Customer Reviews

Billy Joel - Boxed Set (Popular Matching Folios) (Vol 1 & 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If youre looking for something just to give you an idea of how to play a lot of Billy Joel songs, this book can be helpful. It has just about every song in it up until the river of dreams. Songs like Prelude/Angry Young Man, and Shes Got a Way are nicely done in this book. But others only give you the piano parts to play the melody, so if you want to play the music instrumentally only, this is a good book. However, if youre like I am and you want to start playing the music and singing along with it(playing in a band), then you should look at the Billy Joel Keyboard book which has 14 or so songs which have the original transcripts, what you actually here him playing on the piano on the album. This is by far my favorite piano book that I own. It is however for the experienced piano players, because of its detail.

The first several editions of "Billy Joel Complete" were glaringly INCOMPLETE in that they didn't include sheet music for his first solo album, "Cold Spring Harbor." Now, granted - even Billy doesn't care much for the music on that album, but "Complete" was definitely a misnomer.

Until this edition! Now, unfortunately, it's not really complete because "River of Dreams" was released afterwards; but good sheet music is available for that album as well.

Now that the collection is comprehensive, my only real complaint is that the transcriptions don't include the solos and other idiosynchrocies, just the basics (though Billy's "basics" are often more complex than other pianists' solos). But other than that, they don't simplify at all - so if you're fairly serious about piano, this book will give you the roadmap you need to learn how to play Billy's songs.

This is a worthwhile music book for musicians who are fans of Billy Joel. The music provided is quite accurate to the recorded versions. In addition, most of the instrumental passages are noted. Includes all the songs from Cold Spring Harbor to Fifty Second Street.

Complete is NOW complete!
Even though the "Cold Spring Harbor" album was not the most commercially successful, it has some really good material. In fact, it is one of my favorite Billy Joel albums. Songs like "She's Got a Way", "Why Judy Why", "Turn Around" provide some great lyrical emotion.
But I must say that his BEST classical-style song ever is also included. "Nocturne" is a masterpiece. I was truly disappointed with his "Delusions and Fantasies" album or were those words inverted ("Fantasies and Delusions" ? )
Regardless, the latter mentioned album was Billy's WORST work ever.
"Nocturne" alone, made "Cold Spring Harbor" worth the money to me.
Thus, with the inclusion of the songs from "Cold Spring Harbor", in the "Complete Volume 1" book, the value of the new issue is so much increased.

This piano book is written to sound like the actual songs, unlike many piano books that change notes or simplify entire sections to accommodate those just learning. I am extremely pleased with the book and will be purchasing the second one shortly.

I purchased both volume 1 and 2 of the Billy Joel Complete. Its certainly complete, though I have to admit after looking at it and playing through it, I'm surprised at how simple the tunes are. I thought it would be good to have the music for our band as we launch into playing some of his stuff, but I think you could probably figure out much of this and do it with a simple one page wonder lead sheet. You're left to figuring out the solos anyway so it wouldn't be that much more work. Goes to show you, I guess, that even though you might think there are a lot of chords to figure out, with pop music its pretty much ii-V-I and the odd relative minor chord sub. Still, these are some of the highest quality pop music ever concieved, IMHO. Joel will be remembered up there with the greats from the 20th century when you consider Just the Way You Are, My Life, Rosalinda's Eyes, Movin' Out, Keepin' the Faith, Uptown Girl, New York State of Mind, You May Be Right and Only the Good Die Young. They're all here.

This book has accurate arrangements of the recordings we all know and love. Lyrics are included, as well as instrumental passages. Very nice!

The transcriptions contained within this book overall are of a fair standard. Not too accurate, not too inaccurate. However, it's clear in parts hat there's been little care taken in making a quality product. Playing through a good few Billy Joel songs is a good exercise for a piano player. There is a wide variety in genre and technique in Joel's music and it's an exercise that will improve and colour the rest of your playing for sure. However I'd recommend that you do that with one (or both) of the Note for Note Transcriptions books (The Billy Joel Keyboard Book: Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions and Billy Joel Favorites Keyboard Book - Note For Note Keyboard Transcriptions).

In almost every song, the accuracy is heavily compromised because of the inclusion of the melody-line in the piano part. I don't like playing the melody I'm singing, I feel like I'm trying to steal my own thunder in an odd sort of a way. It's also pretty silly to listen to someone sing with these arrangements, on the whole they sound pretty naff and amateur. However, the melody in the part is fairly easy to identify and remove. Playing around it isn't ideal, it sounds better, but it still isn't great.

Another thing is that most of the song's introductions and endings and shortened beyond belief. The sections that sound most interesting to play have all been removed. This is a particular disappointment with The Ballad of Billy the Kid. All of that wonderful soloing is not present in the arrangement. There are even errors in the lyrics in many places!

The instrumental songs in here are brilliant though. There's no need to remove melody here and there's no lyrics that they can fudge! They sound pretty accurate and they're all fairly clever pieces.

One of the biggest disappointments for me, in this book, was seeing that for the Cold Spring Harbor version of the song Everybody Loves You Now, they'd just slapped the version from volume 2 (from Songs in the Attic) in there. The two are completely different arrangements! Personally, I like the first version better and I was looking forward to learning the complex piano part I could hear. Massive short-coming.

In conclusion: this book and its successor are both rubbish. They are slapdash arrangements done by people who clearly don't care. The only reason they've escaped a 1-star rating is that they are still better than nothing. Completists still need it, even though it clearly isn't a labour of love and there is SOME good stuff in there... somewhere...

Very pleased with this book. It includes the piano solo for 'scenes from an Italian restaurant'. A good value and great choice for Billy Joel fans.

Pretty much the same as Volume 2
I play Guitar and Keyboards. The only book better is Billy Joel Keyboard Book.If you are a Billy Joel fan these 2 volumes are great.