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The Essential Billy Joel was released in 2001 around the same time that Billy's classical music album, Fantasies & Delusions, was released. While some fans complained that The Essential Billy Joel was either redundant of earlier compilations or did not really contain "essential" songs, the 2-CD set was a good starter set for those who did not have any or many Billy Joel albums.
The "Essential" album was part of a series of "Essential" compilations that Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment released for a number of legendary artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. There really was not a need for this collection since Billy's Greatest Hits Vols. I & II and Greatest Hits, Vol. III already existed, but since Sony Music was creating an "essential" collection for each of their top artists, Billy was a natural choice. Of course it's a matter of opinion, but there were some essential songs that were left off of this collection like "Vienna" and "Summer, Highland Falls." |
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But seven years later in 2008, a new version of this album was released with a third disc, and was named The Essential Billy Joel, Limited Edition 3.0. The third disc contained seven songs that were not included earlier, most notably "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," which any fan or critic would certainly include in an "essential" collection of Billy's songs. It's curious why "All For Leyna" was included because it was not a hit nor considered essential. It is great that they included "Worse Comes to Worst," which is underrated. It's also curious why only seven songs were included in the third disc. Some additional songs that could have been added are "Summer, Highland Falls," "Vienna," "Rosalinda's Eyes," "Until The Night," and "Keeping the Faith."
I'd recommend this only for the casual fan who wants most of Billy's hits, but does not want to pay for The Complete Hits. One might have thought that they could not have come out with yet another collection after this, however, Billy Joel: The Hits was released in 2010. The ostensible justification for that collection was that a single CD collection of Billy's hits was needed to fill a gap in his oeuvre. But the only real gap is a tribute album and, of course, an album of new songs. |
 Publicity photo (2001) |
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1. Goodnight Saigon
2. An Innocent Man 3. Uptown Girl 4. The Longest Time 5. Tell Her About It 6. Leave A Tender Moment Alone 7. A Matter of Trust 8. Baby Grand 9. I Go To Extremes 10. We Didn't Start The Fire 11. Leningrad 12. The Downeaster 'Alexa' 13. And So It Goes 14. The River of Dreams 15. All About Soul 16. Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) 17. Waltz No. 1 (Nunley's Carousel) 18. Invention in C Minor |
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Disc Three (Limited Edition 3.0 only)
1. Worse Comes To Worst 2. Prelude/Angry Young Man 3. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant 4. Big Shot 5. All For Leyna 6. Pressure 7. This Is the Time |
Video Album
This is a YouTube playlist of the songs on The Essential Billy Joel, containing video and audio clips. Click on the icon in the upper left corner to see list of songs.
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Spotify
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Apple Music
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YouTube & Others
Live Performances and Features
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Billy and the band gave a private conference at ToyotaFest, which is apparently a large convention of Toyota Motors, in Las Vegas in 2001.
Billy sings New York State of Mind at the America: A Tribute to Heroes concert on Sept. 23, 2001
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This 2001 Master Class by Billy was held at Irvine Auditorium at UPenn and was broadcast by the A&E Network as "Billy Joel: In His Own Words." In this excerpt, he discusses the inspiration for "Miami 2017."
Billy Joel on Charlie Rose from 2001, just before the Concert for New York City (October 20, 2001). He sang "New York State of Mind," listen here (YouTube).
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