Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings Announce Billy Joel's Complete Studio Albums Catalog is Now Mastered For iTunes, Available Today

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, announce the release of Billy Joel - The Complete Albums Collection, all of the artist's studio albums now Mastered For iTunes, available today on iTunes: iTunes.com/BillyJoel.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060130/LEGACYLOGO)

The Billy Joel artist page on iTunes will offer Billy Joel - The Complete Albums Collection as a specially priced bundle featuring all of the artist's essential studio albums in addition to Collected Additional Masters (1985-2007), a bonus anthology of 17 rarities.  Each of the original album titles in The Complete Albums Collection (with the exception of the rarities album) will be available individually and all of the titles have been Mastered For iTunes.

Billy Joel - The Complete Albums Collection brings together the artist's complete official canon of recordings, from 1971's Cold Spring Harbor through 1979's Grammy-winning Album of The Year 52nd Street and 1981's live Songs In The Attic to 2001's Fantasies & Delusions, the first album of Billy's classical compositions.

Each of the recordings in Billy Joel - The Complete Albums Collection has been specifically Mastered For iTunes, ensuring the delivery of a state-of-the-art music listening experience for discerning fans and consumers.  Mastered For iTunes' increased audio fidelity replicates the intentions of artists, producers and recording engineers, providing today's digital music audience with the highest quality of authentic sound reproduction.

Billy Joel - The Complete Albums Collection
1. Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
2. Piano Man (1973)
3. Streetlife Serenade (1974)
4. Turnstiles (1976)
5. The Stranger (1977)
6. 52nd  Street (1978)
7. Glass Houses (1980)
8. Songs In The Attic (1981)
9. The Nylon Curtain (1982)
10. An Innocent Man (1983)
11. The Bridge (1986)
12. Storm Front (1989)
12. River Of Dreams (1993)
14, Fantasies & Delusions (2001)
15. Collected Additional Masters (1985-2007)*

The remastered digital release of Billy Joel's complete official studio canon comes during a surge of activity for the artist, who's nearing his 50th anniversary as a professional musician.  His enduring song catalog was featured in a tribute episode of "Glee" last November before the unprecedented announcement, in December, that Madison Square Garden would be making Billy Joel the venue's "first music franchise," giving New York audiences an opportunity to catch a local hero and American musical legend performing an ongoing artistic residency at the Garden.

On December 8, 2013, Billy Joel was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, given to members of the performing arts community for lifetime contributions to American culture.

*Collected Additional Masters (1985-2007), a bonus disc of 17 rare and non-album recordings, includes "Elvis Presley Boulevard" (B-side of the "Allentown" single, 1982); the live cover version of the Beatles' "I'll Cry Instead" (B-side of "An Innocent Man," 1983); "House Of Blue Light" (B-side of "We Didn't Start The Fire," 1989); and "You Picked A Real Bad Time" (B-side of "All About Soul," 1993).  "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young" are outtakes that did not see light of day until 1985.

Several tracks on the bonus disc originated as Billy's contributions to various multi-artist movie soundtracks, notably his covers of the Elvis Presley hits "Heartbreak Hotel" and "All Shook Up," both from 1992's Honeymoon In Vegas.  Billy covered Lloyd Price's 1959 hit, "Where Were You On Our Wedding Day," for the 1999 movie, Runaway Bride, and Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood" for A League Of Their Own in 1992.  In 1982, Billy Joel contributed his original "Nobody Knows But Me" to In Harmony II, a Columbia LP to benefit Sesame Street/Children's Television Workshop.

Cover tunes on Collected Additional Masters (1985-2007) range from Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" and Leonard Cohen's "Light as the Breeze" to the Gerry Goffin-Carole King standard "Hey Girl" (Freddie Scott, 1963).  In 1991, Billy Joel contributed "When You Wish Upon A Star" to Columbia's Disney tribute album, Simply Mad About The Mouse.  And in 2001, Billy Joel sang the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" at the Radio City Music Hall All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson concert. The bonus closes with "All My Life," a 2007 single which marked Billy's first newly-written song since 1993's River of Dreams.

SOURCE Legacy Recordings