1973-97-Complete Hits Collection

Billy Joel - 1973-97-Complete Hits Collection

1973-97-Complete Hits Collection
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CD Details

Artist: Billy Joel
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2001-08-28
Music Label: Sony Legacy
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Piano Man
  2. Captain Jack
  3. The Entertainer
  4. Say Goodbye to Hollywood
  5. New York State of Mind
  6. The Stranger
  7. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
  8. Just the Way You Are
  9. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
  10. Only the Good Die Young
  11. She's Always a Woman
Music CD 2
  1. My Life
  2. Big Shot
  3. You May Be Right
  4. It's Still Rock & Roll to Me
  5. Don't Ask Me Why
  6. She's Got a Way
  7. Pressure
  8. Allentown
  9. Goodnight Saigon
  10. Tell Her About It
  11. Uptown Girl
  12. The Longest Time
  13. You're Only Human (Second Wind)
  14. The Night Is Still Young
Music CD 3
  1. Keeping the Faith
  2. An Innocent Man
  3. A Matter of Trust
  4. Baby Grand
  5. This Is the Time
  6. Leningrad
  7. We Didn't Start the Fire
  8. I Go to Extremes
  9. And So It Goes
  10. The Downeaster "Alexa"
  11. Shameless
  12. All About Soul [Remix]
  13. Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
  14. The River of Dreams
  15. To Make You Feel My Love
  16. Hey Girl
  17. Light as the Breeze
Music CD 4
  1. Billy Joel Spoken Intro/Music Concepts
  2. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant [Live Unreleased Version][Live][#]
  3. Beatles Influence
  4. A Hard Day's Night [Live Unreleased Version][Live][#]
  5. Why Vienna?
  6. Vienna [Live Unreleased Version][Live][#]
  7. History Through Music
  8. We Didn't Start the Fire [Live Unreleased Version][Live][#]
  9. Music Source
  10. The River of Dreams [Original Studio Recording][#][Version]
  11. Piano Bar
  12. Piano Man [Live Unreleased Version][Live][#]

Music reviews of 1973-97-Complete Hits Collection

Music Review: Some Quirks, but Solid Retrospective to Billy's Career
Rating: 4 Stars

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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Description of 1973-97-Complete Hits Collection

item is in great condition plastic has just been removed.
The three volumes of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits albums make up the bulk of this catch-up set; a fourth disc features some live versions and discussion of the artist's composing methods. --Rickey Wright

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