Billy Joel'sGreatest Hits is a collection released in two sets, 12 years apart. The first set, consisting of two discs, titled Volume I and Volume II, was released in 1985. The second, single disc titled Volume III was released in 1997. All songs but the last three on Volume III, "To Make You Feel My Love", "Hey Girl" and "Light as the Breeze" were written by Joel. "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young" are only available on the first set. The other songs appear mostly in order of their release dates and generally represent Joel's most successful singles.
The GreatestHits Volume I & Volume II album includes hits from 1973 to 1985 in chronological order with one exception. The album includes two previously unreleased tracks, "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young", exclusive to this collection (and repackaged variants).
LP release tracklist
Side One
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Piano Man" (1973)
5:36
2.
"Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (1981) (live edited version)
3:54
3.
"New York State of Mind" (1976) (contains different saxophone solo than Turnstiles version)
6:02
4.
"The Stranger" (1977)
5:07
5.
"Just the Way You Are" (1977) (radio edit version)
3:36
Side Two
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" (1977)
3:28
2.
"Only the Good Die Young" (1977)
3:53
3.
"She's Always a Woman" (1977)
3:17
4.
"My Life" (1978) (radio edit version)
3:51
5.
"Big Shot" (1978) (radio edit version)
3:43
6.
"Honesty" (1978)
3:51
Side Three
No.
Title
Length
1.
"You May Be Right" (1980)
4:09
2.
"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (1980)
2:54
3.
"Pressure" (1982) (radio edit version)
3:15
4.
"Allentown" (1982)
3:48
5.
"Goodnight Saigon" (1982)
7:00
Side Four
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Tell Her About It" (1983) (radio edit version)
3:35
2.
"Uptown Girl" (1983)
3:15
3.
"The Longest Time" (1983)
3:36
4.
"You're Only Human (Second Wind)" (1985)
4:48
5.
"The Night Is Still Young" (1985)
5:28
Cassette release tracklist
The same as the LP version, but since it is on one cassette LP sides 1 and 2 are put onto one side of the cassette and LP
sides 3 and 4 are put onto the other side.
The LP and Cassette have 21 tracks. The CD has 4 additional tracks: "Captain Jack", "The Entertainer", "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "She's Got a Way" (the live version from Songs in the Attic). There are two versions of the CD available, the first does have "Honesty" as the third track on disc 2, the second does have "Don't Ask Me Why" as the fifth track on disc 2. However, the disc with "Honesty" does not have "Don't Ask Me Why" and vice versa.[3]
In 1998, the two CD set with "Don't Ask Me Why" was digitally remastered and packaged with two bonus videos ("You're Only Human" and "The Night Is Still Young") on disc 1. All of the songs that were edited in the 1985 package ("Pressure", "My Life", "Big Shot", "Just the Way You Are" and "Tell Her About It") were restored to their original album lengths. Also, the live version of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" was removed and replaced with the studio version from Joel's 1976 album Turnstiles.
Greatest Hits Volume III
Untitled
The GreatestHits Volume III album includes hits from 1983 to 1997. Three previously unreleased studio tracks are included, "To Make You Feel My Love", "Hey Girl", and "Light as the Breeze". All three tracks are covers songs (a rare occurrence in his catalogue), and although "To Make You Feel My Love" and "Hey Girl" were recorded to be singles for this album, Joel originally recorded the song "Light as the Breeze" for a Leonard Cohen tribute album, Tower of Song, released in 1995.
Chronologically, Greatest Hits Volume III overlaps slightly with Volume II, as the first two tracks, "Keeping the Faith" and "An Innocent Man", first appeared on his album An Innocent Man.
On October 14, 1997, a boxed set was released that included all three Greatest Hits volumes as well as a fourth disc that contains a Q&A with Billy Joel.
An Evening of Questions & Answers... & A Little Music
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Billy Joel Spoken Intro/Music Concepts" (Live)
10:18
2.
"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" (Unreleased Version – Live)
[2]
[citation needed]