Comparing The Hits: Elton John vs Billy Joel

There's no shame in discovering artists through their radio hits without feeling much of a need to ever dive deeper than that. Some people will call you a 'casual' fan for it, but what's wrong with that? We don't always need to be a die-hard fan of every single thing we listen to. Sometimes, there's a good reason why the singles are the singles.

That isn't entirely true of this comparison, as I do own and enjoy a few Elton John albums, but they are his later work from a period the casual fans probably don't know even exists. When it comes to the 'classic' period, that is where I am indeed a casual fan. I know the hits, I enjoy them, but I don't feel as much need to listen to the deep cuts of his most glam period. I like what I like, and I'm fine with that.

When it comes to Billy Joel, I feel like I am also a bit of a contrarian, as I am young enough to not have as much of a relationship with his earlier works. For me, the songs that have always been part of my life are his 80s and 90s output, which might put me in the minority here.

Regardless, these are two artists with a lengthy list of hits that form two of my favorite compilations I regularly go back to. For most of my life, these songs have been in the forefront of my mind, but I've never sat down to ask which roster is the one I would rank ever so slightly higher. That's what we're going to do today.

First, let's list the highlights of each man's career.

Elton John:

Tiny Dancer
Rocket Man
Love Lies Bleeding
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Candle In The Wind
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Sad Songs Say So Much

Billy Joel:

A Matter Of Trust
Don't Ask Me Why
For The Longest Time
I Go To Extremes
It's Still Rock N Roll To Me
Only The Good Die Young
Tell Her About It
This Is The Time
Uptown Girl

There are more, but we'll use these for our comparison. At the very top, I would put Elton's absolute best above anything Billy did. "Tiny Dancer" is my favorite of the classic era, but "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" might be my favorite of all his songs. At his best, Elton was as good a pop songwriter as there has ever been. And combined with Bernie Taupin's lyrics, there are plenty of moments that rise above the schmaltz that undercuts a lot of this.

Billy's catalog has more depth. In addition to the songs I mentioned, there are another half dozen favorites that don't dip far on the quality scale. Despite veering wildly and trying out a host of styles, they are consistently great singles. One can argue, rightly so I would porbably say, they succeed because albums full of experimenting are likely to hit on one winner each time. He was just very adept at putting the right ones out as singles.

Elton's hits are classier, and lean a bit more on ballads, while Billy's hits are a more varied array of pop ideas. Of note, Billy's lyrics in most of these hits are certainly a bit lacking. His appeal was as a working class guy, but there is language in many of these songs that is stilted and awkward. In particular, I would say the lyrics to "It's Still Rock N Roll To Me" are painful in spots. The references to fashion of the time are so dated they never even became retro. I dare say you can't listen to that song without feeling powerful boomer energy turning your hair grey.

But I also want to mention the lowest moments. Elton John somehow had a hit with "Crocodile Rock", which I find annoying to the extreme. The high-pitched backing vocals grate on my nerves, which at least distracts me from how stupid the song's title is. Billy Joel has his own flaming garbage fire in the form of "We Didn't Start The Fire". It's one of those songs that sounds like a clever idea, until you actually hear it. Roundly criticized as having the worst lyrics in pop music history, that is hard to argue, and the strophic repetitiveness of the song doesn't help matters.

The question boils down to whether I prefer the classier ballads of Elton John, or the dweeby rock of Billy Joel.

Ultimately, I have to give this one to Billy. I'm enough of a dweeb to still see some self-loathing charm to his attitude, and there are simply more hits in his catalog to make up for the cringe-worthy moments. Plus, since I have those Elton albums from later on I love so much, I don't feel like I'm missing out as much if I leave his hits behind. For Billy, they're all I care about.

In the battle between Elton John and Billy Joel, the hit-maker for me is the piano man. Barely.