1973-97-Complete Hits Collection | Billy Joel | The (almost) complete Billy Joel Collection in one.

1973-97-Complete Hits Collection | Billy Joel | Easy Decision...Buy It!

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1973-97-Complete H...

	1973-97-Complete Hits Collection Billy Joel Sony, 2001 average customer review:based on 84 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The (almost) complete Billy Joel Collection in one.

This is an awesome box set. This is basically a collection of Greatest Hits I, II, & III in one. The final CD is a collection from several sessions where Billy talks about how his music is created. He talks of how he came up with Scenes From An Italiam Restaurant, and how it's a collection of songs in one. He also talks of how the Beattles were such an influence.

This collection finally brings us a large collection of hits greatest hits in one. The only song that I wish that he'd included in it is one of my personal favorite songs. "Honesty!" is one of his greatest songs, and it's a shame that it's no included in this box set.

Just as a warning. There is no new material, and no lost tracks. There are, however, new live versions.
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Hard Day's Night(beattles great), Vienna, We Didn't Start The Fire, River Of Dreams, and Piano Man are all released on the 4th CD as new live versions. These are the only new items on the CD.

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Easy Decision...Buy It!

Bottom line, if you TRULY are a Billy Joel fan than you will love this set! I have the cassette set but my new car only plays CDs. I MUST have the disc set!!! Once a Joel fan, always a fan...no matter what is on the CDs (music, chit chat, or otherwise).

Golden Slumbers and Snappy Tunes

Everyone knows what the first three discs are. They are improved upon with complete cuts rather than the two or three edited versions (Pressure, especially). But I know I would've liked to know more about this strange Q&A disc, so allow me to indulge you all.

Joel did a mini tour around college settings and allowed audiences to ask him questions about anything and everything. Of course, to be marketable, the disc is edited to contain the questions regarding his music, rather than the recording industry itself.

Billy Joel relates to the audience anecdotes of his past, how some of his pieces came together, and his impressions of the Beatles, Lyndon B. Johnson, and a music producer (among many others) are laugh-out-loud hilarious, like listening to a Bill Cosby record! Yes, Mr. Joel is a very funny fellow, and enjoyable, which makes this disc easy to listen to; this is not a boring interview disc.

The first two tracks bring about the making of Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, and Joel compares it to the Beatles' Golden Slumbers: eclectic pieces and musical bits fit together. The live cut has a fun piano solo, but otherwise, it isn't anything too different from the studio cut.

Track three begins with everyone laughing at the question...Joel delves into the Beatles (again) but makes way for his classical influences. This segues into A Hard Day's Night, again something fun on a live CD, but I felt was filler in this case.

Vienna is the next topic. Joel has a bit to say about European culture and values compared to the American. He essentially plays the entire song live (with another funny "accordian solo" impersonation), but explains the dissidence of the song's main motif (I always wondered about this). And then his German piano player had me rolling on the floor! By the time the live track comes around, you've already heard it.

We Didn't Start the Fire's "answer" is a little shorter than the others and Joel "tries" to play this on the piano which doesn't work at all (he jokes with it). There is a sadder part to this track. The live track is just a slowed down rendition of the studio track and is the most disappointing of all live tracks here. (Obviously I'm enjoying the discussion a bit more.)

A mention of This Night to the classical revelations in Lullabye follows, played here almost better than on the album (save for the interruptions), without words. It's wonderful. All this adds up to River of Dreams, and Joel's tale about how this song came to be is simple but elegant. Joel's "Ray" rendition of Dreams is, for lack of a better word, hilarious! The unreleased studio track that follows is, quite simply, glorious. It is so much better than the studio track...remixed with new sections and a new solo that is a religious experience in itself!

The story behind Piano Man is so obvious and almost mundane (the song IS the story), that Joel's answers to the posed question are side-splitting. And the live track begins with a piano solo meant to confuse the audience; their reaction to Piano Man's opening chords is reminiscent of Captain Jack's on Songs in the Attic: rapturous. Joel's piano playing is harmonic, here, countering his vocals serenely. The solo is fantastic, completely surprising. This is the only live track I'm crazy about.

So excepting most of the earlier live tracks that don't add value (they'd be great on an album dedicated to live recordings), the listener actually learns a bit about Mr. Joel. Overall, the fourth disc makes this collection highly worthwhile and is fun to listen to every year.

Take a look at "customer images" to see what you're really getting.

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Some Quirks, but Solid Retrospective to Billy's Career

The last song of Billy's Joel's album, "The River of Dreams" seemed to be somewhat appropriate. On the song, "Famous Last Words", Billy sings the words "These are the last words I have to say; That's why this took me so long to write; There will be other words some other day; But that's the story of my Life". Billy Joel would soon proclaim that his 13th studio album, 1993's "The River of Dreams" would be his last original Rock/Pop album he would do. Following that album, Billy Joel would assume a place as an "elder statesman" of Rock. Instead of creating new music, he would spend his time touring, doing the College Lecture series (discussing his music), and dabbling in Classical Music. In a way, Billy would go into semi-retirement. In 1997, Billy would release his first "Boxed Set" called "Billy Joel - The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997 Limited Edition". This boxed set would be a combination of his two greatest hits releases "Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2" and his recently released "Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 3". In addition, this set would feature a fourth disc that would contain outtakes from Billy's College Lecture series as well as unreleased versions of many of hits.

I look at Billy's career as having three phases. The first phase is what I call "Old Billy Joel". This basically includes all of his material from "Cold Spring Harbor" through "Turnstiles". These are perhaps the strongest days as the piano sound, but they also contain most of Joel's least heard material. The next phase is what I call "Middle Billy Joel". This was his most successful period and covers from "The Stranger" to "Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2". Joel would go through a transition during this phase - expanding his musical horizons and exploring different avenues. The final phase is the "Later Billy Joel" phase - this covers "The Bridge" to "River of Dreams". In this phase, Billy would start to incorporate some of his older styles of music while not abandoning his desire to continue to explore new avenues. "The Complete Hits Collection" covers all three phases and provides a retrospective to Billy's career.

With Boxed Sets, I pay particular attention to the packaging - since this is what often makes the "Boxed Set" special. It seems that nowadays everything that is above 2 CDs that is considered a "Boxed Set". There really have become 3 categories of Boxed Sets. The first is a "Classic Boxed Set". This comes in a covered box about the size of an LP and contains CDs (sometimes in jewel cases, sometimes just on the bottom of the box) and a book about the same size. The second type is more like a 5.5" x 10" hardcover book which I term "Hardcover Box Set'. The CDs basically are stored in the hardcover binding and the book is in the middle. A third version combines the CDs into a cardboard box with the length and width of a jewel case and usually contains a more extensive booklet than what you find in a regular CD. I much prefer what I call the Classic Boxed Set to the Hardcover format or Cardboard Box set. My version of "The Complete Hits Collection" is a "Hardcover Box Set". This also contains a 42 page booklet that contains all of the lyrics to all of the songs. It also contains excellent musician and songwriting credits. For the fourth CD that covers his College Lecture Series and unreleased versions of songs, all of the credits on when and where they were recorded as well as who participated are there.

On the surface, it may seem like the first three CDs are duplications of the two greatest hits releases, there is one major difference. This difference applies to the first two CDs of this boxed set that contain the material from "Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2". The original release of "Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2" included edited (i.e. shortened) versions of several tracks from their original studio albums. These tracks include: "The Stranger", "Just the Way You Are", "My Life", "Big Shot", and "Pressure". This original release also includes a live version of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" taken from "Songs From the Attic". The nice thing about this version is that "The Complete Hits Collection" contains the full versions of these songs (I have no use for any song that is shortened from its original form). This collection also contains the studio version of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood".

Another nice thing about the first three CDs is they have the songs in chronological order. This allows us to see how Billy Joel has progressed over time. Although it may seem "She's Got a Way" (from Billy's first album) should be the first song, it is included where it is because the version from "Songs from the Attic" is included.

The real strength of this collection is the fourth CD. There are 12 tracks on this CD arranged in pairs. The first track in the pair contains Billy "answering a question" (with a lot of humor) from the audience on why he did a particular song or how something influenced him musically. The second contains an unreleased version of a song that was addressed in the question. I give Billy credit for including a question on a song like "Vienna", but for the most part-these seemed a bit scripted. All of the unreleased cuts are live cuts from concerts with the exception of "A Hard Day's Night" (from a College Lecture) and "The River of Dreams" (unreleased/studio cut).

The only other drawback to this collection is that I wish it contained other songs not found on the greatest hits collections. However, even if you own one of the greatest hits collections, I'd advise getting this particular collection. It's modestly priced for a boxed set and worth it for what is contain on the fourth disc

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Almost the same as GH 1,2,3

The main difference between this collection and the Greatest Hits 1-3 package is that for an extra $19 dollars you get one extra disc of rarities. The only other difference is that here you get "Don't Ask Me Why" in place of "Honesty". It's too bad the GH 1-3 doesn't also have "Don't Ask Me Why" when there are a number of other weaker tracks that could have been dropped instead. For that matter it is also missing "Modern Woman", "That's not Her Style" and "No Man's Land."

The 2 Disc, Essentials ($27), by constrast is predictably missing a large number of songs: "The Stranger", "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", "Big Shot", "Pressure", "You're Only Human", "Night is Still YOung", "Keeping the Faith", "This is the Time", "Shameless" and the three bonus tracks from GHV.3. On the other hand it includes "You're My Home" and "Miami 2017".

Economically GH1-3 gives you the best selection of tracks. So this is probably what I'll be getting rather than this more expensive 4 disc collection.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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