Customer Reviews

Complete Hits Collection 1974-97: Limited Edition

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the 8 years I've known Billy Joel I've relied solely on some CDs my brother owned (2 in all) but the main thing I wore out was the Greatest Hits 1 and 2 tape. On the tape version they cut down the songs and they leave out "she's got a way" "...italian restaurant" "captain jack" "the entertainer" and some noticable verses in "Just the Way You are" and "Pressure". My Christmas shopping online consisting of catching up with CDs I've always meant to get but always put off. I was going to get the 2 albums..Greatest Hits 1&2 and 3 but I noticed the box set and the 4th w/ Q&A is only 2 dollars more than if you bought the 2 albums insteead of the set. Well when's the last time you got a Cd for 2 dollars? Neway the whole Set is amazing! Not only have the 4 CDs not left my Cd player BUT the 2 dollars seems to be well spent as the 4th is a great Q&A thing and plus the booklet w/ ALL THE LYRICS and the Story of the Man Behind the Piano...Defintely worthy...if you're thinking about getting the Greatest Hits Albums, don't! GET THE BOX SET FOR A LITTLE MORE....money well spent

Billy Joel's Greatest Hits 1973-1997

I have been a Billy Joel fan since my senior year at South Miami High, and even though my collection of his music was pitifully small - still is, too - I did have a few of his 1980s vintage albums on audiocassettes. Included in this small batch of tapes was his first "Greatest Hits" collection, which covered the years 1973-1985. I played the cassette to death in my college years, even taking it with me to Sevilla (Seville), Spain, during a study-abroad stint.

I was glad when the first CD re-release of Volumes One and Two became available in the early 1990s. By then I had gone through two cassettes and was not looking forward to buying a third. I was looking forward to hearing "Piano Man," "She's Always a Woman," "Good Night Saigon," and "Don't Ask Me Why" in the new-to-me compact disc format.

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the CD version was a marked improvement over the cassette. Not only did it sound better, but "Just the Way You Are" was presented in its entirety; in the cassette it had been abridged to fit the running time allowed on the tape. I also heard several new songs not included in the tape for space purposes, including "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "She's Got a Way." This 2-disc set soon became my favorite non-classical, non-movie soundtrack music, and I loved to sing along to my much loved songs with the aid of the booklet of lyrics.

I held off on buying Volume Three as a result of a bad review in the Miami Herald, but when I saw this boxed set in 1998, I could not resist the temptation. Sure, I already had half of the four CDs in this collection, but I just had to have it! And naturally I played Disc Three first...and I regretted having paid attention to the Herald's music critic.

First, because Volume Three takes up where Volume Two left off (with songs from 1983's An Innocent Man), I was ecstatic when I heard "An Innocent Man" and "Keeping the Faith," which I would have preferred on the 1973-85 collection. Second, I also discovered such songs as "Leningrad," "River of Dreams," and the elegiac ode to doomed love, "And So It Goes." I fell in love with the Celtic backbeat of "The Downeaster Alexa," the neo-classical "Lullabye (Good Night My Angel)," and the smoldering sensuality of "Shameless." As he did in Volume Two, Joel adds several new songs to supplement his older material, including covers of "Hey, Girl," "Light as a Breeze," and Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love," which Joel's friend Garth Brooks also covered in his own Greatest Hits boxed set.

The fourth disc is very interesting, even if it contains songs we heard in the other discs of this set. It contains several live lectures with musical interludes. These were recorded at several colleges on different dates, but are seamlessly spliced so that it sounds like one single performance. Here Joel gives us a glimpse of the creative and business aspects of his musical career, and he does so with humor, intelligence, and charm.

All in all, if you are a Joel fan and can't afford all his albums, I recommend this boxed set. (A Caveat: 2001's The Essential Billy Joel 2-disc set does cover much of the same ground, but has a few variations of content.)

Having grown up with an older brother and a cousin who are rabid Billy Joel fans, I grew up listening to his music on a daily basis. What has always amazed me about Joel is the ease with which he can jump styles. He can rock out ("Big Shot", "A Matter Of Trust"), be tender ("She's Always A Woman", "She's Got A Way"), even do a little gospel ("River Of Dreams"). True, I like some of his songs better than others, but overall you have to appreciate his solid musicianship, both in performing and writing. It's also amazing how he can span generations--both my 66-year-old father and my 11-year-old niece are fans (in fact, "The Stranger" was the only rock album Dad would let us play in the car on family trips!). In this age of sampling being called songwriting, it's great to hear an artist who can truly write great songs, truly sing, and truly play. This set literally covers Joel's career beginning to end, and the third disk, which is a combination of a talk he gave to college students and live tracks (including a great cover of "Back In The USSR" and, of course, the awesome singalong that is "Piano Man") gives a fascinating glimpse into how some of his greatest hits came into being. A must for any Joel fan, even if you're just a casual one, because this set has everything and more.

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.

This box set is awesome. If you are a devoted fan like myself you probably already have all the C.D.'s, including the Evening of Questions and Answers from another box set, but the enlcosed booklet makes it well worth paying for it all again! Billy really opens himself up in this and shows a very personal side of himself, rather than putting all his energy into being The Entertainer, like he usually does. I highly recommend it to anyone else who really loves Billy Joel!

Billy Joel has had a long, storied career as a solo performer. And this set throws together all of his best hit singles. This is a repackaging of the three Greatest Hits CDs, but the real fun is the fourth disc. It includes live versions both hits ("Piano Man", "We Didn't Start the Fire") and a cover of "Hard Days Night" interspersed with Joel lecturing a class about his insprations.

Since Billy seems to have given up performing and writing in this genre, this makes for a great keepsake.

This 4cd box set was my first Billy Joel purchase and I was NOT disappointed. The CD's come in a very well packaged box that has a 43 page booklet about Billy Joel's life and all of the lyrics to his songs. All the CD's have great songs on them, I don't know which is the best, but the all are great. I was thinking of buying greatest hits vol. 1, 2, and 3 seperately, but then I came across this box set. What a deal! The box set is $10 cheaper than the other 3 cds and they throw in the bonus cd at the end, which is really cool. If you are a true Billy fan, you gotta get this box set.

then by all means get this boxed set.

Let's get this out of the way: the fourth CD of this collection is probably a waste of good plastic. Not that there isn't some good stuff there, but most of it probably will only appeal to Joel purists (for whom the other three CDs will seem superfluous and thus pass this set by). This is what, I'm afraid, is causing some reviewers here to lower their ratings of this otherwise excellent collection.

But for someone who isn't interested in collecting all of B.J's albums this set is very nice indeed. The first two CDs are the remastered recordings of Billy Joel's Greatest hits volume 1 and 2 (that were sold as a boxed set around the same price as this 4 disk set), and the last is (duh) the remastered version of Greatest hits volume 3. So, together this collection gives you two sets for the price of one.

The sound is pristine (compared to my previous, non-remastered recording of The Stranger, these were much cleaner tracks) and represent most of what the man from Bedford Sty did well. If you are truly a Billy Joel fan you'll want all his CDs, but for those of us who enjoy him but are not fanatic this is probably all you need in your collection (his best album, "The Stranger", is almost included here in its entirety, particularly since he includes a live cover of "Vienna").

This box set is awesome. It contains the whole of his 3 Greatest Hits cds, plus a bonus disc which contains Questions and Answers recorded live at Columbia University in 1994, plus 6 previously unreleased songs. I already had the double cd "Greatest Hits 1 and 2" when the remastered edition came out, and I was going to replace it with that and also get the "Greatest Hits volume 3". But when I saw this set, I figured it was a much better buy, especially with the 4th disc that is unavailable anywhere else. Plus the 44 page book is pcked with photos, all the lyrics and an in depth essay called "A portrait of the artist" by Timothy White. A must for Billy Joel fans.

For what this costs, if you found a good sale, you could purchase most of his albums. You would then be the proud owner of "Angry Young Man", "Ballad of Billy the Kid", "Summer, Highland Falls", "Miami 2017", "Honesty", (insert your favorite)... none of which appear here. You would also own the full-length versions of "Just the Way You Are", "My Life", "Pressure", and "Captain Jack", instead of the truncations that DO appear here. Forgive me, dear marketing/repackaging people, but I simply cannot believe that the booklet or the bonus 4th disk could possibly justify the purchase of this set.