Monday's Music Moves me to Valentines Day Early

As everyone knows, this Thursday is National Billy Joel Celebration day!  This means there will be lots' of "Honesty" Cards, and "River of Dreams" Cakes, with of course Boxes of "She's got a way about her" Candies.  Most importantly we will be looking into "Rosalinda's Eyes" as we're "Half a Mile Away" from "52nd Street" to meet up with a "Stranger" who is "Always a Woman to Me."

No I will not be playing all of those today.  What... Thursday isn't National Billy Joel Celebration Day?

Are you sure?

Oh, that's right... Thursday is Valentines Day.  Well I am going to give you some wonderful music for Valentines Day, without love in the title and it may not even be in the words; however it will be expressed in the song itself.

So starting this off is a song by... Guess who?  No go ahead and guess?

Yep  Billy Joel, that expresses what we really need in a relationship, it's all about HONESTY.  This comes from his hit album "52nd Street" which came out October 13th 1978.  

Here it's about the most evasive aspect of a long loving relationship, as he sings... "If I only had the words to tell you."  

This is from one of his first albums, the song itself was not a hit but for many it was one of his most expressive songs at that time and even today.  It came from "Piano Man" which was released on November 9th, 1973.  Of course the big song from the album was the title track "Piano Man."

Now we come to one of the most romantic ballads Billy Joel ever sang, it was from his first album "Cold Spring Harbor" which came out on November 1st. 1971.  

If you have the original album, you have a collectors piece because it was reedited in 1983 and according to Joel, he still dislikes the reedited version.  Maybe one day the album will be re-cut the way it should have been all along.

We go back to "52nd Street again, this time it is one of the most romantic Ballads Joel did.  A song about tying the knot and so much more... and again it is about how love knows no boundaries whether it be race creed religion or profession.

In this case, it is race as Billy Joel expresses the love for a young woman who is Latina in "Rosalinda's Eyes."

Now it comes almost full circle, because the last song, at least by Mr. Joel is "It's All about Soul"  Which approapriately came off of Billy Joels' next to last album, which was "River of Dream" which came out August 10th, 1993.

I am closing this off, with a song not by Billy Joel.  This song ties in though with the original theme of not being tied to Love being in the title, although it does appear in the words.

The song was originally made famous by a duet of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.  This version was recorded by the Bee Gees 

The Bee Gee's wrote the song originally, but did not record it until 2001.

So there you have it.  My tribute to National Billy Joel Celebration Day... Sorry, sorry.  I mean Valentines Day.  Hope you enjoyed this unusual mix of music.

I know, I know it was predominantly Billy Joel, however I hope you still enjoyed it, and hopefully this will inspire you to do something special for Valentines Day.  Like play all of your favorite Billy Joel songs.

Have a fantastic Valentines Day this Thursday.

Til next Monday, this is Tamirisc M Richards signing off.