10 Best Soft Rock Albums Of All Time

There's a strange case to be made of where Billy Joel even fits within the confines of rock and roll. Though he has his fingerprints in a lot of old school rock and roll from back in the day, some of his stuff just feels like the more sophisticated side of what pop music was doing. That was just on the singles though, and Mr. Joel created an entire environment on The Stranger.

Of all the '70s classics to come out that decade, you'd be hardpressed to find another album with bigger hits, with almost every song on the album finding its way onto the charts. While the main instrument might not be guitar this time around, Joel is still pounding the hell out of his piano to squeeze out every emotion he can. Even though it's not a concept album in practice, each song does a great job at setting up little vignettes in your mind, like Anthony working in the grocery store in Movin Out or the girl needing to slow down her life a little bit on Vienna.

For a man that was also known to be more on the singer songwriter side of the spectrum, a song like Scenes From an Italian Restaurant is the genre at its finest, almost framing this tale of Brenda and Eddie as a mini movie taking place in your mind. From skin to core, this album oozes cool...just not in the traditional sense. This is the kind of pop album that feels more film noir than Top 40.