Greatest Hits Volume 1 & Volume 2 (1985)
I harbor a perhaps-unfair distaste and bordering-on-technicolor-yawning instinctive reaction for/to most of Joel’s catalog. Let me clarify…the albums themselves don’t bother me so much, from what I’ve heard of his catalog (Yes, I have heard all the songs here. I would never blindly slam an artist based on incomplete data, no matter how much I KNEW they deserved it). What bothers me mostly are his earliest hits and semi-hits: the bathetic, pathetic, sickeningly maudlin and/or pompous things that he calls “songs”. I never liked Harry Chapin, and I don’t like Mini-Harry that much either. Admittedly, Joel isn’t nearly as bad as Chapin. Why? Because he graduated from pathetic and annoying to hooky and annoying. Nevertheless, even the Joel songs I LIKE still stir up a bit of bile in my system. While I do not deny the man’s “talent” at what he does, I simply don’t like it. I know many intelligent people that do (to various degrees). If you liked “Piano Man” or (Blech!) “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”, you’ll love this hunk of pure pop melodrama. If you only liked “Captain Jack” because it has a killer voice/music hook, join the club.
(“Captain Jack”, “Big Shot”)
Grade: C
2010: What the Hell was I thinking?
Grade: A