)
Hal Leonard Publishing This books contains the standard arrangements for Billy's songs from the Glass Houses album (1980) through and including the 1989 release of the Storm Front album. It even includes songs from Songs In the Attic. It does not, however, include "You're Only Human" and "The Night Is Still Young" from Greatest Hits Vol, I and II, or 1993's River of Dreams. |
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Like Volume 1, these are less complicated than the arrangements in The Billy Joel Keyboard Book old, but worth it. These are the same as the arrangements in the old individual album songbooks from Hal Leonard Publishing. From Amazon.com: "Revised to include all the songs from the album Stormfront. 59 songs, including: Allentown * It's Still Rock and Roll To Me * Keeping The Faith * The Longest Time * Tell Her About It * Uptown Girl * We Didn't Start The Fire * and more." Click here for the Kindle version.
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Click on the link to the Amazon page and read the review from "David W" on June 13, 2o15, which quotes from Rosenthal in 2013, for a very good description of this book and how it is different than the old album songbook, and different from the Billy Joel Keyboard books (the first two books at the top of this page). See also Rosenthal's web page for more detail.
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Turnstiles Songbook
(Revised and Updated 2013) Arrangements by David Rosenthal Like the new version of The Stranger songbook (above), this is a new version of the songbook for Turnstile that contains arrangements by David Rosenthal, the keyboardist in Billy Joel's band. Rosenthal was asked to re-do the arrangements to make them more accurate. Click on the the Amazon page and read the review from "David W" on June 13, 2o15, which quotes from Rosenthal and explains this. |
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Greatest Hits, Vol. III (1997)
Hal Leonard Publishing This has sheet music for all of the songs on the Greatest Hits, Vol. III album including some songs from River of Dreams (not found in the "Complete" books) as well as the three cover songs Billy recorded for Greatest Hits, Vol. III: "Light As The Breeze," "Hey Girl," and "To Make You Feel My Love." |
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Fantasies & Delusions (2001)
For classical pianists and masochists, the songbook for Billy's classical music album Fantasies & Delusions is moderately challenging. If you are accustomed to playing classical music (Chopin, Mozart, Bach, Liszt) then you should be able to handle this. "Air: Dublinesque" is just gorgeous. |
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