Greatest Hits Volume 3 (1996)


 
1. Keeping the Faith 2. An Innocent Man 3. A Matter of Trust 4. Baby Grand 5. This is the Time 6. Leningrad 7. We Didn't Start the Fire 8. I Go to Extremes 9. And So it Goes 10.The Downeaster "Alexa" 11.Shameless 12.All About Soul (Remix) 13.Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) 14.The River of Dreams 15.To Make You Feel My Love 16.Hey Girl 17.Light as the Breeze

 

Sure, a lot of artists will say at some point in their career that they're through recording and/or touring, but few ever mean it. Either they forget about the ennui that comes with "retirement" or they run out of money that supports the lavish style that they've become accustomed. Apparently that wasn't the case for Billy Joel. At least when it came to recording. So four years after his last studio release, it made perfect sense to put out another greatest hits package that complements his Greatest Hits Volumes I and II. This way, all of the "hits" can now be on a "hits" package.

Like his first compilation, this one features the songs in sequential order. It's not nearly as rich since, well, he only made 3 albums since the last package. Because of this, there's obviously evidence of padding since, in addition to not as much material, he simply just didn't have as many hits during his later years. He does make a smart move by including two older hits that, well basically, he "ran out of room" for on the last hits album, so Keeping the Faith and An Innocent Man are added as they should be.

He features six songs, more than half the album, from Stormfront, which really isn't a bad move since that was such a strong album anyway. The only thing "missing in action" is Modern Woman since Joel seems to have divorced himself from that tune from for whatever reason. It's a shame because it's a lot better than This is the Time from the same album which is here.

More padding is in the form of three new songs. Or rather, 3 Billy Joel cover songs. Since he wasn't "writing" anymore, he probably didn't want to cheapen the material, so he covers Bob Dylan, Carole King and Leonard Cohen. He covers them all well, but none of them are really that memorable. As a matter of fact, this whole album really isn't that memorable, and since he would later release this one along with the first package together, it really only made sense to go with the other, complete package. Unless you were one of the rare people that only liked what he released from 1986 - 1993, that is.

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