25 Best Billy Joel B-Sides

From Storm Front

22. "Leningrad"

This is from the last of my three fave Joel albums, mostly because I grew up with it. In fact, Storm Front was the second CD I ever owned (Phil Collins' Serious Hits...Live! was my first), and it came with my CD player on Christmas 1990. I now own over 600 albums, so I've always had a soft spot for Storm Front. This song was written about a Russian named Victor Joel met during his concert recordings in the former U.S.S.R. He compares and contrasts his childhood growing up on Long Island with Victor's in Russia and realizes that, even though they were separated by thousands of miles, the growing fear of the Cold War and the mutual desire for peace and security they shared brought them together. I've always loved the line, "But Cold War children were hard to kill/under their desks in an air-raid drill," because it reminds me of all those stupid drills we held in elementary school. (I wonder if they still do them now, this time for terror-related events.) I remember even then joking with the teachers that if the Soviets dropped a nuclear bomb on our little hometown, hiding under a desk wouldn't save us.

23. "And So It Goes"

This song was performed (well, slaughtered) by a fellow student during one of our singing-and-dancing Fall Revues when I was in college. When he wasn't forgetting important lines and mumbling others, his version was way overwrought with unnecessary, excessive sighs puncturing the piano's soft melody. Although this song appears for the first time on Storm Front in 1989, it was actually written in the early '80s and is about Joel realizing that, even though he was happy and loved his wife at the time, he knew their relationship probably wouldn't last forever, as all good things must come to an end eventually: "And so it goes/and so will you soon, I suppose." He was right; they got divorced. Sigh.

From River of Dreams

24. "Shades of Grey"

I was always shocked that not only was this song not released as the first single off River of Dreams, but it was never even a hit at all. Very curious, since I consider it the best song on his last album of pop material. It's irresistibly infectious, and the lyrics hit home as well. Getting older and becoming "softer," in a way, Joel was beginning to understand other people's points of view, and all of a sudden, his weren't so damn important anymore (a far cry from "Angry Young Man" off Turnstiles). My favorite line is, "The more I find out/the less that I know." My only consolation was that the title of this song was used for a "20/20" T.V. special on Joel, though no one but me seemed to care.

25. "Two Thousand Years"

This song was, appropriately enough, played at Joel's millennium concert. I feel it's wise beyond even his years€”probably his most introspective and intelligent song to date. He seems to survey the whole of humanity€”where we've been, where we are, and where we're going€”all in one 5-minute pop song. And that ain't easy to do.