Billy Joel’s been around for a long time, and I’ve had mixed feelings about his music for a lot of that time. His musical eclecticism, the feeling that he was in one song doing his version of the Beatles, in another song, The Rolling Stones, or Tony Bennett, or whoever, made it hard for me to hear his commitment to any particular style of music, which at the time seemed to really matter. Where was he coming from? His music was all around, but who was he?

Let me say right now that, in terms of songwriting, my questions above don’t matter at all, and never did. They might matter in regard to a particular artist’s voice and production… but not to their songs.

Take Bob Dylan, for example. He’s written songs in many genres that have been covered in every imaginable style by innumerable artists. But when he sings them, it always sounds like ‘Bob Dylan music’.

That’s not exactly untrue about Billy Joel – you do know it’s him singing. There’s nothing wrong with Billy Joel as an artist. Some of his recordings are superb. But the styles of his musical presentation and production, not to mention songwriting, can vary wildly. And it’s hard not to notice that many of the songs (though far from all) are ‘Billy Joel in the style of…’.

Even with these caveats, I come not to bury Billy but to praise him to the skies.

As time went by I started to hear the songs themselves more clearly and become aware that he was one of the greatest composers of popular song melodies that I’d ever heard. I’m talking about Richard Rodgers-level (which is the highest level there is, and few have attained it. I’m not counting Brian Wilson, maybe the greatest popular song melodist, because a lot of his best songs were so complex that they barely were popular songs – who’s going to cover Surf’s Up? Heroes and Villains?). I started to understand that Billy’s songs, especially because of their melodies, would outlast most of the other, more critically acclaimed songs of his era and beyond.

As I’ve written before, melody writing is the least understood and hardest to define aspect of songwriting. Not that the words aren’t critical too, but more than any other aspect, melody is what makes a song outlive its time.

What makes a good melody? A great one? There’s no formula; you can’t define it. To paraphrase Justice Stewart, you just know it when you hear it.

Forget Billy’s tacky ‘80s videos. Listen – just for the melodies – to Allentown. Listen to Uptown Girl. New York State of Mind. Leave A Tender Moment Alone. Movin’ Out. The Longest Time. His best melodies soar.

His roots in the songwriting traditions of the American Songbook, the Brill Building, DooWop, Classical music, and Rock ’n Roll (and who knows what else) seem to enable him to draw on any and every source to write melodies that surpass the tunes of almost all of his contemporaries. He’s like a rock ’n roll George M. Cohan (google him!).

Billy’s no slouch at harmonizing either. There’s a lot of unexpected motion and subtext in the way his harmonies move under the melodies. I got curious about the chords for Leave A Tender Moment Alone (listen below). Then I got lazy… so I looked online to get started and found that all of the chords listed there were wrong. Outrageously wrong! So I figured them out – they’re below. A bonus, for reading this far.

Also, Billy’s melodies tend to have a lot of notes. I always felt a little sorry for him – he wrote these fabulous melodies and then had to come up with twice the amount of words that most of us do (because: so many notes!). Though I don’t see his lyrics as being quite up to the level of his music, they’re generally very good. They sing well, his craft is excellent, sturdy, and he certainly always wrote from the heart (true of his music too).

You don’t have to seek out Billy Joel songs. You can’t avoid them! But the next time you hear one, pay special attention to the melody (and its harmonies). You’re listening to a master.

Leave A Tender Moment Alone
Verse:
||: Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb |

| Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb |
| Fmin | G7 /B | Cmin /Bb | Abmaj7 Eb/G | Fmin | G7 /B | Cmin /Bb | F/A |
|| Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb :||
Bridge:
| Amin7 | D7 | Ebmaj7 G/D | Cmin7 | G/B G | A7 | Dmin7 Dbmin7 | Cmin7 ||

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