By GRAHAM REID
(Herald rating: * * * * )
You know how it is, you think you're bringing the kids up right feeding them Eminem and TuPac and next thing you know they're singing Uptown Girl, doo-wop vocals and all.
Westlife's somewhat pointless remake of the old Billy Joel hit (who at
least had a reason to write and sing it) might revive a little interest in the piano man's catalogue among older folk who admire the breadth of his writing as much as the hits, which have mostly been ballads.
This 36-track double disc certainly covers a lot of territory from his appealing retro Still Rock'n'Roll To Me, Uptown Girl, Tell Her About It, The Longest Time and Say Goodbye to Hollywood to those signature songs (the auto-biographical Entertainer, Just the Way You Are, the lounge-bar folksiness of Piano Man) and oddities such as River of Dreams where he took a leaf from Paul Simon's Afro-doo wop style.
As these discs illustrate Joel has had a remarkable career, more akin to that of the great American songwriters of the past than those in the rock culture he has inhabited. He essayed the jazzy New York State of Mind with the same ease as the MOR rock on Movin' Out and You May Be Right, and those charming ballads, songs of American disillusionment (Allentown) and off-cuts from Broadway shows which never existed (Goodnight Saigon).
Joel has a number of similar albums available — there have been three volumes of hits plus the recent customary live set — but if the kids singing that boy-band Billy hit has piqued your interest then this fat collection, with microscopically reprinted lyrics in the booklet, should satisfy the appetite.
Label: Sony
