Every Billy Joel Fan Will Agree That These '70s Songs Are His Best

Let's just agree that "Piano Man" and "She's Always a Woman" are two of Billy Joel's best-known songs from the 1970s. They're slices of pop history that fans from back in the day are sure to add to their personal top-five lists. But that doesn't make them his best songs. To get to the works that real Billy Joel fans consider his best songs from '70s, true gems that Joel connoisseurs consider prime creations from his intro decade, you have to scratch beneath the surface of mainstream success.

The truth about Billy Joel is that he's a storyteller extraordinaire with plenty of tracks that count as more than just sing-along favorites. Some of the finest works of his entire catalog came from the decade when he broke big. These songs reflect a remarkable maturity for a songwriter who was still establishing himself as a force in the industry. They're also catchy, emotive, and undeniably resonant all these decades later.

Our take on what constitutes the best Billy Joel songs from the '70s includes stellar lyric work that feels like peak storytelling and evokes unexpected emotion. Anyone can sing along to "My Life," but to find yourself tearing up to "Honesty" or "Vienna" is evidence of Joel's premium talent on grand display. Choosing the best of his '70s output was tough work, but we narrowed it down to these polished gems.

There may be no more nostalgic tune in the Billy Joel catalog than this sweet slice of tuneful remembrance. The story of Brenda and Eddie feels like a tale of a bebopping American teen romance evolving into a broken marriage with details that plant the story squarely in the '70s. Joel's inspiration for the song was a 10-year high school reunion where the guy he idolized in school had lost his sheen.

The narrative lyrics take us through a three-act arc that gets more painful every time you listen. The piano-lounge intro describing a quiet rendezvous at "our Italian restaurant" portrays both mood and setting. It's hard to tell if it's Brenda and Eddie making a date to reunite after their divorce or if old friends have gathered to recount the story of what happened to this seemingly charmed couple. Then, a bouncy rock-and-roll shift underlies the characters' starry-eyed past. By the time Joel recounts "the king and the queen went back to the green, but you can never go back there again," we know there's no real happy ending to this tale. Then, the intro melody returns more emphatically, with a wistful sax wailing before the narrator leaves an open-ended invitation: "I'll meet you anytime you want at our Italian restaurant." Chills ensue all around.

If you've never cued up this slice of tuneful theater, it's high time you give it a try. It's a fan favorite and one of Joel's vintage creations.

Who would've thought a fiery young achiever would have written such a philosophical song about giving yourself grace? With "Vienna," a track from his iconic album "The Stranger," Billy Joel uses a trip to Austria to visit his father as an exploration of how life rushes by, inspired by advice the elder Joel gave Billy about remembering to savor life at every stage.

The piano frill that opens the song is a hat tip to the cultural significance of Vienna as a wellspring of classical composers. As soon as it finishes, Joel tumbles into a bluesy Tin Pan Alley-esque ramble where the narrator counsels a fiery youth who's destined to burn out too soon. There's a nifty accordion solo in the middle section that echoes European street musicians and connects to the elegant intro. Then, Joel growls the last refrain, ending with the reminder, "When will you realize Vienna waits for you?" before the piano intro returns for a sweet finish. It's a smart blend of timeless tune-smithing and modern messaging.

Many listeners through the years have mistaken the song as a tribute to the historical European locale. Even the city itself honors the musical tribute on Vienna's cultural website. That's quite a feat for Joel, considering the city is used as a symbol for a far-off achievement that will be there when you're ready for it. Younger generations have tapped in and made this one of Joel's most streamed songs, demonstrating its resonance and staying power.

It didn't take long for Billy Joel to understand the circus he'd stepped into when he signed a major record deal. A song like "The Entertainer," from 1974's "Streetlife Serenade" album, takes a scalpel to the seedy underbelly of being the moneymaker for a machinery of oily executives and glad-handing promoters, all of whom expect a piece of the pie without being the main act. It's a soul-baring poem that doesn't hold back, and yet it's deviously gleeful in its delivery.

It's one of Joel's most lilting melodies, paired with his most scathing lyrics. All it takes is listening to the verses that repeat their opening line, "I am the entertainer," followed by a mix of the good and bad of stratospheric success. There are references to sex, riches, and the compromises an artist makes for fame. The images create a mixed-bag of how fleeting and fickle fame can be, which seems ironic now, considering how much Billy Joel is really worth and how long his career has lasted.

Coincidentally, Joel's song was released in the same year as "The Entertainer" by Marvin Hamlisch, the instrumental theme from the movie "The Sting" that rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Joel's song climbed to a respectable No. 34, but it made an indelible impression on long-time fans. It may take a few listens to realize this is a song without a chorus, but a song this tight and seamless doesn't need one.

When all other rock 'n' roll tropes fall through, writing a song about chemical indulgence is always a possibility. Billy Joel's "Captain Jack" ends up being sorrowful musical cinema about a suburban sad sack who's more than a little lost — and gets even more so thanks to his illicit substance of choice. As the lyrics describe in the mournful verses, this soul seems to have everything he needs but keeps searching for more regardless. When the chorus lifts the mood with the sing-along line "Captain Jack will get you high tonight," the music picks up too, a melodic uplift that stirs the mood of the song with no substances necessary — for the listener, at least.

So who exactly is Captain Jack? Some confuse it for Jack Daniels or a stand-in for stronger drugs. As Joel himself describes, Captain Jack was actually a drug dealer in the area of Long Island where he grew up. "I didn't mean it to be any specific drug, it's whatever people had to take to escape reality. It was drugs in general," he says (via BillyJoel.com).

More than just one of his best-written and most-loved songs, "Captain Jack" was also the springboard for Joel's skyrocketing success. When Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM began  playing an in-concert recording of the song in 1972, it caught the attention of Columbia Records and netted Joel a contract from no less than the iconic Clive Davis. Now that's the power of a great song.

When the Piano Man turns his attention to aching ballads, the results usually read like pages from the tragic real-life story of Billy Joel. In his haunting love song "Honesty," Joel laments the search for someone truthful in a world of flash and fakery. It's a gleaming piece of songwriting that doesn't always get the attention his more familiar hits do, but it should.

It starts innocently enough, with Joel musing about how easy it is to find someone to be with, sung over torchy piano work. Then the minor-key chorus kicks in, stretching Joel's vocal range into higher territory as he undercuts the verse with a revelation that "everyone is so untrue" and honesty is a requirement in the partner he's singing to. It's a spine-tingling switcheroo that leaves listeners wondering what's coming next. "Anyone can comfort me with promises again, I know," Joel confides. But what he's really missing is someone to share the truth with.

The song broke the Billboard Top 40 in 1979 when it hit No. 24, which is one spot higher than "Piano Man" reached five years earlier. Joel recounts in an interview with Howard Stern that the lyrics came to him while he was in the studio with the band, armed with a melody but lacking words. He found the word "honesty" fit the music, and the rest is Billy Joel musical history, and a heartbreaking Adult Contemporary classic that we ardent Joel fans find to be one of his most sincere works.