Billy Joel - An Innocent Man / GH1+2 / The Bridge - pick your 5 favourite tracks POLL!

Pick your 5 favourite tracks from these two albums plus the new tracks from GH1+2 and a b side

 

An Innocent Man is a great album and almost every track is a winner.

The Bridge is not as good but has its fair share of classics. I think the 80s production sort of weighs it down a bit.

 

Innocent
Uptown
Tender
This is the Time
Trust

 

An Innocent Man is probably my least favorite Billy album, so only the title track makes the cut for me. The Bridge isn't great but "Running On Ice" is great, "Mulberry Street" is a lot of fun, and "Matter Of Trust" is a solid single.

 

Easy Money
The Longest Time
While The Night Is Still Young
Leave A Tender Moment Alone
A Mater Of Trust

 

"The Longest Time"
"Tell Her About It"
"Uptown Girl"
"Leave A Tender Moment Alone"
"Keeping The Faith"

Honorable Mention:
"A Matter Of Trust"
"An Innocent Man"
"I'll Cry Instead"

 

An Innocent Man is probably my least favorite of his albums, so only the title track (which is brilliant) makes the cut here. I also think that "The Night Is Still Young" is one of his two best-ever dramatic ballads (the other being "Until The Night" from 52nd Street), so it gets a vote. I've always felt that The Bridge is underrated as an album, so the remaining three choices come from it: "This Is The Time", "A Matter Of Trust", and "Code Of Silence". I could have also gone with "Running On Ice" or "Big Man On Mulberry Street". I think it's a very solid album (marred only by "Modern Woman") - in the upper half of his discography.

 

I don't particularly like An Innocent Man as an album, but there's no denying the pop genius at work on The Longest Time and Uptown Girl - Frankie Valli and the boys would be proud. I like The Bridge a lot - tough to call 2 tracks but I'll go with This Is The Time and Getting Closer, I could easily have gone for Running on Ice, Matter of Trust or Code of Silence. I've also gone for The Night Is Still Young a song that did funny things to me when I first heard it at the age of 12 in 86 or so. There's something quite erotic about that track - it sustains a real atmosphere and tension. It should be a horrible schmaltzy nonsense but he makes it work. I'm not sure anyone else could. A real achievement.

 

Uptown Girl is a treasure.

 

Innocent Man
Leave a tender moment alone
Running on Ice
This is the time
Temptation

 

Probably in this order. The top 2 are two of my favorite Billy Joel tracks ever, and they were consecutive singles in 1986.

"A Matter of Trust"
"This Is the Time"
"Tell Her About It" (12-inch single mix)
"Uptown Girl"
"The Longest Time"

Honorable mention: the 7-inch "Special Mix" of "Keeping the Faith"; "An Innocent Man"; and "Leave a Tender Moment Alone"

 

Upon further reflection, or if you prefer...
... on second thought...

"The Longest Time"
"A Matter Of Trust"
"An Innocent Man"
"Leave A Tender Moment Alone"
"Keeping The Faith"

Honorable Mention:
"Tell Her About It"
"Uptown Girl"
"I'll Cry Instead"

 

An Innocent Man
Keeping the Faith
This Is the Time
A Matter of Trust
Code of Silence

Always enjoyed The Bridge more than I think I should. Lol. An Innocent Man is an album brimming with gems but I often listen to The Bridge more.

 

A Matter Of Trust.

That is all -I just don't care at all for this period of his work.

 

Top 5 from these albums would be ...

Uptown Girl (Billy Joel does The Four Seasons and I LOVED it!)
An Innocent Man (Such a great song)
Leave A Tender Moment Alone
Keeping The Faith (I like the album mix far better than the 7" remix)
Baby Grand (For sentimental reasons of being a nice duet with Ray Charles)

 

"Easy Money" is a phenomenally underrated song. That recording may be one of his very best.

 

Tough choices because I'm leaving out so many good songs, but my top 5 from this list would be:

Tell Her About It
An Innocent Man
A Matter of Trust
Keeping the Faith (7" remix version)
This Night

 

Pretty much everything from An Innocent Man. “Leave A Tender Moment Alone” is a great song, or at least I think it is. Wish I could feel the same way about The Bridge but I think Billy stayed at true to his vision. There’s nothing wrong with the Ray Charles duet but hardly a rotation winner for me.

 

The Longest Time - I'm not keen on An Innocent Man, but I've always loved this track.
Running On Ice - interesting, and a little different
This Is The Time - a bit of an 80's AC ballad, but it's got a nice atmosphere.
A Matter Of Trust - I loved this as a single in the UK and it went nowhere...
Big Man On Mulberry Street - a convincing stab at the big band genre, and I love Moonlighting, so this is forever tied in with it.