The Complete Hits Collection 1973 - 1997 (1997)


 

Disc One
  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
  
  Disc Two
  1. My Life
  2. Big Shot
  3. You May Be Right
  4. It's Still Rock and 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.While the Night is Still Young
   
  Disc Three
  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
  
  Disc Four 
  1. Billy Joel Spoken Intro/Music Concepts (Dialogue)
  2. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant (Live)
  3. Beatles Influence (Dialogue)
  4. A Hard Day's Night (Live)
  5. Why Vienna? (Dialogue)
  6. Vienna (Live)
  7. History Through Music (Dialogue)
  8. We Didn't Start the Fire (Live)
  9. Music Source (Dialogue)
  10.River of Dreams (Unreleased)
  11.Piano Bar (Dialogue)
  12.Piano Man (Live)

 

Box sets, by their nature, tend to be exercises in indulgence—fan service packaged in thick cardboard with an extra booklet and, if you're lucky, a scrap of insight. But every now and then, a retrospective earns its weight. The Complete Hits Collection: 1973–1997 is exactly that. Not a reinvention of Billy Joel’s career, but its most faithful mirror.

The first three discs are, in effect, a reissue of Joel’s earlier Greatest Hits compilations, now stitched together under one banner. This is not a complaint. The original pair (Volumes I & II) remain among the most comprehensive and best-selling in popular music history, and Volume III, while thinner in substance, completes the timeline. The sequencing remains chronological, a wise move that lets the listener trace Joel’s arc from brash piano bar crooner to introspective adult contemporary craftsman.

Crucially, the edits that marred the original Greatest Hits release—the lopped-off verses, the radio cuts masquerading as album tracks—have here been restored. Just the Way You Are and Pressure regain their full form, breathing properly for the first time in a compilation context. It’s a small but essential correction, as if the artist finally overruled the accountants.

Still, completists will find gripes to cling to. Modern Woman is again absent, seemingly exiled from the Joel canon for reasons known only to the man himself. Other fan favorites are missing too, but then, what hits collection ever pleases everyone? As such things go, this one gets remarkably close.

The unexpected jewel is the fourth disc: not a rarities dump or outtakes graveyard, but a curated recording of a Billy Joel songwriting workshop. Here, at last, the curtain lifts. Joel, no longer the guarded pop icon, becomes the genial craftsman—wry, articulate, occasionally self-deprecating. He discusses chords, lyrics, inspiration. He answers questions. He plays. It’s not a performance in the traditional sense, but it is perhaps the most revealing look we have at the man behind the songs.

Interspersed between anecdotes are live renditions of several key tracks, most previously unreleased. And unlike most bonus discs, which serve more as packaging ballast than genuine content, this one holds up to repeat listens. It's educational without being dull, intimate without lapsing into sentimentality.

Joel would go on to license and repackage his catalog in various forms throughout the next few decades—budget collections, themed anthologies, digital samplers—but none would surpass the completeness, nor the coherence, of this set.

If the early compilations were snapshots, The Complete Hits Collection is the album-length portrait. And for those who grew up on these songs, or came to them late, it remains the definitive gateway—restored, expanded, and, for once, respectfully framed.

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