Billy Joel vs. Elton John

I figured Elton would run away with this before I even peeked. But my vote is for Billy. For me, there are simply more albums of his I can listen to and enjoy all the way through than Elton's.

 

Never cared for Billy Joel, do like much of Elton John's early 70's output but none thereafter.

 

Amazingly some people don't like Elton or Billy. I like them both. But Elton gets the nod. He had a great beginning, came back with Too Low For Zero, wins an Oscar for the Lion King and his last three CD's were pretty darn good. An amazing career.

 

Elton John gets my votes...notice both have two first names? Though Elton's real name is also a double first name- Reg Dwight...interesting.

 

Billy Joel by far. Nobody can beat "Uptown Girl" "We Didn't Start The Fire" or "River Of Dreams". Even his weakest albums contain some respectable cuts. Plus, his lows have never been as low as Elton's.

Oh and of course Billy is far more diverse than Elton.

 

Billy Joel is a better singer. And he's better at keyboards. Billy Joel's songwriting eclipses Elton John's. Billy Joel wins.

That being said, he only wins by a slight margin because I like em both

 

are any of BJs albums in the same league as Honky Chateau, GBYBR, Madman, or Tumbleweed?

 

Me too. I'm proud to say I have only one Elton John LP in my collection (which isn't exactly brilliant, in my opinion) and quite a few pretty good Billy Joel ones.

 

Its Elton for me, altho I really do love Billy too and have all of his albums. I agree with one of the posters up thread who said that Billy can be pretty cheesy sometimes. Something Elton rarely ever does. If Elton has occasionally had some career slumps hes also had much greater highs and has done MUCH more. Billy has had 12 pop/rock studio albums plus the classical album he did. Elton has had 29 studio albums, plus 4 soundtrack albums and 3 full musical scores. Elton has had much greater highs and has continued for much longer than Billy. Love them both, but Elton is definitely the one for me.

Steve

 

Wow, I thought Elton would be winning by a much larger margin. I go with Elton all the way - I am not a Billy Joel fan and some of his stuff really annoys me. I wish they would stop working together.

 

They have. Billy canceled plans for another summer tour.

 

Not a fan of either one.

 

Yay!

 

Turnstiles is a very sold album, I'd give it the nod over Honky Chateau.

But GBYBR is an alltime great rock album, Billy doesn't really have a rock album IMHO

 

Very well said.

 

I enjoy two Billy Joel albums on SACD from time to time. I like at least six Elton John albums more than any Billy Joel album. The amazing career goes to Elton John.

 

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck or anything but ... can someone explain this or give examples of moments of Joel "cheesiness"? I am never sure what people mean by this but I've heard it more than once ... There was that episode of The Simpsons where a character voiced by Ray Romano looked at a plate of nachos in a bar and said "I haven't seen that much melted cheese since I left my Billy Joel albums out in the sun!"

I like both Elton and Billy, wouldn't say I love either ... I can't pick one over the other actually. Though I probably like Billy's The Nylon Curtain as a whole more than any of Elton's albums.

 

The Nylon Curtain.

 

What Craig said.

 

I think that Just The Way You Are and Honesty gave him that label. Not well deserved IMO.

 

Elton by a hair but Billy's done some great stuff as well.

 

If so, then Elton has his similar moments.

I don't think it's deserved either. I like both of those songs a lot but I guess I can see why some may not. "Honesty" especially is a beautiful song IMO...

 

I was pretty burned out on Billy when I saw him play with Elton. Could have just been the night that I saw, but Billy wiped the floor with Elton, and it was pretty evident by crowd reaction. The people I went with were huge Elton fans and indifferent towards Billy, but came away on his side.

Saw some iffy Billy performances over the years but the last tour I saw (2006?) was SOLID.

 

Yeah I agree... aside from his radio songs being ultra-ubiquitous, I don't understand it. I have always been a bigger fan of Joel's deep album cuts anyway.

 

I'll buy you a beer for saying that Though I'll say Billy's 1973-1982 stuff is great...he kept building until he peaked with The Nylon Curtain.